DIARY OF Lt. WILLIAM C. JONES, 2nd Lt. U.S Army Russian Railway Service
San Francisco to Hawaii and Japan
Transposed by his daughter, Kay Jones Thyr.
Notes on Russian Railroad Service Core by William Cornelius Jones 28 yrs. old when he left MN for service in the RRSC Commissioned as an officer in the US Army to go to Siberia to work with the re-organization of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
This was written nearly a century ago, and while some of it may seem quaint or even offensive, the lectures and writtings quoted are a valuable peak into the attitudes that drove us into our conflicts in both world wars. The use of some words like "Jap" are now considered offensive, but its common usage in those times was not normally meant to offend.
Jones Siberian Diary - part one
Jones Siberian Diary - part two
return to RRS home pageJournal 1 October 13,1917 to August 4, 1917
Left Kelly Lake Minnesota on train 38 Saturday Oct. 13th 1917. Reported at St. Paul Monday Oct. 15th.R.R.S. Corps organized, and left St. Paul for Russia on Sunday 7:30 pm Nov. 11th CGW Ry to Omaha. Union Pacific to Ogden, Southern Pacific to San Francisco. Had a special train of 13 cars; two baggage cars, Cal. Einvinou’s private car, and 9 sleepers; picked up two diners at Omaha. 300 men in party. First class equipment and food all the way.
Arrived San Francisco 5 pm Wednesday Nov. 14th.
Westward from Omaha one passes through the corn belt. Prosperous looking long settled country. The land is very flat. The Platt River is very shallow and has mud flats on its banks and many in mid-stream. This country is worn down so that the streams have lost their force; and water wear is now very slow. There is a rise to the land going west. The corn land gives away to a grazing land as one gets into Wyoming.
The grazing land runs into foothills and badlands which in turn give way to mountains. The Devils Slide was the most startling freak of nature I have ever seen. We saw this approaching Ogden. The range of mountains one passes through just before reaching Ogden is an off shoot of the Rockies I imagine. It is clearly of lava formation. The work of streams, water, frost, decay, are wonderfully evident in the some what porous formation of these mountains. The coloring is very interesting and odd.
Ogden Utah is a little city nestling against the mountains. The whole corps was marched around town for exercise. Leaving Ogden we passed over the great Salt Lake cut-off. This cut-off is 38 miles long, and is a fine piece of engineering. I understand the savings in operating expenses effected by this cut-off more than pays the interest on the cost of it so it is thereby financially justified.
West of the Salt Lake is a desert. I could easily believe that men died trying to cross that forlorn land in the California gold rush of 1849. Next morning I awake way up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. These are real mountains. Much like the Cascades. At Summit, the highest, we were 7,018 feet above sea level. At American Station the train stopped for us to see the canyon. This canyon was 2000 ft. deep, the mountain dropping down very steeply from the track.
A train and a creek at the bottom were revealed as being an auto road and a river by a pair or field glasses. The air was very clear and it was hard to believe the distance was so great. Across the mountains I could see for many miles. There was a beautiful bluish haze in the air which did not obscure but only softened outlines. This haze, I think, was a creation of distance.
Coming down the western slope of the Sierras, between the mountains and a ways west of Sacramento, Calif., is some of the world's most beautiful landscape. There are acres and acres of orchards and they were a blaze of color in their autumn colors. The air was delightfully balmy.
San Francisco
Spent four days here but did not see a great deal of the city. It is built on a number of hills. You get to the top of one hill and then down and up another hill. And some streets lay level their whole length.
The people are very hospitable. Met several back east friends. Saw Golden Gate Park, and museums. There are more hotels here than any other place I ever saw. There seems to be nothing else in one district. Some very fine ones, too. I stayed at the Clift. Met Mr. Clift who was a very pleasant gentleman and had a knack of making one feel more at home for having known him.
There is a spirit of abandon in this town. Maybe it is the balmy soft air. It seems to sort of loosen one’s morals. There are cabarets every where. In fact, a sober ordinary eating house is very hard to find. The floor plans for New Years eve were already out and reservations could be made by paying so much down. The city goes crazy New Years. No one buys anything except champagne that night, and I understand it is customary to line up the empty bottles on the edge of one's table. There was another little eating place I saw that formerly was visited by all classes of people and each patron was greeted on his arrival by a pounding on the table which was a call for a speech. There were no social ranks in that place. No drinks, no intoxicating drinks were sold to men in Uncle Sam's uniform. In one place my friend ordered beer and I a glass of grape juice. They would not let me even pay for the two drinks.
It is astonishing how many men there are who are waiters. It looks like a servile sort of way to make one's living, especially for a big husky man. But I must admit that a good waiter can make your meal a joy. And many of them make very good money. I attended a concert in the civic auditorium. There were 11,000 people there. I was admitted free, being in uniform.
I met a sailor named Dowling, who took me down to the National Defenders Club. It was a rest room or club for soldiers and sailors. A number of the cities most prominent women were taking turns in serving behind the lunch counter there and helping the boys in general. They were very curious about the R.R.S. insignia on my shoulder and the new and different cut of my coat. One lady, a Mrs. Johnston, asked me to Thanksgiving dinner with more of my friends, but we left Frisco before Thanksgiving came.
We left Frisco on the U.S. Army transport, Thomas, on Monday Nov. 19th 9:30 am. Had delightful weather all the way to Honolulu. A number of the boys were sea sick. I felt fine all the way. Saw flying fish a number of times. Friday night we got word of a German raider some distance behind us. All lights were extinguished, speed increased, and the course changed somewhat. Nothing showed up however. We are now studying Russian. Holding two classes per day.
Honolulu
Arrived Honolulu 7 am Monday Nov. 26th. I once saw the Bird of Paradise show, (based on Hawaiian life) and from it I gained an impression that Hawaii was a beautiful tropical island, charming, yet weirdly sad about something. As we drew near the Harbor I concluded that my long distance impression of the island was nearly correct. In some places the low but steep mountains rose abruptly up from the sea. The city, Honolulu, nestled in, laying flat, between the Harbor, and the steep mountains.
All the time I was there the clouds hung low obscuring the mountain tops. In their lowering dark presence there seemed to me to be a constant reminder of the omnipresence of some powerful force that could at any time change the happy life of the land to sorrow. I could not help but think once in a while of earthquakes, volcanoes, etc.
The city is a mixture of Japanese, Chinese, American, natives, and some Phillippinas. The Japanese and Chinese wear their native dress to quite an extent. The Japanese use the wooden sandal for foot wear. This sandal fastens to the foot only by a front strap. The heel half drags and half slaps along.
The shuffling walk that their sloppy foot gear produces is one reason why an occidental so often has a feeling of contempt for an Oriental. I know that I cannot respect any man who cannot walk like a man. And a man of independence does not shuffle.
I enjoyed a trip around the island (Oahu) by auto. It was a 90 mile drive. The chauffeur was a Hawaiian and an intelligent obliging person. In fact the Hawaiians are a very peacefully inclined people, as a whole. The road we followed took us past some fine residences, all with beautiful luxuriant tropical trees, plants, vines, some be-flowered, about them. We soon ascended to the mountains and six miles out came to the Pali. This is a place where the mountains suddenly break away into a pass. The auto road skirts a cliff. At the Pali proper you find a sudden broadening of the road. You notice a steel tablet in a niche in the rocky walls and going close you find it tells how King Kamehameha 1 ( or some such name) drove his enemies over this cliff. Walking to the roadside wall you gaze down a precipitous mountain side two thousand feet or so and clear across a low flat looking valley to the ocean. To your right and left are the mountains rising up till their tops disappear in the low hanging clouds, before you and far below you stretches the valley green with here and there the symmetrically laid out pineapple fields, the rows of green plants standing out in bold relief from the brick red soil. Far beyond the ocean looks more wonderful than you ever noticed before, shading from dark blue to a pale emerald green, with here and there white breakers visible. And there is always a hurricane wind up at this Pali. It was a remarkable view. The rest of the drive took us through more mountain scenery, then through beautiful valleys with plantations of pineapple, sugar cane, bananas, cocoa nuts, corn, and native poi plants.
The city of Honolulu is quite a modern city. It has a good electric street car system with open side cars which is well patronized by all races. There is an automatic telephone system. The streets are well paved and fairly well maintained. The stores are largely open in front. Many have signs in English, Chinese and Japanese. There are several large fish markets with many kinds of odd looking fish to be seen if one can stand the smell.
The usual splendid American school system is in effect here and is doing fine work in Americanizing these Orientals through endowed schools. One is an Episcopal school for girls and boys. The other is Bishop college named after its founder, a Mrs. Bishop. Mrs. Bishop was a native girl who married a Boston man, whom bad weather drove to the islands. He liked the climate and remained, and through his marriage became owner of one tenth of the entire island. The school has beautiful grounds and buildings including a very fine museum.
The school endeavors to give its pupils a practical training rather than a purely academic one. I asked the principal who showed us around, what was done with the result of all the labor his young men expended in the various shops. He said there was a tendency to commercialize their labor, but that he was avoiding it as he figured that his product was boys, and not any result of their labor.
A teacher at the Methodist school told me that of all the various racial combinations which the children represented, the Japanese and the Hawaiian combination seemed to be most fortunate. The pure natural Hawaiian race is rapidly disappearing.
I visited the famous Waikiki bathing beach and found that wonderful beach to have a coral bottom that nearly cut my feet to shreds, ie, if I had walked far on it. After swimming, I visited the aquarium and saw fish more wonderful than an artist could describe.
They were all shapes and sizes and, as for colors, they exhausted the spectrum. Some were of beautiful colors and tints that harmonized wonderfully, others were colored in brilliant contrasts. There were some post card pictures of the fish on sale but after seeing the originals, the finest work of the finest post card artist would look flat, and I did not buy.
There was a great many army men in Honolulu, some of the finest cleanest looking young men I have met any where. They were very pleasant. And they were all extremely anxious to get away to the scenes of real action in the US and France.
Several companies of Philippine militia were just finishing an encampment. They lacked discipline. An army officer told me that the Phillipinos were aggressive but Òthere was nobody home upstairs.' The Hawaiians are quite intelligent but not aggressive.
Queen Liliukalani was buried just a few days before our arrival. She was the last of the Royal family. A peculiar incident occurred just as her coffin was laid away in the old family tomb. A crown, part of the royal insignia on the building, broke off and tumbled to the ground. To the natives this was a supernatural event signifying the end of the royal line. The close of the last chapter. Some severe electrical storms followed on the days after the queen's death. These storms, the natives, said, betokened the departure of the Queen's soul. Maybe they were right. Who knows?
There are no Hawaiian Hula Hula ladies running loose in grass skirts and charming smiles as many visitors expect. It is quite civilized. On the day we left Honolulu about nine of our Russian interpreters
were discharged and left at Honolulu. One of them was an Austrian and the others were agitators we discovered. There are too many of this class in Russia now. That country needs men, not long haired agitators.
We departed from Honolulu 2:30 pm Thanksgiving Day Nov. 29th 1917. Weather was beautiful and continued so. We were given a generous Thanksgiving diner on the boat. In fact, the food on this transport is excellent all the time. There is a large variety, and plenty of each food.
Dec. 2nd Sunday
Beautiful day. We ran into a large area of water highly phosphorescent this evening. The phosphorus was most noticeable at the bow. As the water was plowed out in big furrows by the prow it broke into foam that seemed alive with the pale green phosphorescent glow, while every little bit whole balls of phosphorus would appear, at times lighting up so brightly that one might think a number of electric pocket search lights were shining on the foam, that is, little round patches would glow very brightly.
Mon. Dec. 3rd. 1917
Fine day, We passed the 180th meridian, or degree of latitude about 2 pm today. We now measure latitude east from Greenwich. This 180th degree is also the International Date Line. Passing this lines westward, a day is skipped in the calendar. For example there was no Tuesday for us. We went to sleep Monday night and found the next day was Wednesday. So Tuesday Dec. 4th, 1917 is a day that did not exist in my life. We are now about 20 hours ahead of San Francisco. At 2 pm Wednesday on this boat it was 6 pm Tuesday at Frisco.
Wednesday Dec. 5th.
Very strong NW wind today and heavy sea running. Large number of the boys sick or near to it. Not bothering me any so far.
Thursday Dec. 6th.
Beautiful warm day. Sea smooth except for a swell that gives a pretty good rise to the boat at times. Still plugging away at the Russian.
Sunday Dec. 9th, 1917
Now running on course N. 56 W. since yesterday. Weather cooler as we get farther north. Sea heavy swell and bit choppy at times.
Wednesday Dec. 12th, 1917
Going through Straits of Sangar today. These are about ten miles wide at their narrowest point. Also known as Isugaru Straits. They separate the main Japanese island Nippon from Ezo. The city of Hakodate lies along the narrow southern end of the island Ezo. From the boats the mountains seem to rise abruptly from the waters edge on both sides the strait. The volcano of (*blank left here)_____ may be seen on a point of the island of Ezo, a bit east of the city of Hakodate. I could see steam coming from the crater.
Saw a number of ships today including a full rigged sailing vessel. Saw a small school of porpoises jumping along the water, also saw a seal sticking its black head out of the water. The day was very cold, temperature only 39' above at noon, and a very strong wind blowing. Our big fur coats began to show today. We had some snow early this morning which event rather tickled some of our Philippine waiters who had never seen snow before.
Vladivostok, Russia
Arrived Vladivostok, Russia Friday morning, Dec. 14th but, according to the Russian calendar Dec. 1st, there being 13 days difference between the two calendars.
The harbor is of the sunken mountain type, the boat passing rocks and points of land for a long ways before getting into the inner harbor. The inner harbor has a long shore line but comparatively little space in which big vessels may maneuver. The city is scattered along a steep and uneven hill side, and is long and narrow. No shore leave granted today. The weather is cold, and a strong wind blowing, a blizzard raging all evening and part of night. The temperature is only about 20' or 25' above but I never felt cold more than I have today.
We were given shore leave today, but, at our own risk, responsibility and expense. “The conditions in Russia“, the major stated; “are very critical. There are eight thousand soldiers in Vladivastok; they have just fired all their officers and elected new ones. No salutes are granted to any rank. These men are drunk. There are 4,000 car shop men on strike. And the major advised us not to go ashore, as it would be very dangerous.”
In spite of this the men started going ashore, and I followed. Had to go in a Sampan, a flat bottomed scow like boat which the boatman sculls along and makes very good progress. We paid him a dime or quarter, or so, apiece. Another fellow insisted on helping us to alight, or rather, to climb up on the dock, and then insisted on a tip.
We found no evidence of danger. The people seemed very friendly. Women and children were about freely. All the soldiers were sober and well behaved. Except for the many closed banks and places, which was usual on Saturday afternoon, things were normal, on the surface, at least.
The common labor seemed to be handled by Chinese coolie labor. The Sampan boatmen were Chinese, the burden carriers with their racks strapped to their backs were Chinese, and the snow shovelers, many of the small shop keepers were Chinese, also peddlers. Some of these coolies were
the most picturesque looking combinations of tatters and rags I have ever seen. Many of the lower class wore very large high top boots. Large is not the word, though, for these boots, these were huge. Both sexes wore them.
The Russian better class people are a fine appearing race and had it not been for the barrier of language I should have felt quite at home among them. I saw many very handsome women and girls. And many uniformed men. We did not attempt to exchange salutes as we felt that in their craze for liberty the Russians would rather disregard such things. None of the privates saluted us but the officers would return our salutes but would not salute first. In all, we were treated in a friendly way.
There are many good brick and concrete buildings, and some handsome ones. None of them had modern American style store fronts. There is no sewage system in the city and no first class hotels. The streets are of good width, the sidewalks poor in many places.
There are many new warehouses along the harbor shore line, all of these, and the old ones also are full of merchandise, while millions of dollars worth of merchandise, machinery, building material and supplies of all kinds are piled along the docks, some of it covered with tarpaulin.
What wharf space there is crowded with many boats which, although they had steam, did not move while I was there.
Our boats and several others in the harbor unloaded onto a lighter. There was one big Jap tramp near us unloading ammunition.
The bay was freezing fast on the day I was ashore, and when returning our Sampan could not get up to the boat but we managed to board a lighter alongside the Thomas and the crew let down a rope stair ladder.
No shore leave was granted after Saturday, and until we left, at 4 pm Monday, we had only the privilege of watching the city and harbor from our boat in the middle of the bay. At night, Vladivostok from the bay, resembles Duluth, or Seattle. We also had the privilege of shivering as the good ship Thomas was not made for cold weather cruising. We all were very glad when we pulled out at 4:00 pm Monday for Nagasaki, Japan, for a bunch of live men are keen to be either in, or out, and not to stand in the middle of any frozen bay.
No reason for leaving Vladivostok was given out by the Colonel, and the fellows are full of conjectures as to where we are going, what is wrong, and only a lack of money prevents a lot of betting. The same reason takes the zest out of the poker games.
Passed through the Japan Sea on our way to Nagasaki; passed close to the Korean Peninsula but all we could see was a range of fairly high mountains which seemed to rise up abruptly from the sea. The Japanese coast and adjacent small islands seemed to have a similar coast line, that is very mountainous.
The weather grows warmer as we go southward, temperature about 45' above today.
Dec. 19, 1917
Today Wednesday Dec.19th, each contingent met its major and was strongly urged to make every effort to act and appear as officers and gentlemen should, especially while in Nagasaki, as the Japs are very critical, and any unfavorable criticism of the corps would probably reach Washington.
The railroad situation in Russia is desperate. About 40 car loads per day are moving out of Vladivostok, and no one can conjecture when these cars will reach their destination. There are about 25,000 cars, loaded and empty, at Moscow. It seems impossible for these Russians to get their empty equipment back to Vladivostok and the Siberian points, where it is needed so badly
Nagasaki Japan
Arrived 7:00 am Wednesday Dec. 19th. 1917. The western coast line of Japan, which had been in sight all day as we plowed down the Japan Sea and straits, suddenly turned westward across our path, and until the boat was very close, we could see no break in the low coast mountains. But there was one, a narrow one, opening into a round bay of fair size, which in turn, opened through another narrow break, into an inner bay. Around the shores of this inner bay the city of Nagasaki is spread. There is a fascination found in entering a strange harbor at night; gliding silently through narrow passages, the sentinel light houses flashing on either hand, the surrounding hills, dark silhouettes against the night sky, the lights of small boats moving about the waters, and farther, beyond, in a great semi-circle, the myriad lights of a city showing row above row on a hillside, and reflected in the waters of the harbour.
Nagasaki is built on a hill encircling the harbour. The hill is very steep in some places. Where it is too steep for houses, it has been terraced for garden patches, and stone retaining walls built to maintain the terraces. I thought this the limit in intensive cultivation,
The first evening I returned to the boat very much disgusted. A companion and myself started out about 9 am, went ashore in Sampans, elbowed our way through the ricksha men, and determined to walk a while to stretch our legs. We evidently got into the poorer section of the town at first. We were insulted at every turn for a ways by ricksha men, and also by men solicitors, who wanted to take us to houses of prostitution. This was not the regular section for such places. In Japan such houses are licensed by the government and occupy a prominent place in the center of the city. It is so here. But prostitution, licensed and unlicensed, is the common practice in this city. The Japanese apparently see nothing shameful in it: as one fellow in our party said, 'They are not immoral, they are simply without morals.'
Later I found the market district, where I was not molested by the solicitors. The marketing, or shopping district, is a maze of narrow streets lined with shops, large and small, all small when judged by American standards. Only few stores have real modern American style display windows, or modern store tables, counters, etc. There are numerous small confectionery stores. Japanese are evidently fond of sweets. Their confections are very simple and crude compared with American candies and cookies.
There is a great deal of tortoise shell work done here. Some very clever and neat wood work is also turned out, mostly small articles for household use, some fancy jewelry work is done, especially in damascene work. There are a large number of fish stores, and the smell that greets, or rather, assails one, at these places is enough to cause one forever after to swear off of fish.
As for smell, the entire city stinks. The sewers are all open, a small one on each side of the narrow street, the small sewers emptying into large sewers, which are also open. So that one is constantly reminded of a city dump.
Some of the streets are paved with concrete, some with stone blocks, and many merely dirt roads, smoothly packed down. There are no sidewalks. No need for them. There is not a single automobile in the city and but a few one horse wagons. So pedestrians fear no danger of being run over, and share the whole street along with rickshas, peddlers, bullock beasts of burden, and an occasional wagon, horse or man pulled, also many bicycles.
As for labor, all is man power. Men even shove the cars about in the railroad yard. Men and women do everything. Very little power is used ie, mechanical power. Our boat was coaled by hand, men and women both working, boats, rickshas, machines. All are operated by human energy. We saw a pile driver working, there were 12 or 15 girls pulling on as many ropes attached to the hammer, which was tripped by a man on the derrick when it reached the top.
There are some big ship yards here. A 34,000 ton super dreadnaught type battleship is lying opposite us, a newly completed product of these yards. Except for these yards all the manufacturing is done by hand work artisans.
There are a few good tea gardens, and a few interesting temples. Some of the tea gardens have good looking girls, these are the only good looking girls I have seen.
Dress :
The better class people look neat in their native dress. The common people do not. They wear dull colored garments. The men seem to wear a suit of union underwear and a dressing gown over it. When at work many of them are clad only in the union suit. The women wear some kind of a skirt with the dressing gown over it. They are mostly unattractive. Both men and women, and also children wear sandals, some of which are of straw, and many are wood soles mounted on two blocks, an inch or two high. A few of the men are dressed in American fashion.A majority of the women I saw were carrying babies on their backs. There certainly is no race suicide in this city.
These Japanese do not impress one as being very cleanly, personally, nor in their habits, their food, etc. I suppose their disease breeding sewers, and their stinking fish and meat markets are off set by the open air life they lead. They have no heat except small charcoal pots for warming the hands. Their houses are flimsy affairs built of light wood, and shutters, and paper screens. Some have glass windows. But n
Eearly all the children were bothered by catarrh, I noticed. They have no conception of comfort as the American knows it. With all, they are a hardy race.
The Japanese are the most persistent, and insistent, traders I have ever met. Many came out to the boat selling post cards, jewelry, shell work, etc. Invariably one could buy for one half or even less of their first price. If one has no money they want to swap. Anything at all goes. Soap, socks, gloves, old jewelry. There are no Jews in Japan, I understand.
The Japs are apparently a good-natured and cheerful people. They seem to find as much amusement in having us stop to watch them at their various arts as we do in watching. Several, Keeler, Hornbeck and myself, were watching a baker. He steamed rice than put it into a large stone gourd or bowl and 3 men proceeded to mash the rice into a dough, using wooden mallets for this purpose. After getting the rice mashed into a dough they proceeded to pound it as hard as they could with the mallets, then it was taken inside and dumped on a large dough board where three or four girls pinched it off into bun sized pieces. A large piece of a dark molasses - like sugar (bean sugar) was placed inside of these buns. The girls gave each of us a bun. I bit into it and found my teeth nearly stuck together, which tickled the Japanese maidens very much. The dough was flat and heavy in taste. These cakes became hard as stone, but soften when heated. There are a great many of these little bake shops to be seen and usually the dough mixing is done on the street. ( This was a New Year's dish only.) (note added later)
There are many vegetables to be seen, especially carrots and several kinds of turnips. These are usually carried to market in baskets hung on a shoulder bar and carried by women. And they carry some astonishing loads. The vegetables looked very good. I understand that human manure is used as a fertilizer to a great extent.
Gold sells at a premium. A money changer gave me 42 yen, ($21.00) for a $20 gold piece. To be exact I was given an American 20 dollar bill, and 2 yen Japanese money. The stores however give the same value for gold, paper, and silver. It is said that Japan is making every effort to secure gold. But this is always true, American gold sells at a premium in the orient.
The Nagasaki fire department appeared on the scenes one evening. It consisted of, first of all, a man carrying a banner and a pole; secondly, a man carrying a large paper lantern and a long pole, next a two wheeled hose reel, followed by about 20 men trotting two abreast. The whole outfit trotted, emitting a sort of sing song grunt at every step. Regular comic opera affair. How ever they ran a hose line hydrant to fire and extinguished the fire.
Christmas afternoon I went to a little reception at the Kasui Girls School, a Methodist Foreign Mission School. Enjoyed a pleasing musical program, especially a chorus of Japanese young ladies and a young lady Japanese violinist, all were excellent. This school was founded by Miss Mary Russell, a lady now 82 years old, or young; who has spent 40 years in Nagasaki and who I had the pleasure to meet. She told me her school has over 700 Sunday School students divided among the 19 schools of the city, branches of the mission. Also met Miss Peakham, a Wisconsinite, a graduate of Lawrence College, and a friend of Miss Dolly Ashly of Superior. There are several other teachers in the school. All common school subjects are taught. A great deal of attentions is, of course, paid to religious training. Also met Mr. Trueman, Y.M.C.A. secretary, who has endeavoured to make the R.R.S. at home in Nagasaki.
Feb. 20, 1918
Notes from a talk given by Mr. Bell, Secretary of the Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board, on the Phillippines. This was given at Kwassui school, Nagasaki, Japan. Mr. Bell by the way, was another one of the exceptionally fine fellows that one meets in the foreign mission and Y.M.C.A. work and I was highly pleased over meeting him.
The Phillippines
The Phillippinas labor under three great disadvantages -
1st. Nature has so generously placed means of livelihood on these islands that there is no incentive to sustained effort. Mr. Bell said, “A man lies in a hammock and digs a hole in the earth with his toe, drops a seed in there, and shortly, he is plucking bananas. Could many millions more of people be transplanted there so a struggle for existence would be compelled, The Philippine race would develop some of the stamina which is seen in the Japanese, or any other race confronted by a fight for existence.
Secondly The Phillippinas do not seem to realize that they are doing wrong when they steal, or lie, or amorize. There seems to be no awakened conscience in them, generally speaking.
Thirdly The Phillippinas lack that consciousness of sovereignty which is inherent in the Anglo-Saxon race. With us there is a consciousness that we, the people rule, although there may be delay, or trouble from special interests. The Phillippino for hundreds of years, has been accustomed to do the bidding of others. The Phillippino lacks the consciousness that he is a sovereign individual, member of a self-ruling race, that he as an individual has any right to hold views opposite to those of the powers that be. He does not know how to vote nor what sort of a man to choose.
The hopes of the Phillippines lie in a few sincere capable leaders, the students imbued with the ideas and ideals which American education engenders, and religion.
As the students go so goes the nation. The young men and women students of the Philippines are fired with zeal to make their nation a worthy self-governing nation. Mr. Bell said, “The Anglo -Saxon literature is the greatest missionary of free and independent thought in the world. Above everything else the Phillippines need the true religion of Christ which I believe, is best expressed in Protestantism.”
(Philippines talk 3)
The Catholic Church has failed badly in the great opportunities it has had in four centuries of dominion. The people are Catholics nominally, and the Phillipines must be recognized as a Catholic field. But Protestantism with its open Bible, its basic principle of “Saving through faith,” its encouragement of freedom and independence in the individual is needed. The Philippine people are largely alienated from the Catholic church, which has lost them through retaining the old medieval customs of requiring fees for every service, no matter how insignificant, so that one cannot even approach God in prayer unless a fee is paid the priest. Even in funerals there are graduated fees and classes of service, depending on how far into the church the casket is brought, etc. Besides the positive gains in its own membership, Protestantism would do good in the Phillippines through compelling the Catholic church to adapt finer practices. There are some American priests coming to the Phillippines who are effecting an improvement there in their church. But an aggressive Protestantism is much needed in these islands.
In connection with their lack of individual initiative in political matters it is pertinent to say that there still exists in the inland towns a chief family of each town. This is a remnant of a clan or feudal system and of course, has an influence opposite to the influence desired in creating a democracy.
Under the Jones bill the Phillippines are to be given complete independence in fifteen years. Americans, of course, are throwing up their work and returning home. Only several of the higher positions Governor General, and Governor of Mindanao are held, i e, required to be held by Americans. Mindanao, which is largely populated by Moros, will not accept a Philippine Governor. There is no love lost between the Moras and Phillippinas.
March 3rd 1918
At the RRS Bible class today at Mr. Trueman's home a Japanese gentleman talked to us briefly, his remarks being interpreted by Mr. Trueman.
He, the Japanese gentleman, is a man of probably fifty years of age. He is a graduate of the school of the Confucian classics, also of a commercial college. After graduating he became editor of a newspaper, then officer in a large business and later manager of a bank. Immoral living, wine and women, caused his failure and he determined to reform. He turned to God and became a Christian. He renounced his former life entirely and came to Tagashima, a small island near Nagasaki where there are three coal mines employing 3,000 men.
He hired out there as a common laborer, not telling the company who he really was. He worked and lived as a coolie laborer, striving all the time to give Christianity to the miners, to improve their lot which was pretty hard. They led very immoral lives, in short, were a very rough bunch, in debt, treated as dogs by the officials of the mines and with no hope in themselves.
This man worked among these people, started a Bible class, church, did individual work, in fact, lived to the best of his ability a self-sacrificing Christian life. The result of his work came to the notice of the mine officials and one, who recognized in this individual a former college friend, insisted on his becoming an officer of the company.
It is customary for the mine officers to live in a pleasant location, a pleasant distance from the mines, and in fine houses. But the new official became an official only on condition that he might remain with the men, and he persuaded the company to erect a dormitory. Here he and 85 men, 60 Japanese and 25 Koreans live, and all live alike, in the same sort of rooms, eat similar food, etc. The dormitory is self-governing, electing its own officers. There are no rules against drinking but there is absolutely no drinking done in the dormitory. He said the men may drink some when they go to other places. The men pattern after him in this respect for he quit drinking with the old life. The men do all their own work except cooking. And he told us that these men, when Christianity comes to them, ask him to assign to them the dirtiest and most unpleasant tasks that they may show their humiliation and repentance. For some of them are guilty of every crime in the decalogue. At present he is conducting a night school for the education of the miners. The coal company is taking more interest in their men, coming to realize that even their humblest employees are human; and they may allow this worker to devote his entire time to welfare work among the employees.
The miners are paid from 60 sen to 1 and a half yen, and a very few, 2 yen, a day. As I sat there listening to this little Japanese, not over 5 feet in height, and not very prepossessing in appearance, I felt rather humble.
Of course, he was a very well educated man, but had I passed him on the street, I might have, rather, I would have passed him by unconsciously assigning him to the class I have placed the other lower class and middle class in, that is, a class whose only objects in life were their immediate physical necessities. But this man was by far out Superior, he had attained to heights of self-sacrificing Christianity, uncalled for in my conceptions of Christian life as applying to myself.
This man was doing real work for the uplift of his fellow men and had chosen the least of his brothers to work among. He had night schools, Bible classes, individual work promotes thrift and saving and cleanliness, and begged us, that, were any credit to be given, it might be given to the master, and begged of us that we would remember his miners in prayer. To meet a Japanese so filled with the true Christian spirit brings home very strongly to one a realization of the fact that all races are brothers, and equals (potentially at least), in the eyes of God. It is wrong for us to pass any man or any woman feeling that we are superior in any way, for truly, we may be more fortunate, but who knows what are the possibilities of that man or that woman in the hands of God.
March 8th, 1918
It is now over two and a half months since I landed in Japan first. Last evening I met a Japanese girl in a small store, l which her father apparently owns, who is studying Russian and English and has some knowledge of German. She attended the Methodist Mission School here a while to learn English. The other languages she is studying herself. She was a very modest and rather attractive young woman.
I have met some of the railroad men and find them generally an intelligent, reliable and courteous class of men. One Mr. Kato, station master at upper Kumamoto, especially impressed me as being a very likable fellow. He spent a whole morning escorting a party of us about Kumamoto.
I have met a number of Japanese students and found them to be ambitious, studious, and somewhat curious. They seem to feel very friendly toward Americans, even to admire our country.
Japan, ie, some of the Japanese are jealous and suspicious of the U.S. and her motives even in this world war. Occasionally some editor breaks forth in suspicion of American intentions in the Asiatic world, especially Siberia. But we have excitable editors in the U.S. who are alarmists by nature.
One cannot blame the Japanese for demanding that the world permit them to find more room in which to grow - in which to live. If the American peoples were as closely pressed by nature in the struggle for a livelihood as the Japanese are we would understand the motives behind Japanese world politics.
A slight physical difference, but chiefly the big difference in the mode of living - food, clothing, houses, furniture, music and language customs, are the reasons for the lack of a desire to mix, or better, a willingness to mix, on the part of the two races. I know a young lady, daughter of a Japanese mother and American father, who is decidedly attractive, and very well educated. The coolie class are not pleasing to us naturally. It is a mistake to let them into our country until they have adopted our standards more. The better class Japanese people are a worthy class of people, as much so as in our own land.
I am afraid that Japan had ahead of her much of the experience our nation has passed through in the past 25 years. I refer to disputes between capital and labor. The wages paid Japanese labor, skilled and unskilled, are very low and the hours are long, and with the increase in educational standards will come discontent among the masses, and demands for better wages and living conditions. It is not my impression that a Japanese rich man has any sympathy for a Japanese poor man. The quick transition from feudal system to the present has left the old conception of two classes in society, high and low. I think the term “millionaire” will become a title here even as in the U.S. And it is in the individual Japanese character strongly, as it has been with us, to get rich and rise in the social scale at the expense of his fellows if he can.
** Note at the bottom of the above page Narikin this word is circled and drawn over to the word millionaire. Perhaps it is the Japanese word for it.
There are some big ship yards here. A 34,000 ton super dreadnaught type battleship is lying opposite us, a newly completed product of these yards. Except for these yards all the manufacturing is done by hand work artisans.
April 11th,1918
After many rumors that we were going soon, and various other pieces of fiction as to our movements, half of the R.R.S. are still at Nagasaki, half at Harbin and the Baldwin contingent on the way back home.
Russia seems to be more completely disorganized than ever. The Bolsheviks are like the dog in the manger - they can do nothing themselves but will not allow anyone else to try. Never before was there such a group of fanatical idealists. They have accomplished, in the ruin and disintegration of the great Russia, in a few months, that which all the German army could not accomplish in a much longer time.
From the information that comes to me through public sources I can not see where the R.R.S. can be of any value in this part of the world. Better to let us return home or go to France. One surely becomes impatient at the continued delay, and uncertainty.
Tokyo trip April 26th 1918 - left Nagasaki at 11:20 AM on the express and after a pleasant ride arrived at Moji 6:00 PM or so and transferred on a large ferry tug over to Shimoneseki.
Plain clothes police men stopped at both sides, took our names, ages and destination. Charles Grigg was with me.
The Japanese Tourist Bureau has tried to secure berths, either first or second class, for us but advised all were sold out and we seemed to be up against an all night vigil in the coach seat. But owing to the kindness of a plain clothes man I met the “Chef de train” or conductor who secured berths for us. The next day he took us back to the observation car so we could see Mt. Fujiyama better. He was a very courteous and obliging officer.
We left Shimonoseki 7:10 PM on the Japanese limited express. On this train our passes were not good without excess fare tickets. The train carried only first and second class coaches, and sleepers and a diner. Also one small mail and baggage car. The rear part of the rear coach was the observation car. Of this train the Japanese are quite proud. It makes very good time and is kept on schedule time as are most all their passenger trains.
The sleepers are as comfortable as in the U.S., and are similar. Only third class cars have seats cross ways, other cars, i.e. 1st & 2nd class, have one continuous seat on each side lengthwise to the car. The seat is wider than American seats as many Japanese remove their shoes and sit up cross legged on the seat, their feet under them. They most all carry a fur or woolen robe to spread over the silk air cushions for head rests are common. These cushions being inflated or deflated as required.
Japanese dining car service is not as good as American but one gets enough to eat, and very cheap too, compared with U.S. prices.
Meals are announced by a boy passing through and handing passengers each a slip of paper on which is printed in English “All is ready for the dinner” and below in Japanese a menu.
Tea is served from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm.
Mt. Fuji's majestic white peak came into view about 3:30 pm Saturday and was visible for 3 hours. The weather was clear and the old mountain stood out in perfect relief against the blue sky, and towered far above surrounding mountains. The railroad circles around this peak, getting as close as two miles to its base.
Mt. Fujiyama came up to my conception of what a mountain should look like. It rises within a few miles of the coast, and all of its great height is visible, from the wide swelling base to the snow covered peak where a little steam still issues. There is a crater at the very top and another on the side a ways down. Both are dead.
This peak is 12,365 feet high, and has a very fine cone shape. It is worshiped some what by the Japanese, and is used a great deal in decorations on jewelry, fans, and decorations, large and small, in general.
Tokyo, the capital of Japan, is fast becoming a modern city as regards public buildings, wide streets, & stores. Foreign dress is used a great deal by the men. Automobiles are numerous, rickshas, bicycles and man pulled carts also. The coolie burden carrier was not to be seen, however.
Grigg and I secured a room, a very comfortable modern hotel room, at the Tokyo Station Hotel for 5 yen 25 sen a night for both - Double room.
We spent two hours and some yen seeing Tokyo by automobile on Sunday. The Imperial Palace covers a large space but is all walled in and none of the buildings can be seen.
Dinner we had at the Imperial Hotel, supposedly Japan's best hotel. Neither at this hotel or any where else in Japan where I've eaten has water been furnished without my making a special request for it. It is customary to drink liquor. There are some very pleasant and large parks, a large museum, a zoo and when we were there an electrical exposition was in full sway. Electricity is extensively used throughout Japan.
Ginza, the main business street, is a wide and busy through fare, lined with stores large and small, while at night one side is lined for blocks with curb stand merchants and I found it very interesting just to stop and examine the curious assortment of stuff these small way merchants carried.
There is an extensive & well equipped street car system.
We saw very few foreigners about the Tokyo streets and Grigg and I, maybe because of our uniforms, seemed to interest the Tokyo people. Whenever we stopped to look in a window, or at a curb merchant store, a crowd immediately surrounded us and once, when I had hired a ricksha man and was talking to him through an interpreter for a few minutes the crowd nearly blocked the wide sidewalk. This ignorant curiosity of the lower class Japanese is one of the tiresome things about these people.
The railway station at Tokyo, an immense building, worthy of a capital city. The central portion reserved for the royal family. A tremendous passenger business is very efficiently handled.
Monday noon we went to Yokohama on the interurban electric line, which, by the way, is as good as there is anywhere.
There is nothing of special interest at Yokohama. It has a good harbor. There are many foreigners in the hotels. We ran across a movie picture concern in one street - a Japanese Charlie Chaplin and several Japanese maids were the actors. Charlie was pretty good too.
Tokyo has some very fine department stores, equal to our best at home. In the Japanese stores boys at the entrance slip cloth covers over one's shoes so as not to dirty the straw matting. These stores are delightfully neat with their perfectly clean floors.
Left Yokahama 7:40 pm, arrived Kyoto 7:30 am next morning.
Kyoto is the ancient capital of Japan. It is a large city but very little modern tendency is evident.
We proceeded to the Myako Hotel by ricksha, and had a good breakfast. This hotel we found to be a modern finely located place commanding a view of the whole city. It is much patronized by foreigners.
We hired rickshas for the day and were lucky in having one man who could speak pretty good English.
We took in a number of parks and temples, saw silk weaving, and the manufacture of cloisonnware, damascene ware and bronze ware also the making of Satsuma china ware, all of which was very interesting. Some of the temples were very large and quite magnificent.
To get in them we paid five or ten sen and either removed our shoes or covered them. One monastery we saw is the largest in Japan.
The Buddhist temples are all similar in style, varying chiefly in size. One has to ascend three up to about eight steps, then comes to a porch varying in width and which usually runs entirely around the building. The roof juts out over this walk. Then there is the exterior wall made of large posts with the intervening spaces covered by Japanese doors and shutters. Inside probably a third way back there is usually a row of huge wooden columns with a wooden fence connecting them and separating the room. In this front part the worshippers may enter, throw their offering into a large wooden box, and offer their prayers. In the center back of the back space in the raised altar in the center of which sits a more or less ornate statue of Buddha. This is surrounded by bewildering mass of ornamental stuff.
end of Tokyo trip
June 6th 1918
This evening Bishop Welsh, Methodist Bishop of Japan, Korea and temporarily of a part of China, spoke to the R.R.S. in our hotel reading room. He discussed Japan, Korea and China and Japans relations to these countries. He told us that, regardless of whether or not Japan had a right to annex Korea, she, Japan, had performed and is performing, a piece of excellent colonial administration in that country. In the last ten years Japan has built 1000 miles of first class standard gauge railroad, has built many miles of roads, 1st, 2nd and 3rd class, (before there were none) has vastly improved the sanitary conditions so that, small pox, for instance, formerly very prevalent, is now stamped out, is fast improving the school system, introducing improved methods of agriculture, planting annually millions of trees on the denuded Korean hill and mountain sides, and is administering a very fair low court justice. The old Korean government was thoroughly rotten and incompetent.
In regard to China the Bishop figures that Japan is doing what most any nation would do who had big interests in China and saw that country with only a poor apology for a government. Japan has much money invested in China which she wishes to protect. She also wants, and it must be admitted, needs some of China's mineral wealth, especially iron. She wants China's trade and the Bishop believes that Japan understands this can be secured not by political conquest but by breaking down the dislike Chinese now bear Japanese which can be done only by real friendship.
The Bishop also referred to the peculiar condition of Japan, making a transition from feudal to modern, oriental to occidental, agricultural to industrial, taking much of the best of our civilization, and yet not taking that which is the foundation of all that we have that is good, Christianity. He said “Immorality is increasing, the span of life is decreasing, the stature decreasing of the Japanese. Buddhism gives them nothing vital, creates no high moral standards, no dynamic moral force to help Japan in all the many problems that are coming to her with industrial ascension, even as they came to us. Japan needs friends, and America above all others, is the nation that can help her. If we criticize adversely one thing, try to find some good thing to balance it.”
June 7th,1918
This evening Miss Place, Miss Peakham, Miss Matheson, Mr. Schwartz, Lt. Best and myself rode in Schwartz's launch to an island in the outer harbor, ate a delicious lunch there and returned via the outside entrance to Nagasaki Harbor. The evening was calm, warm, delightful. We sang songs coming back and those good old American songs surely do bring a flood of tender memories to one, and give one that feeling that there is something lacking, you are sent for and can't come ---- The little waves that curled aside from our launch were marked by broad stripes of beautiful glowing phosphorecent light, the broad path in the stern was alight with billions of bits of phosphorecent light. It was remarkably beautiful. All about us were the lights of boats, of the harbor, and of the city. I think “The Long Long Trail” and “Keep the Home Fires Burning” shall always to me bring back pleasant recollections of Nagasaki in addition to the general longing for something I seem not to have, which they give me.
Shake muni = Buddha. There are many lesser Buddhas. Also many many other gods and goddesses, of luck, of mountains, trees, food etc. relatives of other chief gods, or deified saints of previous centuries.
Shinto Religion taken from Murrays Hand Book of Japan
“Shinto is a compound of nature worship and ancestor worship. It has gods and goddesses of the wind, the ocean, fire, food and pestilences, of mountains and rivers of certain special mountains, special rivers, certain trees, certain temples - eight hundred myriads of deities in all.
The Sun goddess, the ancestress of the heaven descended mikados, who themselves are gods upon earth, is the most honored, her shrine at Ise being the mecca of Japan.
With moral teaching Shinto does not concern itself. “Follow your own impulses and obey the Mikados decrees.” is the sum of its theory of human duty.
No preaching is indulged in, nor rewards or punishments after death promised or threatened. Life after death is believed but whether it is a condition of joy or pain is not declared. Shinto demands little more than a visit to its temple on the occasion of the annua. Shintoism and Buddhism are thoroughly interfused in practice and there are very few pure Shintoists or Buddhists.
Feb. 15,1918 Mount Aso-San Trip
Left Nagasaki 7:40 AM Saturday Feb. 15th via Tasu and Kumamoto to Miyaji where remained over night at a small village Japanese hotel.
Climbed Mount Ezo next day and returned to Kumamoto same day. Snowing and strong cold wind blowing made trip unpleasant and was unable to take any pictures. Mt. Aso-san is celebrated as having the largest crater in the world. The outer crater rises almost symmetrically to a height of 2000 ft. the wall being highest to the S.O. and lowest to the E.
The outer crater is 14 &1/2 miles from N to S. & 9 &1/2 miles from E to W, circumference 73 miles. It has over 4,000 population. Eruptions since earliest history 1884, 1889, 1894, 1908, 1910.
Stayed at a Japanese first class hotel at Kumamoto and returned to Nagasaki next day. First seeing old castle and fine park at Kumamoto. Mr. Kato, station master, was very fine to us at Kumamoto.
April 1st to April 6th, 1918 Unzen Trip
April 1st to April 6th I spent at Unzen at a house party. Members were Mr. & Mrs. Trueman and daughter Margaret, Miss Peakham (Sis), Miss Matheson, Miss Ashbough, Mr. Don Colby, Mr. Chas Grigg and myself. We lived at a summer cottage located a bit out from Unzen proper, but a delightful place on high ground among trees, with a brook nearby from which our water supply came.
Everyday there was a hike somewhere, and each hike brought to us wonderful views of mountains, valleys, and ocean spread out below us for miles, and tens of miles.
On Tuesday a party of us went half day down the mountain to Koba and returned. The road turned and looped in most fantastic ways in its efforts to lead us safely down the mountain side and showed us glorious vistas of sea, and mountain and valley.
Wednesday a party of us climbed Mt. Kinugosa, which means Sick Umbrella and again had all nature spread out before us.
Thursday, Iwadake or Rock Mountain, was our goal and a real steep high one it was. From this peak the grandest sight of all awaited us. Away distant to the horizon stretched the Pacific nearer islands and peninsulas of which Japan's sea coast is so largely composed, still nearer bays and inlets of the sea and below us the coast rising into hills and smaller mountains, but all looking flat as we gazed down sheer from our height. Colors there were, too. The sea shading dark blue to green, the coast vegetation, light spring green, closer and higher up were duller shades of pine forest, and here and there great bare yellow spaces where was no vegetation and showing pure white as they twisted on their way to the sea were the roads.
Friday we took no long hike. Sis and I went up Sunset Point.
Saturday the entire party returned home, sending our baggage by cart to Aino mura, and ourselves walking six miles down to Obama, part way through rain, but anyway a pleasant walk. At Obama we enjoyed dinner then proceeded by auto to Aino mura, 12 miles and from there by train home to Nagasaki.
The hot springs were new and interesting to me. Unzen is in the crater of an old volcano, and the hot springs are all that remains of the volcano in the way of life. They boil up in a number of places, sending heavenward an incessant cloud of steam. The water is strongly sulphurous. I had three baths in the water at the Shinyu Hotel. It came into the tub direct from mother nature's boiler, and real hot, too. It is grayish in color, looking like lime water.
The Unzen visit was a most pleasant one for me. We men joined in to help in all the work, getting meals, washing dishes and all. There was one husky little Japanese servant girl along who could not understand the ways of American men for Japanese men never help their women as we do.
Mr. and Mrs. Hunter, and Mr. (Rev) Omelvana, Manchurian missionaries were at Unzen. We had dinner with them one night, and they had tea with us one afternoon. They were very homey like people, and it was a pleasure to know them.
They gave me letters of introduction to people in Changchun and Harbin as I expected to go there soon.
Aug. 4- 1918
We are still at Nagasaki after many false alarms about moving to Harbin, or possibly, even returning home. For the past two weeks we have been ready to move on an hour's notice. We expect to go soon. Japan and the U.S. have agreed on a joint expedition to Siberia with the initial object of releasing the Czecho Slovaks from Siberia. Surely we, the R.R.S., shall now be needed. I have been plugging away at the Russian language for some time and know not very much, but, at that, much more than those who have not studied since we lost our teachers.
In this hot weather it is funny to notice the dress of these people, especially the men. Very simple, ranging from g string to several Kimonas or European clothing, yet seldom do we see two of them dressed alike. The small boys are happy with one thin kimona, which they often have pulled up and tucked in about their waist line. The girls are a bit more modest. The coolie women make little effort to cover their breasts. Nakedness is the rule, ie, partial nakedness.
Jones Siberian Diary - part oneNotes from Griffe's 'The Mikados Empire'
Dai Nippon, Japan, bends like a crescent off the coast of Asia at Sakhalin at the extreme north, and at Jurshiu, at the south, Japan is very close to Asiatic mainland.
“The configuration of the land is that resulting from the combined effects of volcanic action and the incessant motion of the corroding waves. The area of the empire is nearly equal to that of our Middle and New England States. Of the 150,000 square miles of surface, two thirds consists of mountain land. The island of Sakhalin, (ceeded to Russia in 1875) is one mountain chain; that of Yezo, one mountain mass. On the main island a solid backbone of mountainous elevations runs continuously from Rikuohu to Shinano, whence it branches off into subordinate chains that are prolonged irregularly to Nagato, and into Kiushiu and Shikoku. Generally speaking the heights of the mountains increase from extremities to center, Mount Fuji, 12,365 ft. being the highest. There are few high mountains along the sea coast. The land slopes up gradually into hills, thence into lesser peaks and finally into lofty ranges.”
“Japan is but an emerged crest of a submarine mountain, perhaps the edge of hard rock left by the submergence of the earth crust which now floors the Sea of Japan and the Gulf of Tartary. The west and east portion of the aggregate body of the Japanese islands is in every way the direct continuation of the mountain system which occupies the southeastern portion of China, the axial chain of which extends from the frontier of Annam of west 30 degrees S, E 30 degrees N. It is accompanied on either side by parallel chains. The prolongation of this group of linear chains passes through the island of Kiushiu to the great bend of Japan (Suruga and Shinana), through Kiushiu and the south part of the main island, the structure of the hills and the rocks of which they are made up (chiefly Silurian and Devonian strata, accompanied by granite) and the lines of strike are the same as those observed in southeastern China. This system is intersected at either end by another which runs SSW, NNE. On the west it commences in Kiushiu and extends Southward in the direction of the Liu Kin islands, while on the east it constitutes the northern branch of the main island, and with a slight deviation in its course, continues through the islands of Yezo and Sakhalin. A third system which properly does not belong to Japan is indicated by the SW and NE line of the Kurlies.”
“The aspects of nature in Japan, as in most volcanic countries comprises a variety of savage hideousness, appalling destructiveness, and almost heavenly beauty.” Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tidal waves, cyclones. Floods of rain in summer and autumn give rise to inundations and land slides. During 3 months of the year the inevitable, dreaded typhoon may be expected, as the invisible agent of hideous ruin, sunken and emerging rocks line the shore. All these make the dark side of nature to cloud the imagination of man and create the nightmare of superstition. But natures glory outshines her temporary gloom. The pomp of vegetation, the splendor of the landscape and the heavenly gentleness of air and climate come to soothe and make vivacious the spirits of man.”
White residents of Japan tell me that because of the great humidity the heat in summer time is almost unbearable and they seek the mountain resorts in summer season.
Outline of Japanese History from Murray's Hand Book
Dawn of trustworthy history in 5th century AD finds the Mikados, claiming descent from the Sun Goddess Ama-tirasu, already governing all Japan except the north, which was occupied by the Ainas, and Chinese civilization beginning to filter into what had apparently hitherto been a semi-barbarous land. The chief pioneers of this civilization were Buddist priests from Korea.
From this time Japanese history consists of the rise and fall of successive great families and chiefs who while professing always a nominal respect for the divine authority of the Mikado, practically usurped his power and were the de facto rulers of the country. By 1300 AD the old absolutism had changed into a feudalism, the head chief of which was called the Shogun.
In 1853 the U.S. fleet under Admiral Perry compelled Japan to abandon her policy of self isolation which brought about the downfall of the Shogunate and the emergence of the real emperor from a gilded captivity to a modern day ruler.
Since then Japan has adopted European customs and thought very fast.
Buddhism - a few cardinal facts -
Buddhism arose in India in the 7th or 11th century BC, its founder was Buddha Shaka Muni, a prince of the royal blood, who disenchanted first of worldly pleasures and then of the austerities which he practices for long years in the Himalayan wilderness under the guidance of the most self denying anshorites
of the time, at length felt down on his mind, the truth that all happiness and salvation came from within, came from the recognition of the impermanence of all phenomena, from the extinction of desire which is at the root of life, life itself being at the root of all sorrow and imperfection. Asceticism still reigned supreme; but it was asceticism of the mind rather than of outward observances, and its ultimate object was absorption into Nirvana, which some interpret to mean annihilation, while others describe it as a state in which the thinking substance, after numerous transmigrations and progressive sanctification, attains to perfect beatitude in serene tranquility. Neither in China or Japan has practical Buddhism been able to maintain itself at these philosophic heights; but by the aid of hoben, or pious devices, the priesthood has played into the hands of popular superstition.
Here, as elsewhere, there have been evolved charms, amulets, pilgrimages and gorgeous temples services, in which people worship at not only the Buddha, who was himself an agnostic, but his disciple and even such abstractions as Amida, which are mistaken for actual divine personages.
Seven Deities of Luck
god of Love
Sun goddess who is the ancestress of the Imperial family
Amida, god of or ideal of boundless light.
Anan, Cousin and early convert of Buddha
Atago, protector of towns against fire
Binzuru, Believed that this image can cure all ills
Darnichi Nyoral one of Buddhist trinity, personifies wisdom and purity.
Darkohu or Darkoku, god of wealth,
god of roads
Emma-o, Regent of Buddhist bells.
Buddhist sutras 1771 volumes.
Hotei, one of the 7 gods of luck, represented in art with an enormous naked abdomen
goddess of rice
Izanagi & Izanemi, Creator & Creatress of Japan.
goddess of mercy
Notes From “Biology and National Welfare” by Edwin G Conklin, Yale Review, April 1917
“This great world war presents the questions of national survival, strength, supremacy, or of national decay, defeat and death.”
“The present war is a test of the efficiency and ‘survival value’ of various forms of social organization which are represented in the warring nations.”
“The destinies of nations are in the hands of scientific investigators rather than of rulers or armies.”
“The importance of biology to national welfare will be appreciated when it is remembered that practically everything which we eat or wear is produced by animals or plants; that our most serious diseases are due to animal or plant parasites, principles of heredity development and evolution, of behavior and adaptation, apply to man no less than to other animals.”
“The fundamental similarities of all living things, the essential oneness of all life, make it possible to apply the principles of biology to every aspect of man and his institutions. . . . . but while the fundamental principles of biology are of universal application, there is the greatest diversity in details. This biological sanction is claimed for wholly antagonistic views.”
“Undoubtedly good environment and education are important factors in the development of good citizens, but of even greater importance is good heredity.”
“The quality of citizenship in this country, or in any other depends not merely upon the stock or race but also upon the environmental conditions. Good environment cannot make good heredity out of that which is bad, but it can and does lead to the development in the individual of good potentialities, which are present in heredity, and to the suppression of bad ones. Ideals and habits have a hereditary basis but their development depends upon extrinsic conditions, - training and surroundings.”
“Is the ideal state one in which the bond between individuals is as loose as possible and in which individual freedom is the chief aim, or is it one in which the bond is as close as possible and the good of the nations or race or species is the supreme object? What should be our aim as a nation - individualism or socialism?”
“This is a question upon which biology can throw much light.” “The path of progress has been in the direction of specialization and cooperation'“ “If human society is to be something more than an aggregation of individuals, if it is to accomplish more than can be performed by separate persons, it must be through higher and higher organization, that is, through greater specialization and more complete cooperation of its constituent parts.” In the nations now at war the organization of society has made surprising advances.
All persons enjoy most of the work which they can do best, and that nation will be most contented and efficient, whose people are free to find the places in the social system for which they are best suited. Nature gives us many types of individuals through the crossing of different hereditary lines, but we do our best by education to eradicate these differences and to make all citizens alike. Many kinds of education are needed for many kinds of services, and differentiation should begin as early as the sixth grade of school.
(HOW WOULD MR. CONKLIN DETERMINE WHAT EACH INDIVIDUAL STUDENT WAS FITTED FOR, HE MIGHT ATTEMPT TO MAKE A PLUMBER OUT OF A POTENTIAL STATESMAN, OR VICE VERSA?)
Personal comment by Wm. C. Jones
Men and women must be trained for service, not merely military service, but the service which each can best render to society, and all should be taught to think less of their rights and more of their duties. The time has come when one cannot be a good citizen without some knowledge of biology. There is an amazing ignorance of life processes, both in health and disease, on the part of most people. There is need of some knowledge of biology in practically every phase of modern life; in the family, city, state and nation; in affairs which concern personal and public health and yet this knowledge is generally lacking.
Men in high public position do not know the difference between real science and psuedo-science, between experts and fakirs, and experience shows that they are often prone to follow the advice of the latter rather than of the former. We know well enough that upon many subjects scientific evidence is not yet complete, and differences of opinion exist among men of science, but upon many subjects there is unanimity of opinion among all men who know the facts and respect the value of evidence.
Something is fundamentally wrong with a system of education which fails to instill into every mind an appreciation of the value of evidence and a reverence for all truth. To the scientist the test of truth is not logic, nor inner conviction, nor sentiment, but phenomena. There are thousands of intelligent men and women whose opinions regarding the most important questions of their lives are shaped by sentiment and prejudice and convention rather than by reason. And it is this appeal to emotions rather than to reason which makes possible blind loyalty to party or church or state, and blind prejudice and hatred between classes and races and nations, it is this which provokes wars and destroys the monuments of civilization. It is this refusal to see things as they are that destroys character and peace and progress.
Mankind is slowly emerging into a rational life; but with all our intelligence and culture, reason plays a relatively small part in the lives of most men, while emotions play the leading part. Extreme emotions destroy our judgements and not infrequently reduce us to the level of irrational beings. On the other hand, the spirit of science is the spirit of reason - sincere, sympathetic sane . No nation that cultivates emotions of hate, suspicions, chauvinism is scientific in spirit, however great the scientific contributions of its citizens may be.
The appeal to fact is the very foundation of science, and it is a method in which every citizen should receive systematic training. Sensationalism, emotionalism, irrationalism, are the dangers that threaten civilization, for they are a direct return to barbarism and savagery, whether exhibited by Bushmen, Indians, Deverishes, frenzied revivalists, militarists, politicians, or by newspapers that place sensation above sense. Our most dangerous enemies are within and not without, and they are the forces of unreason. A new birth of reason above all things is the preparedness America needs.
notes from “Japan, Imperialistic and Capitalistic” by H M Hyndman, prominent English Socialist leader, journalist, and investigator of international affairs. Asia January 1919
Japan today has an army and navy at least twice as strong as they were at the close of the Russo Japanese war. This has been the trend of her development, first the idea to prevent western domination, then foreign conquest or domination in the Asiatic world - this required a large army and navy which in turn demanded that every possible modern improvement in agriculture, manufacture, transport, railways, shipping, finance and mining be adopted in order to fit the nation to bear the tremendous expense involved. Including Korea, Formosa and the Liaotung Peninsula, Japan has a population of some seventy million. Compared with America, England and France and even Russia, Japan is a poor country.
The programme of social and industrial transformation has been carried out systematically. It has included the education of the people. European ideas were used and adapted. But in adopting western industrialism Japan has adopted its faults, and today unrestrained capitalism, the great factory industries and the consequent bitter competition of men, women and children for a mere wage subsistence is bearing its evil fruits in the land of the Mikado. Never the less it is changing Japan from poverty to affluence.
Agriculture is not being abandoned by any means. Only seventeen percent of the area of Japan is cultivated and such is the character of the remainder that there is little likelihood of any extension. Some own their plots of land, some both own land and work in the silk and weaving industries, some rent land and are up against a hard game. Including the output of all departments of home industry of every kind, the total annual value of the products of agriculture is put at an average of $780,000,000. This from a population of upward of thirty million engaged in work upon the soil.
There are no fewer than seven million children in the elementary schools and five hundred thousand youths in the special and technical schools. Her school system is excellent, except that it overworks the student. Six days school each week. Japan is attempting to furnish military, naval and intellectual leadership for China by bringing thousands of Chinese students to Japanese schools.
A glance at the map shows how this long procession of islands from Sakhalin to Formosa, lying like a series of wharves along the coast of Asia with its outposts and inlets at Korea, on the Liaotung Peninsula at Kiaou Chow and now at Fukien, gives Japan an enormous commercial as well as strategical advantage in the competitive war of the near future, as compared with her rivals in Europe or in America. Never in history was so remarkably favorable a geographical position in the hands of one nation, controlled by men capable of taking full advantage of it and looking to the future of Asia as in some sort the heritage of the Japanese race.
As to the matter of labor, of wages, of the domination of capital, of physical and endurance under the new industrial conditions, the outlook for Japan is not so favorable for permanent success. Japan must deal with and remedy the defects of a ruthless system of material and personal exploitation. It is doubtful whether the Japanese laborers and artisans are as well suited to face the pressure of the intermediate period as the more stolid and more physically powerful Chinese. It is said that as competitors in agriculture on the mainland, and in hard manual labor of all kinds the Japanese have already proved unable to hold their own with the Chinese and Koreans. So likewise in factories.
But when we read of factories buzzing night and day, of thousands of young girls still contracting to live for three years in a compound and to work in the mills for twelve hours per day one week, and twelve hours per night the next, at wages from ten to twenty cents per day for this exhausting toil,
when we further consider that though in all trades wages are increasing; the cost of mere subsistence is increasing still more - , when we sum all this up we can see that Japan by plunging headlong into unrestrained competitive capitalism is running social risks against which the sad experience of other countries should have warned her.
Socialism is growing and developing in Japan - a classical example of fulfillment of the prediction that wherever capitalism with its attendant competition, great factory industry production for profit, and wage slavery, gains ground, there socialism will surely follow. Suppression and prosecution of these reformers of course, followed. Progress quietly goes on however.
Japan, as a world power, and as the champion of Asia for the Asiatics has a glorious future before her if she refuses to sacrifice the greatness of her people at home to the illusory glory of dominion abroad.
Pogranishmaya May 11-19 .1918
Notes from Chinese Customs Report Pogranishmaya
The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 first of all brought Manchuria into world prominence. The discovery of the Japanese market for beans and bean cake was the most potent factor in the development of trade in South Manchuria Sino- Japanese Treaty 1915.
The Oriental Colonization Company 1916 It’s scope extended to include Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. The company lends money to Japanese and Chinese alike, and finances Japanese colonists wishing to settle in Manchuria .
The powerful South Manchurian Ry, its business ramifications extend to every field of Japanese activity in Manchuria. From Jan. 1st 1918 it manages the Kirin Changchun and the Szepinkai-Chengiatun Rys. This in return for 20 year loans made to Chinese by Japanese. Chinese appoint a director to supervise their affairs.
The Szepinkai line runs from this station to Chengiatun (direction NW). Szepinkai is a point on the South Manchurian line. It may be regarded as the first section of a Ry that will stretch far into inner Mongolia.South Manchurian Ry conducting progressive experiments in agricultural development in Manchuria. Sugar beet farming and refineries being developed.
Mineral region - bounded on the south by the Anshan mountains in the Liaoyang prefecture, Penkihu on the So. Manchurian Ry on the west. This region abounds in coal , iron and limestone and has a plentiful water supply. Japanese developing these fields.
Transcribed by Wm. C. Jones’s daughter, Kay J Jones Thyr July 2005
Jones Siberian Diary - part two
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