The winning of the Far East; a study of the Christian movement in China, Korea and Japan

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Theology Library

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THE WINNING OF THE FAR EAST SIDNEY L. GULICK

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BY

SIDNEY L. GULICK

Secretary of the Commission on International Justice and Goodwill, Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. Secretary on Oriental Relations of the American Council of the World Alliance for International Friendship through the Churches

NEW YORK

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY eek peeas

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Foreword

NE of the most notable and perhaps most unobserved of recent influences for international goodwill and friendship is that of the international relations which are developing between bodies of Christian people in the various nations. Among the earliest of these approaches by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America was to the Churches and also to the peoples of the Far East, which had its impulse in the desire to bring the Christian a spirit to bear upon the delicate and difficult problems % arising between the Far Eastern nations and our “Sown. * The Commission on Relations with the Orient, it is ‘to be noted, is quite distinct from the interests fur- ~thered by the Foreign Mission Boards; first in the “fact that it was for the purpose of developing inutimacy of relationship between the organized native “church bodies and also for the larger purpose of deepenging acquaintanceship between the peoples of the Orient ’and the Occident without special reference to their ‘religious institutions.

‘ This development of friendly relationship between “peoples, like all the great movements, can only be “secured through personal contacts and living voices sand the first commission sent forth by the Federal SCouncil was when Dean Shailer Mathews, the Presi-

‘dent of the Council, and Dr. Gulick went to Japan in v

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33573¢ vi FOREWORD

1915, at a time when the political questions between the two nations greatly needed the influence of the Christian spirit.

More recently the friendly contacts established and the friendly spirit created by the Federal Council at the Washington Conference on Limitation of Armament, especially in the matter of relationship with China and Japan, deepened this interest and led the Federal Council to release Dr. Gulick for a year from his duties here in order that, through personal conference, he might first of all again carry messages of goodwill to those two nations of the Far East and bring back to us information which would guide our Churches in their further service.

The significance of his mission is revealed in this volume which constitutes his report, but is more openly imparted by the many letters which have come from representative men in China and Japan, bearing witness to the happy influence of his mission in cultivating warmer relationships not only between the religious bodies in these countries, but between people of goodwill in these great nations and our own.

Let us hope that the warm friendliness evinced in these exchanges may speedily become the determining factor in relationships between the nations, their people and their governments.

CHARLES S. MACFARLAND, General Secretary.

AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

HE nations of the Far East are passing through experiences of great significance to the whole world as well as to themselves. Problems of a grave character are well to the fore in each country—problems of international relations and also of internal development. The Far East is seething with the ferment of new life. What is to come even a few months ahead none can forecast; many are looking for grave disasters, not only in China but also in Japan. The industrial, intellectual and political revolutions in China; the spread throughout Asia of communistic ideas from Russia; the consciousness of rights by the labor classes; the “proletarian uprising”; suspicion of each other and of the Occident by China, Japan and Korea, and nationalistic ambitions and national self-consciousness are sweeping through these lands. The animosity of China toward Japan is pronounced, though waning. Japan anxiously wonders what China is to become during the coming decade. Is Russia to be a neighborly neighbor or a growing menace? Restlessness and discontent are rife throughout the Far East.

No thoughtful traveler can visit these countries and escape the contagion of these soul-stirring problems. They have most intimate relations with the problem of world wars and world peace; with the Christian program for a Warless World; and also with the vu viii AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

Christian movement in these lands. The writer makes no attempt to deal in an adequate way with all or even any of these vitally important matters. For such a treatment several volumes would hardly suffice. But the statement in the following pages of his experiences during the past year would be insipid and useless indeed did it not in brief outline, at least, present not only how he conveyed the Federal Council’s Message to the Churches of the Far East, but also some of the more outstanding facts and considerations forced upon his attention as for nearly nine months he passed back and forth among the peoples of these lands and talked with hundreds of the best informed men and women, consecrated workers—many of them actors—in the stirring drama that is there being enacted. The Far East is fairly alive with vitalizing forces and significant movements.

The writer’s indebtedness to the many leaders and workers whom he met in the Far East is far more than he can easily express. His gratitude to them all is deep and heartfelt.

Acknowledgment of important assistance in preparing this volume is also due to many who have read the manuscript in whole or in part and for highly valued suggestions. Especial mention should be made of the help rendered by Dr. Arthur J. Brown, Dr. William I. Haven, Dr. Willard D. Lyon, Mr. Galen M. Fisher, and Mr. Fennell P. Turner.

In sending forth this volume, the writer’s one hope and prayer is that it may be of some service in promoting understanding and goodwill between the peoples of the north Pacific and in bringing a little nearer the benign reign of the Prince of Peace.

Contents

FOREWORD BY Rev. Charles S. Macfarland, D.D.

THE AUTHOR’S FOREWORD . . . . . . .

CHAPTER is

Chapter I THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE IN JAPAN: AN INTERPRETATION i

HE crowded steamer-train bearing the writer

left Tokyo station at 9:30 a.m. June 6, 1923.

At noon he sailed from Yokohama on the magnificent

ocean liner of the Toyo Kisen Kaisha. During those

interesting hours he could not but be deeply impressed

by the extraordinary industrial and financial develop-

ment that has taken place in Japan since his first arrival thirty-five years ago.

The dock was crowded with hundreds of Japanese men and women and a few foreigners, bidding farewell to departing friends and kindred. Hundreds of ribbons of brightly colored paper were held by hands on shore and by hands on the three decks, for a few moments connecting links between the travelers and their loved ones. As the great vessel slowly backed away from the wharf these connecting links snapped, one by one, until all were trailing in the sea.

That colorful scene, with all that had preceded it during the morning and the days before, left a deep impression, never to be forgotten, of that virile, hopeful, happy, and enterprising people that so rapidly and successfully have entered into the throbbing life of the world.

It is hard to believe that those two cities have been largely destroyed. The news that came over the ocean during the first few days of September was no doubt exaggerated. Yet the more careful accounts that came later, based on official studies and reports, disclose a disaster of the first magnitude.

Never in recorded history have the loss of life and the destruction of property from earthquake and fire been equal to the terrible experience through which central Japan has just gone.

The news of this calamity came to America while the writer was preparing the following chapters telling of his visit to the Far East. It hardly seemed right, however, to complete the book without referring to this important event; for this experience cannot fail to have prolonged consequences not only to Japan herself, to her mental and moral life, but also to her relation with other lands. The earthquake and the still more terrible fire that followed, constitute an epoch in the life of the people that will never be forgotten. Ina few years a new Japan will stand before our eyes, giving new evidence of the mental and moral virility of that interesting people and nation of the Far Fast.

II

The outstanding facts seem to be these: Without the slightest warning, on Saturday, September Ist, just before noon, the solid earth began to jump and rock, to heave and crack. A large majority of Japanese buildings on the level areas of Tokyo and Yokohama were completely demolished and fires immediately started in the ruins. How many persons were killed outright in the crashing buildings will never be known. It is astonishing how many were not killed and, in spite of injuries more or less severe, were able to crawl out ; the number of those more or less seriously injured or burned has been roughly estimated at about 1,500,000, But scores of thousands were inextricably caught in the ruins who might have been saved but for the terrible conflagration that speedily swept the devastated areas. Thousands who fled to open spaces were caught between the raging areas and burned to death. A statement apparently made on authority declares that ninety per cent of the dead perished in the flames.

The universal use of electric wires for lighting and power and the wide use of gas for light and fuel accounts for the speed with which the fires started and for the vigor with which they raged. The official figures for Tokyo report 134 different places where fires started of which six were stated to be incendiary. The breaking of all water mains made it impossible to fight the fires.

By October first the number of the dead that had actually been counted was 103,000; but those recorded as missing numbered 235,000, of whom no doubt a large majority were among the dead. The reason for so much uncertainty concerning the number of deaths is not only because so many were completely consumed by the flames but also because tens of thousands took refuge in canals and rivers, where they either drowned or were burned to death and were then swept out to sea. Statements concerning the number of injured vary greatly, from 125,000 to 450,000. The homeless in Tokyo were reckoned at a million.

The center of the earthquake was somewhat west of Yokohama. Witnesses in both Yokohama and Tokyo testify that they were repeatedly thrown to the ground as they tried to walk. The area seriously affected ranged from fifty to seventy-five miles on either side’ of these cities, covering thus between ten and fifteen thousand square miles. By the evening of September 8th no fewer than 1,319 shocks were recorded, not including the slight tremors perceptible only by seismographs.

This region constitutes the most heavily populated section of Japan, save one, the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto region. The population affected is estimated at about 7,000,000, which includes Tokyo, the National Capital, with 2,150,000, and Yokohama, Japan’s most important port, with 450,000.

More complete accounts show that those sections of Tokyo that were built on hilly ground suffered less than those that occupied the level areas. An earthquake, it seems, shakes the solid rock less seriously than alluvial soil: “made land” is especially bad, for it quivers and billows like shaken jelly.

On account of Tokyo’s hills and large open spaces in the suburbs the city was not entirely destroyed, either by the earthquake or by the fire; estimates of buildings still standing range from 25%, to 40%, but all have suffered more or less damage and many of these may be unsafe for continuous use.

Yokohama seems to have been more completely destroyed. Accounts as to conditions in surrounding districts, in towns and villages, are meager. As, however, the houses in the villages are as a rule but one story high and as many of these have roofs thatched with straw, we may infer that the destruction of houses was less severe than in the great cities and closely built towns. The loss of life also in the towns and villages was doubtless less serious in proportion to the population than in the cities. This, partly because the buildings being smaller would not fall quite so quickly and partly because escape from the houses and into open ground would be fairly easy. Serious fires, too, would not be so inescapable and deadly.

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The extent of-the physical damage outside of the houses destroyed was of course enormous. Railway lines, bridges, and embankments suffered severely; the wharves and port facilities of both the large cities were ruined. Enormous expenditures will be needed to restore them. River embankments were shattered in many places.

Estimates of the losses have been suggested running up to four or even five billion dollars. The most careful estimate that has come to the writer’s attention is that made by the financial experts connected with the Japanese Commission having offices in New York City. A statement was given out by them about the middle of September enumerating with much detail the total wealth of Japan and also of the Prefectures affected. According to these figures the wealth of Japan in 1921 was approximately $49,400,000,000 and of the four affected Prefectures, $7,050,000,000. The physical damage is estimated by these Japanese experts at about $930,000,000.,

An official dispatch from Tokyo to the Japanese Embassy at Washington dated October Ist stated that the number of houses destroyed was 534,000 and the total property damage was estimated to be from one and a quarter to two and a half billion dollars.

In this connection interesting figures were given concerning the increase in the wealth of Japan during recent years. The following table gives the estimated wealth at the dates mentioned:

In order to give some indication of Japan’s power of recovery the financial experts stated that the Government’s debts (1923) amount to a total of $1,913,- 233,584. Of this sum the internal debt is $1,252,921,- 175 and the foreign debt $660,312,409. Of the total debt, $1,185,087,210 was incurred for investment in productive enterprises, the remainder having been incurred chiefly at the time of the Russo-Japanese War.

It is also interesting to note that in 1919 investments of Japanese abroad exceeded that of foreigners in Japan by about $178,000,000, Another interesting asset is given as “surplus” of Government income over expenses, which, accumulating since 1883, now amounts to $320,342,687. In addition to these sums the Government has specie, held abroad and in the Bank of Japan, to the amount of $840,000,000. Manifestly the earthquake and fire, though terrible and appalling, finds Japan in a position far from hopeless.

Of the fifty bank buildings in Tokyo, forty-five suffered wreckage and fire. Their vaults were, however, as a rule intact. On September 8th a large number of them opened their doors for business. On the oth the Yokohama Bank announced that the usual semi-annual dividend of six per cent would be paid. Within a week the banks were doing business, paying depositors and creditors as needed. Life and fire insurance companies, twenty-seven of them, promptly announced on September 8th their decisions to pay in full on all losses, without taking advantage of the earthquake clauses of the contracts. These and other financial measures, with large appropriations for relief by the Government, did much to maintain the confidence and courage of the people. But the life and fire insurance companies found later that the claims far exceeded their abilities to pay.

The Minister of Finance issued a statement quite promptly to the effect that “the disaster did not fall on any districts important for the production of staple commodities for export or for the production of the necessaries for consumption and thus hardly injured our industries at all. . . . The combined productive power of the damaged Prefectures was less than 10 per cent of that of Japan proper; less than 20 per cent of the productivity of these Prefectures has been impaired, which is less than 2 per cent of the productivity of Japan proper.”

Had this calamity befallen the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto | region the industrial situation also would have been appalling.

Some indication of the business confusion resulting from the earthquake and fire may be found in the statement issued by the Japanese Post Office on September 22d concerning the Postal Savings Bank deposits. The official records kept in the ledgers had been entirely destroyed by fire, and of course hundreds of thousands of depositors in the ruined regions lost all their records. It was stated that there were over six million depositors in all parts of Japan with deposits of 300,000,000 yen ($150,000,000). No way to meet the situation had been discovered other than to rely on the memories of clerks and on the consciences of depositors.

IV

The heart-rending character of the experiences of those who passed through the ordeal can hardly be even imagined. A letter written September 6th by a missionary who was caught in the catastrophe in Yokohama may help us to realize what happened.

She had bidden farewell to a friend sailing on the Australia and had just taken an electric car when the first shock shattered the concrete trestle and made the car “jump and knock and swing around in the strangest manner, utterly indescribable... . We

-crouched and ran for the door and jumped off, falling to the ground. . . . The next car to us overturned. Too dazed to realize what had happened, I glanced about and there was not a house standing. A yellow dust arose and a great shriek, and then a deathly silence. I cannot account for the silence. It may be I was too stunned to hear. . . . We stumbled back to the station, avoiding the falling wires. Many people on crowded cars were electrocuted, a merciful death. .. . Immediately in all directions fires sprang up. A stream of humanity came pouring toward us (into the open square in front of the station). Many of them were bleeding. . . . I knelt on the ground till a policeman whistled and said, ‘Everyone to the hills.’ I followed the crowd over the broken, tippy road, the walking extremely difficult and the fear of falling into cracks. One man had the earth open where he was standing and he fell in up to his waist.”

As they went up the hill she found herself walking beside a young man of twenty, a Korean; but for his faithful help during the following two days she could hardly have escaped the fearful fires. And later she in turned saved his life. At the top of the hill in an open space, in front of a shrine with hundreds of others, they spent several hours. There she “became so interested in various groups, the rich and the poor, the calm and the frightened. One woman sat there sweet and smiling with her six children in a row, as proper and quiet as if they were in Sunday school. How good the young men were to their mothers. One young man said he was connected with the Y. M. C. A. He brought his mother, his baby, his wife and his sister in safety. . . . The wounded were brought up on people’s backs. . . . My boy went off to reconnoiter and came back with a girl of twenty on his back and her mother tottering after. The girl was wounded and he found them lying by the roadside with the flames almost up to them. . . . The fire was getting nearer on two sides. . . . I, too, went to see. ‘Let us get out of here,’ he said. ‘But how can we leave these women? They will be terrified,’ I replied. My heart clung to these people, the little girl of eight who had been praying steadily for two hours ; the old blind woman whose face was peaceful but whose lips never ceased to move in prayer; the frail old white-haired men and women who clung to each other with such a look of despair; the family of five, refined, well dressed people, all pale and exhausted; mother, son, his little girl, and his wife lying there with ther baby a few days old. Still I could not help them. . . . So we stole away from our prostrate friends, hoping they would not see us go.”

Up and down steep hills they went, constantly noting the approaching flames, till they came to the city reservoir, the highest place in Yokohama. “There we sat and watched for two hours the four places we had been in, one after the other, burn and burn. The loss of life at the Daijingu (the Shrine) was terrible. There was no way out but the way-we had come with so much difficulty. Had we waited ten minutes there would have been a panic. The strong pushing the weak in their frenzied efforts to get away... . It was heartrending to watch those beautiful, cruel flames and to think of the many we had been Gaelaise in who could not get away. “

There at the reservoir they spent whe night, Sunday and Sunday night. Monday morning they made their way to the bund and finally succeeded in being taken on board the President Jackson and so reached Kobe. In the course of her long letter, here much abbreviated, occurs the following tribute to Japanese character: “My close contact with the many Japanese strangers has given me a deeper love for them and appreciation of real Japanese character, their patience, fortitude, generosity, kindness, sympathy; all these I saw in abundance.”

This tribute was written in spite of what she herself had seen with her own eyes of Japanese mobs searching out and cruelly killing defenseless Koreans. She also knew of the looting and murder by Japanese ruffians, which at once started up in Yokohama with the outbreak of the fires. How many Koreans and other foreigners were killed in these ways has not been reported, but the number certainly exceeds a hundred and is probably much greater. This aspect of the great tragedy is perhaps the most tragic and the most lamentable. It seems that when the fires broke out rumors immediately started and ran like wild-fire that Koreans had lighted the fires and were polluting and poisoning the wells. Under these terrible circumstances race prejudice led to its instant belief and to the frightful results.

A missionary who spent two days in Tokyo while the fires and quakes were at their worst reports what he saw as follows: “Everyone was obsessed with the idea that some Koreans were on the rampage. Everyone on the road had a club, or an iron pipe or some weapon. There have been Korean coolies employed in this vicinity (referring to Yokohama )—harmless creatures, but people have an idea that fires have been started by Korean extremists and by socialists. ‘Absurd, I think; but toward Yokohama it became more pronounced, and it was almost a man-hunt.... “Everywhere (in Tokyo) there was excitement, and men in groups with wooden clubs and sections of piping, talking excitedly about Koreans who were supposed to be coming from Meguro way. Motor cars and cycles rushing back and forth. Koreans were reported to be coming down a back street and there would be a rush. Then a rush in a front street. Here would be people sitting on the side of the road placidly feeding children and babies; there would be a group of men with iron rods, wooden staves, a gun or two, oldfashioned swords, or in one case a revolver, watching and waiting for Koreans. . . . It was very weird. . . . It reminded me of a negro hunt such as disgraced Chicago a few years back. . . . I plugged along the road, but sincerely hoped I would not be mistaken for a Korean.”

From many sides come reports of two nights spent by Japanese in terror, fearing Korean attacks. And it turns out that the police and soldiers as promptly as possible rounded up nearly two thousand Koreans in Tokyo and surrounded them with protection to save them from harm by hysterical mobs.

But an interesting sidelight is thrown on this dreadful affair. On October 7th, a “Memorial Service for Foreigners” who had lost their lives in the earthquake and fire was held in the Zojoji Temple in Tokyo under the auspices of all the Buddhist sects. “Although the rain had made the streets rivers of mud, six thousand persons came to honor the foreign dead.” And a report from Korea states that “Japanese and Koreans were engaged with all their might and in perfect harmony in their relief work. On September 22d a great religious service for the souls of the dead was held at the combined initiative of the Koreans and the Japanese.”

Narratives of what they saw, experienced and heard have been coming to the writer from personal friends, both Japanese and American. The tragic material would fill many pages. Miraculous escapes are reported as well as frightful tortures. One woman saw her baby in the baby-carriage crushed to death, as she supposed, as the building fell upon it and completely buried it. In frantic haste with help she finally succeeded in removing the débris and found the carriage upside down but, to her astonishment and joy, the baby safely under it lying quietly unharmed on the mattress. |

In Yokohama a woman’s hand was caught between heavy timbers. As the flames approached she vainly struggled to the limit of her strength and no one was there to help her. Just as she gave up help and faced the flames another earthquake shock set her free. Many parents report the fearful ordeal of seeing their children caught in the ruins of their homes and burned to death before their eyes. What words can express such experiences?

Tales of heroic service are also reported in large numbers. Among them the following is typical. Two hundred nurses of the Hamada hospital formed a stretcher corps for the rescue of their helpless patients. For two full days they traveled through the quaking and burning city in their vain search for some hospital that could take the patients. During that time they had nothing to eat or drink, save once when they were given some eggs and biscuits. Three infants were born and perfectly cared for during that tragic pilgrimage.

Vv

America’s response to the human suffering and need of Japan was prompt. The earthquake occurred Saturday, September Ist, just before noon. Our afternoon papers that very day carried the first news. Had telegraphic communication of Tokyo and Yokohama with the outside world not been completely cut, our morning papers would no doubt have carried it, thus printing the first news several hours—in theory—before it happened, a striking illustration of the amazing closeness of the Far East to the Far West. Even in Japan a full day elapsed before the neighboring cities had any real knowledge of the extent of the tragedy. In Kobe it was only by Sunday night that some appreciation developed of what had happened and not till Monday was a relief expedition sent north by sea.

Sunday morning the American Red Cross in conference with President Coolidge began that swift campaign for help for Japan’s earthquake sufferers, which gave appropriate opportunity for the expression of sympathy and goodwill felt by all of America’s best citizens.

The forces were soon marshalled. Red Cross Chapters all over the country sprang into instant life. The Federal Council of Churches promptly issued a call to cooperate with the Red Cross in sending immediate relief and suggested that prayer for Japan in this time of her suffering and loss be offered in all our churches. Organizations of all kinds and the daily press lent their invaluable aid; the President’s proclamation secured instant attention; on Tuesday, September 4th, the Red Cross called for a five-million-dollar relief fund; by Monday, the roth, the full amount was in sight and by the end of the month the amount actually raised was more than doubled.

In the meantime America’s fastest destroyers and other vessels were headed full speed for Japan on their errand of mercy. From Manila and China they sailed and ere long from California, Washington and Vancouver, loaded with food, medicine and clothing. The Japanese Red Cross and Army promptly took possession of the devastated region. Immediate codrdination and cooperation of all the relief agencies were effected. Supplies, and funds by the million, began to pour into Japan, Ambassador Woods handing to the Premier a single check for $1,000,000. In less than two weeks the most appalling calamity of history had called into being one of the most splendid manifestations of human brotherhood and goodwill that has ever been seen. Distinctions of race, color, and religion were all ignored. The outstanding fact that appealed to all was that fellow men by tens of thousands had been killed by a sudden calamity, scores of thousands had been burned to death and over a mi'lion were injured and destitute and in need of instant help.

vI

In the light of what we now know it is possible to make some appraisement of the probable results of her terrific experience to Japan herself and also to her relations with other lands. For a new Japan has been born through suffering and loss, a loss and a suffering comparable in some respects to those of war, but having wholly different mental, moral and spiritual aspects.