AN EASTERN SUNSET?

Events are making it increasingly evident to the world that Japan has reached an acute phase of one of the most momentous crises she has faced since the restoration of the Imperial House. The deaths within the month of two of her ablest statesmen of the old school,--Prince Yamagata and Marquis Okuma; the nationwide tenseness over the trial of the late Premier Hara's assassin in Tokio, have thrown into sharp relief the vast struggle going on beneath the surface in Japan.

The secret of Japan's amazing rise to a commanding position in world affairs has been her astonishing ability to assimilate and apply new ideas. This has been possible largely from the nature of her civilization. Here was a people organized into a complete feudal system similar to that of medieval Europe, entirely obedient to rulers and leaders of genius, who suddenly came into possession of the knowledge and resources of the twentieth century. The result was a nation whose expansion, efficiency, and power became, in relation to size, far beyond that of any democracy or autocracy of modern European civilization.

The leaders who have brought about this transformation,--the makers of modern Japan,--have been the Genre, the "Elder Statesmen". Few if any of them are new left, and the gap left by the death of the Empire's two greatest is almost beyond repair. General Tanaka, the logical successor to Prince Yamagata as military leader, cannot represent the Choshn clan, which has traditionally supplied leaders of the military party. Viscount Kiyoura has succeeded the late Prince as President of the Privy Council, but he can never succeed to his hold on the destinies of the nation.

The death of Prince Yamagata is generally considered an indicator of the end of an era, the decline of the Genro, and with it that deep-rooted reverence for elders and superiors which has been a characteristic of the Japanese race.

Japan is in the throes of violent popular demonstrations for universal manhood suffrage and a more democratic government. Whether an industrial, bourgeois bureaucracy will take the place left vacant by the crowned oligarchy of the Genro and the military party is uncertain. What is clear is that a grave crisis confronts the nation. If, as is more than possible, Japan has outgrown herself, if she holds a position in the world today out of all proportion to her size because of the feudal organization of her people; she will gradually decline with the increase of democracy. Her new leaders will have to face the same problems as the men of the past generation,--without the advantage of complete obedience from a people always mobilized and always unified in their subservience.