THE AMERICAN JAPANESE PROBLEM
This book is a sane and sympathetic attempt to promote a mutual understanding between the American and Japanese peoples, at a time when this is eminently desirable. It is the work of one who is well-fitted for the task, since by birth and upbringing an American, he has, by long residence as an educator in their country, learned to know and feel with the Japanese.
His position is clear. While he reveals the exaggeration, hollowness, and even fraud of many of the anti-Japanese charges, he is firmly convinced that there must be no swamping of the Pacific coast with Japanese laborers. Neither, says he, do the Japanese authorities countenance such a thing ; therefore the insults, legislative and journalistic, that are hurled at them by Californians are gratuitous, ' and in grave contrast with the calm and restrained attitude of the Japanese. With them, our author stands fairly and squarely for regulated immigration.
Given a small immigration, which Dr. Gulick proves is necessary, if we are not to discriminate, desirable on account of Japanese qualities, and fair because of the treatment Americans receive in Japan, what then is the fundamental problem when it has been stripped of all side issues ? His reply is, "Are the Japanese assimilable?" And he sets out to demonstrate that the problem is not primarily biological, but physical. Our biological data on the effects of race mixture are not complete enough for us to form definite conclusions, though the balance of evidence cannot be said to weigh against favorable results. Social assimilation is far more important and experience already with the Japanese here inspires confidence on this score Japanese children brought up in the States become American in speech and manner, and even adults after some years of residence here, show differ ences which strike their compatriots at home. To the common opinion that'the West and East are radically different Dr. Gulick is opposed. "Such psychic differences as distinguish the East from the West are products of social life, and are, therefore, subject to rapid change." Given, in a second generation the social environment of the West assimilation is easy; but in order 'that these forces may have full play, there must be no segregation such as the Callfornian attitude, if persisted in, is likely to produce. The Japanese here have already shown themselves willing to accept he two mighty influences of assimilation, the English language and the Christian religion.
Our author, bearing in mind the obvious disadvantage of marriage between members of different civilizations would have amalgamation of race wait on social assimilation and not precede it.
It is impossible that the nations of the earth can remain apart, and the white people in the Orient have claimed and enforced privileges which in some measure they must now return. But more than this, those who know their East as does Dr. Gulick, are confident that the West needs the East as the East the West. It is much to be desired that the Japanese should bring us their aesthetic traits, courteous and gentle manners, their supple fingers, and their dexterous hands.
The discussion of assimilation is followed by an inquiry into the Yellow Peril, and here also he finds the real problem to be different from that of common report. The Yellow Peril has worn successively a military and an economic aspect. Dr. Gulick shows the improbability of the union of diverse Oriental peoples for a united attack on the West, and the grave difficulty of the transport of adequate Japanese forces across the Pacific. To those who fear an economic peril, he recalls the great start that the West possesses, the belief that we are only at the beginning of industrial triumphs, and reminds us of the impossibility (actually illustrated in disappointed Japan today) of the rapidly reproducing skill and technique which is the result of generations. Also he would not have us forget the important fact that the standard of living is rising in Japan, and we may add in China, too. What then is the Yellow Peril in the opinion of the author? It is found in the attitude of suspicion, hatred, and insult generated on the Pacific coast, and in the needlessly discriminating legislation. In such an atmosphere are
bred warlike sentiments, and even if —war should not arise it might be only at the cost of great armaments and so great an increase of military requirements that the constitutional structure of this country would be endangered.
Dr. Gulick is not merely critical, he is constructive, and the policy he suggests is not chimerical. The chief pro- visions are that the- annual number of immigrants from any country should be limited to a percentage (he mentions 5 percent) of their countrymen already here. This would not be considered an invidious discrimination, at the same time it would limit Japanese immigration to about 220, modify the totals from Austria, Italy, and Russia., and allowing many more to come than immigrate now from Great Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia." Other provisions are definite qualifications for citizenship, federal responsibility for legal matters in which aliens are involved, and the education of American youth in Oriental history.
Sidney L. Gulick Charles Scribners' Sons
