Japan - New Era

( Originally Published Early 1900's )

Perry and Mutsuhito. The day that Perry entered the Bay of Yeddo with his little fleet, however unconsciously to him or to America or to Asia, was a day of glad tidings for the Eastern world. To aid the whalers and protect their industries was apparently the chief motive of the United States in sending this expedition to Japan, but how much more God purposed for it than did man ! In 1853, Commodore Perry's fleet arrived from America laden not only with guns but with gifts from the Western world, indicating its commercial, scientific, and religious advancement. Japan, awakened from her long seclusion, turned suddenly from the traditions of her past to welcome the enlightenment of modern civilization. In 1868 the young Emperor Mutsuhito took the great Charter Oath, promising to rebuild the empire according to the right way. During his remarkable reign Japan probably made more rapid progress than any other nation in the world.

Pioneers of Reconstruction. Calling expert foreigners from every nation, Japan went forward by leaps and bounds. For thirty years, more than three thousand foreigners labored in Japan as teachers, engineers, physicians, military and naval leaders, financial and political advisers, to reconstruct the empire. From Great Britain japan derived most of her political and financial reforms; from France her first military system, which is now formed upon the German model; from Germany her medical science; and chiefly from America her public school system and impulse in trade and manufacture. Noble men like Dr. Murray, and Dr. Verbeck, started the national system of education and helped to organize the Imperial University.

Achievements of New Era. Let us now turn to survey the achievements of the new era, and the trans-formations which have already been wrought in the short space of sixty years since the opening of japan.

Political Progress. Politically, japan has achieved much. In 1872 the army, navy, and civil service were entirely reconstructed; the imperial mint and the new coinage were introduced ; a new educational department, with an imperial university, was established ; new post-offices and the first railways were opened, together with the first industrial exposition. The next year the Christian calendar was adopted. In 1875 a deliberative assembly was added, followed by provincial assemblies. In 1889 the Emperor granted a written constitution, and the first parliament followed in 189o.

Educational Advance. Education, no longer confined to the training of the aristocracy in the Chinese classics, became now, through a larger recognition of the worth of man, free, compulsory, and almost universal. Japan claims today over 90 percent. of her children of school-going age in schools, and has suddenly become a nation of readers. Women are now educated for the first time, and are even admitted to one or two of the imperial universities.

Economic Gains. Economically, Japan's advance has been phenomenal. Her foreign trade, which was but $25,000,000 in 1876, or about 75 cents per capita of the population, had become in 1910—$461,350,000, or $9 per capita. The estimated wealth of Japan has increased to $12,000,000,000, and her annual invested capital, according to Dr. Nitobe, is now $200,000,000. Factory laborers already number 900,000, and have increased since 1901 at an average rate of 60,000 a year. The writer traveled around the world on the Japan Mail Steamship Company's boats, which company now operates over seventy-five steamers with a tonnage of three hundred thousand. We traveled on the comfortable Pullman and other sleeping and dining-car corridor trains in Japan, Manchuria, and Korea. " The Japanese are still remarkably successful in imitation and adaptation and in real assimilation. Three words mark the stage of progress of the Japanese in most matters adopt, adapt, adept, but they are also evincing considerable power of invention, as the Arisaka gun, the Shimose smokeless powder, the Meiji 30th year rifle, and the Oda mechanical mine bear evidence."

Social Improvements. Social changes are quite evident under the new era. Infanticide and suicide are condemned. The place of woman has been exalted. She now has a recognized status. Monogamy has been introduced through Christianity. The old ideas of concubinage, divorce, and prostitution have been condemned by the best public sentiment through the agitation led by Christians. A woman may now become the head of a family or inherit property. The very physique and stature of the Japanese has in-creased almost a full inch under the new era, according to scientific measurements taken in the schools and army. The treatment of criminals has been improved, humane laws of criminal procedure passed, torture prohibited, and asylums for the insane, the leper, and the blind have been opened. A social conscience is being developed, and social service is now being undertaken on an increasing scale by the Japanese themselves.

Moral and Religious Progress. The most marked triumph of the new era, however, is evident in the sphere of morality and religion. In three directions especially this change is noticeable: in the growth and power of the Christian community, the revival and renovation of the old religions, now thrown upon the defensive, and the wide diffusion of Christian principles in the life of the nation.

Change Summarized. To sum up in a word. Although the changes wrought in Japan have not been so sudden and sweeping as in Korea, nor so dramatic and concrete as in China, yet the very structure of Japan's society is undergoing a vast change, and the country is passing rapidly from seclusion to cosmopolitanism, from the autocratic to the democratic, from despotism and feudalism to constitutionalism, from paternal solidarity to modern individualism, in a word, from the old era to the new.

Too Quick Success. Japan has moved almost too quickly to success. Though her people have excelled as soldiers and sailors, in manufactures and commerce, in a dazzling external success, the heart of the nation is far behind the outward development, and may be said to be living still under the spell of the middle ages. In morals, in social uplift, in truth, and in chastity, Japan's advance has not been so rapid as in other directions.

Moral Defect in Education. In education, Japan has tried to base her entire system upon the insufficient moral foundations of the Imperial Rescript.1 But this purely secular education has had its dangerous and inevitable consequences. The Minister for the Department of Justice, surveying with apprehension the increase of crime during the decade, reports that while crime among illiterates decreased from 41 per cent. to 33 percent., that among literates increased from 59 percent. to 64 percent.

Economic Drawbacks. Even economically Japan is not altogether prosperous. Her industries are crippled by the unfortunate absence of iron in the country, lack of skilled labor, and the predominance of female labor. Japan's debt now amounts to $1,325,000,000 an increase of $1,050,000,000 over her debt prior to the Russian war. The taxes have more than doubled since the war and are now $165,000,000, an average of about 30 per cent. upon the income of business men and property holders. The country is far too poor to undertake a war today, save in self-defense. Japan's wealth is about one fourteenth that of the United States, while her debt is fourteen times as heavy and the average income per capita is only $30.00 a year or about one fifth that of the United States. Japan's water-power and a few mines are her only large undeveloped resources.

Social Points of Weakness. Socially, japan will lag behind till she accepts the Christian basis for her civilization. Dr. Nitobe tells us that 62 percent. of the laborers in the 10,500 factories are women, who constitute an army of 500,000 of the weaker sex. Child labor is disproportionately large, five per cent. of the operatives being commonly children.

Prevalence of Impurity. Much of the impurity of the old era still persists. At least one temple still exists which is endowed by the establishment of houses of ill fame. Nearly all the national religious shrines are surrounded by such immoral resorts; for a pilgrimage often means a spree to the average worshiper. After his penance is performed at the shrine he can begin again to have a good time. Japanese women imported to the cities of Asia are .the worst poison to society in the slums of the East.' There are 48,769 prostitutes in the country. One woman in every seven, between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five, is a prostitute or geisha. According to the Japan Mail these poor girls in Tokyo are selling body and soul for an average wage of seven cents a day, and even their food is insufficient. It is often said, "Why trouble these people with our religion ; are they not getting on very well with their own?" But as Bishop McDowell says :

Nobody is getting on very well without Jesus Christ."

Religions of Japan. From ancient times Japan has had three religions. Shinto is a combination of nature-worship and of hero-worship, the primitive cult of Japan, codified and nationalized. Ethically and theologically weak, its chief emphasis is upon the past. Confucianism, the Chinese system of ethics, based upon the five human relations and ignoring the godward duties of man, confines itself to the present life. Popular Buddhism, with its religious worship, its sensuous Nirvana, its many gods and superstitious rites, places its emphasis upon the future life. The people of Japan have been affected by all three religions, receiving their patriotism from Shinto, their morals from Confucianism, and their religious hopes and fears from Buddhism.

Debasing Religious Elements. Morally and religiously, the old era was darkened by much that was debasing in the national religions. We gladly recognize every ray of light, every truth of these religions, but their utter inadequacy is revealed in the conditions of old Japan. Shinto, the national religion, is without a definite moral code or any hope of immortality. Confucianism worships the past and the established order, while even in Buddhism the aim is not progress or redemption but only escape from life. Sadly degenerated from the noble life and high aims of Gotama and mingled with a mass of corrupt superstition, Buddhism has produced in most of its priests throughout Asia all the ignorance and some of the nameless vices recorded in the first chapter of Romans. Even at the present time Baron Kato, the former President of the Imperial University, says : Buddhism is worthless, because the vast majority of the army of priests are so corrupt. Christian preachers, on the other hand, are few in number, but in character they far surpass the priests ; indeed, they are almost all good men.... The [Buddhist] priests are indeed a rotten set and they themselves have the greatest need for reformation. They are absolutely unable to save the masses, and are moreover a peril to society."

Lack Basis for Progress and Morality. Without the three Christian interpretations of God, man, and eternal life, to which reference was made in our first chapter, the old religions of Japan offer no adequate basis for human progress or the highest morality. Hearn, in his Japan, An Interpretation, states that " The real religion of Japan, the religion still professed in one form or another by the entire nation is . . ancestor-worship." And ancestor-worship alone means petrifaction and arrested development.

Unfavorable Heritage from the Past. The visitor to Japan must observe that the country has been profoundly influenced both by Christianity and by West-ern civilization. There is, however, one deep-seated defect, one vein of weakness in the present civilization of Japan. This is indeed but a survival of the old paganism, whether the paganism of early Japan or that imported with Western materialism. When Japan entered upon the new era her emphasis was upon the material and outward, and from this material vein, which runs throughout almost her entire civilization, nearly all the defects of Japan can be traced. The Church also must bear its full share of the responsibility in that it did not adequately press its ad-vantage in the days when Japan was so marvelously open and responsive to Christian missions. We may well afford, however, to judge Japan generously in her shortcomings, remembering all too painfully our own. As Dr. Gulick, in his Evolution of the Japanese, points out, the characteristics of the Japanese are sociological rather than biological, that is, they are rather the result of their past training and environment than the inherent racial tendencies of the nation. In the last analysis we are all brothers before God, with the same human nature, capable of yielding to the same temptations under an unfavorable environment, capable of being uplifted and saved by the same gospel if we receive the truth that God has for the world. Centuries of isolation, warring feudalism, and repressive Buddhism have left the Japanese in an attitude of suspicion toward the foreigner, and of re-serve even toward each other. But an intelligent study of conditions in Japan not only fills one with appreciation for her brilliant accomplishments, but with sympathy for her limitations and shortcomings. We have no right to demand perfection of a nation which has made more rapid progress in the last forty years than perhaps any other people in history in an equal time. For they are not half a century removed from feudalism.

Naturalism and Materialism. Nevertheless, the weak point of Japan is naturalism and materialism, and this, introduced at the very beginning of its modem period is bearing its multiplied fruit in the present, and bids fair to reach far into the future. Refusing for the most part to receive the Christian principles that lay at the foundation of Western civilization, Japan sought to receive the outward forms of that civilization without its inward power and principles.

She tried to hold the new wine in the old wineskins of her own religious faiths or the outworn creeds of materialism. Japan has accepted from the West the spirit of the age, without the religion which can alone control and satisfy the high demands of that spirit. As one leading Japanese says : We have accepted a great machine of Western civilization, but we have not the moral oil with which to run it." Count Okuma, the former Premier, says: " The fatal defect of the teaching of the great sages of Japan and China is that while they deal with virtue and morals they do not sufficiently dwell on the spiritual nature of man, and any nation that neglects the spiritual, though it may flourish for a time, must eventually decay. The origin of modern civilization is to be found in the teachings of the sage of Judea, by whom alone the necessary moral dynamic is supplied."

Drift toward Unbelief. Owing in part to this materialistic vein Japan has not thrown herself as wholeheartedly into Christianity as Korea has done. With the liberty of the new age and its emphasis upon individualism came also a dangerous license. Men often lost faith in the old religions without accepting the new, so that numbers of educated men turned to Western agnosticism and materialism. According to a careful estimate concerning religious beliefs of the students of the Imperial University of Tokyo, made by one familiar with their religious life, 450 are said to be adherents of Shinto and Buddhism, and sixty of Christianity, while some 1,500 are said to be professed atheists and some 3,000 agnostics. Many of these latter, however, are unconsciously religious and are more responsive to the religious appeal than these figures would indicate.

Seam of Weakness. Thus we have seen that this vein of materialism accentuated in the early period of the modern era runs through almost the whole life of Japan. It is a seam of weakness in political, economic, educational, social, moral, and religious life.

Reaction of the Nineties. This vein of material-ism may be traced back to Confucian influence for its origin, but it received its final impetus in the reaction against Christianity and Christian civilization in the nineties.

Development of Protestant Missions. It will be remembered that the history of Protestant missions in the country falls naturally into four clearly marked periods. 1. From 1859 to 1879 was the period of laborious preparation and of seed-sowing, during the greater part of which Christianity was an illegal and prohibited religion. 2. In 1872 the prohibitory edicts against Christianity were removed, and from 1879 to 1890 was the period of popularity and of rapid advance. During this time the Japanese in their enthusiasm for Western civilization contemplated receiving Christianity for its political and material benefits. 3. From 1890 to 1900 came the anti-foreign reaction, caused in part by strained relations with the Western nations regarding revision of the treaties, and a desperate effort was made to revive the old religions of Japan. 4. From 1900, and especially since the war with Russia in 1904-05, Christianity has entered upon a period of natural and normal growth. It is now being more and more studied with open mind and is being received upon its own merits.

Lost Opportunity. This reaction which the Christian movement in Japan suffered between 1890 and 1900 could, as Mr. Galen M. Fisher points out, have been to a large degree prevented if the missionaries and their supporters in the homeland had been able to understand the causes of the reaction as they do to-day. They may be summarized as follows:

1. Swing from Foreign to Native. A natural swinging of the pendulum back from an excessive estimate of everything Western to an equally excessive estimate of everything native. This included the discounting of foreign missionaries and of their message.

2. Contrast of Ideal and Real. A great shock was received from the naturalistic and atheistic philosophy, and from the materialistic commercial ideals of the West in sharp antagonism to the supernatural and ideal teachings which had been given by the missionaries. Included in these was the shock of the disappointment that came to Japanese who traveled abroad, and saw the contrast between actual ethical conditions in America and Europe, and the ideal conditions which they supposed existed in lands which they had imagined were entirely Christian.

3. Delight in Liberalism. A sudden breaking away from the orthodox theological and Biblical teaching which had been given by the early missionaries, and a sophomoric delight in the liberal and somewhat destructive theological and Biblical theories which Japanese who went abroad in the eighties met in the West, or read about in imported books.

4. External Faith. The espousing of Christianity by not a few patriotic Japanese as an easy panacea for all social and national ills. In other words, they accepted Christianity to meet patriotic rather than personal needs, or because of its appeal to their intellect without any corresponding change of heart, and when they found that Christianity would not produce magical results for the nation except through the individual, they experienced deep disappointment.

Guarding against Weaknesses. All of these weaknesses could have been guarded against could they have been foreseen, but without now intending to utter one word of criticism of the noble men and women who lived up to the light they had, it is incumbent on us to take to heart the lessons learned by experience in Japan. This is particularly important in lands where missionary work is just now entering upon the stages already passed through in Japan ; for example, in China and Korea. The ways of correcting or preventing these evils are obvious. Some of them may be enumerated by taking up the reasons mentioned above, as follows :

1. Preserving Native Basis. Let missionaries be especially careful to prevent new converts from throwing overboard everything native, the good with the bad, but rather show how Christianity can reclaim and purify that which has been abused or corrupted. Let Christianity be built upon the established customs and institutions of the country in so far as they are not positively wrong. Let us guard against denationalizing and Westernizing converts.

2. Apologetic Work. A strong apologetic literature should be created, and the periodical and daily press should be utilized to present Christianity, not only in its simple form, but in its relation to scientific and philosophic thought. Furthermore, the ablest apologetic and philosophic leaders of the West should be sent on lecturing tours to mission lands.

3. Up-to-Date Teaching. Missionaries and Japanese teachers should teach essential and historic Christianity without insisting upon the theological formula prevalent in the West. At the same time, they should keep abreast of the latest thought in various realms as it bears upon Christian doctrine. It is utterly futile to attempt to keep native preachers and laymen ignorant of the various theories and movements prevailing in the West.

4. Social and National Issues. In the earlier days not only the missionaries but the Churches as well throughout the West laid almost exclusive stress upon individual salvation and almost ignored the application of Christianity to social and national problems. It is unfortunate that they did not more clearly show that there is no country in the West which is more than half Christianized. It would also have been desirable for Christian teachers to assure the Japanese that the veneration for ancestors and for the imperial house was by no means necessarily discordant with true Christian faith and life, but that it was rather purified and exalted by Christianity.

Higher Christian Education. In addition to the various points mentioned above, it should be said that one of the fundamental weaknesses of Christianity in Japan is the lack of a higher system of Christian schools and colleges. In the early years of the evangelization of the country this was not true, because until 1890 Christian educational institutions were on the whole of as high grade as the government institutions; but since then they have fallen steadily behind. Nevertheless, it is not only possible but of the utmost importance that the lost ground should be recovered. To this end the most important single step is the creation in Tokyo of an interdenominational Christian preparatory or junior college, and a first-class Christian university.

Lessons for Other Fields. It is especially desirable that we should learn these lessons from Japan in view of the conditions in other mission fields. Korea is just ending a period of seven years of plenty. China is just entering upon such a period. India is in the midst of a period of prosperity in the mass movements connected with the low-caste work, but has not yet entered a time of plenty in the high-caste work. In each of these countries we may forestall the danger by taking to heart the lessons forced upon us by the period of reaction in Japan.

Growth of Christianity. The growth of the Christion Church has been marked. Think of the growth of the last fifty years. The number of missionaries 66,689 Roman Catholic and 32,246 Greek Catholic Christians, while the Christian community of adherents is two or three times as large as this. The Sunday-schools grew from none to 1,600, with 100,000 children under instruction. A leading Japanese estimates that there are in Japan a million persons who are fashioning their conduct according to the principles of Jesus Christ." Fifty years ago there was no Bible in public circulation; today its circulation is numbered by millions. Then there was hardly a hospital or asylum in the land. Christianity has been the pioneer in establishing homes, hospitals, refuges for the poor, the blind, the fatherless, the insane, the leper, the outcast, and the criminal. Such institutions were practically unknown in old Japan. Revenge was one of the cardinal virtues of Bushido, the moral code of the upper classes, but new Japan praises Christianity for its philanthropic fruits. and the adherents of the older faiths pay the tribute of imitation.

Position of the Church. The Christian Church in Japan today is characterized by strong independence, advance in self-support, a liberal theology, strong character, the high social influence and education of the Christian community, and by the unity and cooperation among the various Christian communions.

Only one two-hundred-and-fiftieth part of the population, the Christians are supporting one-quarter of the organized benevolence of the empire, with four times their proportion in the various sessions of the Imperial Diet; furnishing prominent editors, admirals, officers of the army, statesmen, officials, and writers. Throughout Japan the Christian religion has thus far been distinguished even more for quality than for quantity.

Applied Christianity. The principles of Christianity also have been widely adopted throughout the nation. Men's ideas of God have now set in the molds of Christian thought. There is a widespread acceptance of the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and of the worth of human life. The Christian agitation for temperance and purity has had a far-reaching effect. Baron Kato, called the " Thomas Paine of Japan," writes : " After the burning of the Yoshiwara licensed quarters in Tokyo, the Christians stirred up wide public discussion of the abolition of licensed prostitution. I detest Christianity, but I heartily approve their agitation of this abolition question. Although there is licensed prostitution in every city, yet our educators and educational magazines never uttered a syllable nor wrote a line in opposition to it." The agitation of the Christians to free the captives of " the white slave traffic" of Japan finally compelled the Diet to pass " a free cessation law," so that more than ten thousand women left this iniquitous business within a year. In Neesima's own province the brothels have been banished and licensed prostitution excluded, as the result of persistent agitation by daring Christian men. The moral tone of the province is much above the average.

Verbal Evidence of Christian Influence. Old words have taken on new meanings as the result of Christian teaching. The words for God and love have been enriched with deeper significance, while the words for sacrifice, personality, character, church, religion, eternal life, duty, rights, responsibility, society, liberty, etc., have been coined to express Christian ideas. Constitutional government itself in Japan is the result of Christian civilization. " The various church assemblies have been training-schools in parliamentary procedure and representative government." Indeed, do not the fundamental principles of liberty and democracy find- their ultimate source in Jesus' idea of the value of the soul? And may not all that is best in the modern conceptions of "liberty, equality, and fraternity " be traced back, as one has done, through the Reformation to the great Liberator of man?

Statement of Count Okuma. Count Okuma, the former Premier of Japan, writing in the International Review of Missions, October, 1912, says: We Japanese for the past generation have been so absorbed in the struggle for existence, both individually and nationally, that we have hardly had time to attend to the interests of the higher life. We have attempted to master centuries of Western development in a few decades. But although we have paid too little -attention to the problems of religion, we have not been uninfluenced by religious ideals. For example, although Christianity has enrolled less than 200,000 believers, yet the indirect influence of Christianity has poured into every realm of Japanese life. . Japan received Buddhism and Confucianism from India, China, and Korea, and under their influence she declined. But under the impact of Western civilized thought, Japan has revived. China and India have pined under the old faiths. It is clear that their only hope is to follow the example of japan and welcome Western thought."

Profound Need of Christianity. The brilliant achievements that Japan has already made, as well as her deep need today, constitute a call to Christendom. Count Okuma says : " We are face to face with many deplorable conditions. Our country is a very sick man; it is hopeless to look to politics or even to education alone to cure him." Mr. Clement and Mr. Fisher, two of the younger missionary leaders of Japan, say : " The above confession throws a side-light on the pathos of the situation. Among all classes the growing contempt for the old faiths, the thirst for wealth, and the indiscriminate adoption of individualistic and naturalistic thought from the Occident are quite disquieting facts, and facts that cannot be blinked. They point irresistibly to the need of Christianity. , . . First, with all of Japan's virtues there is a seamy side to her lining, whether social, industrial, moral, or political, so seamy that no Japanese thinker has yet suggested any thoroughgoing remedy which does not imply Christianity. How serious the situation is a single fact will indicate. In February, 1912, the Home Minister took the unprecedented measure of calling together representatives of Buddhism, Shinto, and Christianity, in order to enlist the forces of religion in staying the moral ravages of materialism and irreligion. The step had the approval of the Cabinet and the elder statesmen. This prominent recognition of Christianity shows that Japanese statesmen realize on the one hand the inadequacy of Buddhism and Shinto, and on the other hand the vigor and the adaptation of Christianity to Japan's needs. . . . Christianity is Japan's ultimate hope."

Demonstrated Need. Japan still needs the help of these Christian nations, indeed the day has passed when nations can live unto themselves or by them-selves alone. It is said that to-day about two thirds or thirty-four millions of the people have never heard Christian preaching. The 962 Protestant missionaries and seven hundred ordained Japanese pas-tors are insufficient to reach this vast multitude. Only one in 275 of the people are Christians, as compared to one in three in the United States. While there are 90,000 Protestant Christians in Japan, they are faced by an army of 67,000 Buddhist and Shinto priests. A limited number of strong and carefully selected missionaries are needed for Japan ; men strong in intellect, in sympathy, and in service. As President Harada of the Doshisha University says : " Some may ask whether there is need of increasing the missionary force at all, and to this I unhesitatingly answer, ` Yes.' Japanese leaders emphasize, and rightly, that Japan wants only carefully selected missionaries, spiritual prophets, intellectual experts, social service engineers. And with equal insistence and equal wisdom they plead for money from the West."

Interior Masses Unreached. The striking need of Japan for Christian effort in the untouched interior, which missions have heretofore left for the native Church, forms one of the most significant elements in the religious situation in Japan. The rural population forms 8o per cent. of the whole. Obviously, the struggling native Church in a country so poor as Japan cannot be saddled at once with this unfinished task of our missionary enterprise. Both men and money must be sent, with a larger consecration than ever before. No country can be said to have been evangelized, or to have entered the new era religiously, in which the new enlightenment has been denied the masses. And no national religious situation can hope to advance greatly without the prophets and reformers, the native leaders, who have always been drawn from the country-bred, interior people, hitherto unsought by the Christian forces in Japan. In 772 towns, with a population of over 5,000 each, there are foreign workers in about too, and Japanese workers in about too more, while over 500 towns and thousands of surrounding villages are untouched.

Rival Forces. Two forces are at present contending for the possession of Japan : the one pagan, the other Christian; the one material, the other spiritual; the one for Christ, the other against him. Professor Nitobe well says : " At present one perceives in the Orient two currents of thought flowing from the Occident, molding the rising generation. One is derived from the continent of Europe, especially from Slavic and Romance literature and art, making for skepticism and decadence, often pessimistic, negative, and destructive; the other, derived from the indefatigable spirit of the Anglo-Saxon race, constructive, robust, forever ready to be up and doing with a heart within and God o'erhead.' " We must see to it, as Dr. Mott says, that we Christianize the impact of the West upon the East, and enable the Christian forces to predominate for the saving of Japan.