The most admired quality to-day of the Japanese is his patriotism.
The Western world is in rhapsodies over it, unwittingly measuring the
Japanese patriotism by its own conceptions of patriotism. "For God,
my country, and the Czar!" cries the Russian patriot; but in the
Japanese mind there is no differentiation between the three. The
Emperor is the Emperor, and God and country as well. The patriotism
of the Japanese is blind and unswerving loyalty to what is
practically an absolutism. The Emperor can do no wrong, nor can the
five ambitious great men who have his ear and control the destiny of
Japan.
No great race adventure can go far nor endure long which has no
deeper foundation than material success, no higher prompting than
conquest for conquest's sake and mere race glorification. To go far
and to endure, it must have behind it an ethical impulse, a sincerely
conceived righteousness. But it must be taken into consideration
that the above postulate is itself a product of Western race-egotism,
urged by our belief in our own righteousness and fostered by a faith
in ourselves which may be as erroneous as are most fond race fancies.
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