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Show Development of Life and Mind in Japan Former Japanese Minister of Justice 'Speaks on This Topic at a Dinner. NEW YORK, March 17. Baron Kaneko Kantaro, formerly Japanese Minister of Justice, was a guest of honor and one of the speakers at a dinner of the Unitarian club of New York. Speaking Speak-ing of the development of the mind and life of Japan, he pointed out that In every department of Japanese life whether In Industry, statesmanship, literature, education or war, there always al-ways comes first a stage of blind and unquestioning Imitation, later a stage of adaptation to peculiar Japanese needs and then originality of Invention. As one sample he cited the union of the ancient Japanese Shlntolsm with the engrafted Buddhism to form the present pres-ent religion of Japan. Seek Knowledge. "When the present dynasty came to the throne with the restoration In 1S6S" he said, "the Japanese wero Indeed backward In material progress, but their minds and intellects were almost as fully developed as those of Occidentals. Occiden-tals. 'Seek knowledge, discriminate and rdopt the best,' was a principle of the now Emperor, and we tried to follow fol-low It. "We looked to the United States soon after the advent of Commodore Perry, our Introducer to Western nations. Our Government was formed on your plan. Dr. David Murray of New Jersey became be-came our educational adviser. Our postal pos-tal system and our customs service were formed by American citizens. Our army was modeled on the German army, but adapted to Japanese principles. princi-ples. One Peculiarity. "One peculiarity of the Japanese mind Is to form a policy for a country ahead and to meet with Anglo-Saxon practicality prac-ticality the difficulties that arise. And ns wo try to be practical I can assure you we shall never try to take tho Philippines away from you. as some American recently said. Japan has too much gratitude for this country ever to make war 'upon It. Japan's great ambition Is to engraft Western science on Eastern culture and to blend the Occidental Oc-cidental and Oriental civilization Into one." |