Show for thu POP paper CRIME IN JAPAN copyrighted by frank G carpenter 1865 1805 HE NEW tre aty a t y with japan japa n will bring all for eigners under the jurisdiction of the tapan japan ese courts heretofore here t 0 f 0 r e A americans meric ans guilty of offenses of any kind have been tried bea before ore our american consul and we have had our own marshals connected with our consulates all americans will now be under the japanese police and the laws and courts ot of the empire will be extended to all foreigners I 1 spent sometime some time in looking into japanese justice during my stay in tokyo I 1 called upon the supreme justices and went through the common pleas and appellate courts I 1 looked into all matters connected with the police and I 1 spedit some time in investigating the great and the system by which the japanese manage the social evil which is now creating so much interest in new york and the other cities of the country I 1 will talk of this at length CRIME IN JAPAN first one word about japanese crime the sentences inflicted are now as lenient as ours in the police court there is one branch which deals with lau faults its ranging in fines from five cents to two dollars capital punishment is only inflicted for crimes against the state or imperial family and for murder crucifixion which was common years ago is is now away a photograph of a crucifixion in tokyo the executions of today however are as humane as our own and the sentence for fok capital crimes is hanging there is a closed place inside of the great penitentiary tent iary where criminals are so killed next to this punishment is deportation with or without hard labor and criminals are sent lor for this purpose to the island of where they work in the mines in addition to these there is imprisonment with or without labor in the prisons and penitentiaries aries of the empire all arrests except for crimes seen by the police are by warrant and the criminals are examined before a judge e who asks all sorts of questions an and judges for himself whether they are guilty I 1 spent some time in one of the police courts and watched the judge examine a man charged with stealing he asked him all sorts ot of questions and made him try on some clothes in his presence which were supposed to have been used in connection with the crime his lawyers were not allowed to speak and the questions put by the counsel were through the judge the japanese have the same laws as t to 0 husbands and wives appearing against each other as we have but a child cannot be a witness against its father nor a servant against his master they can be brought in however in a kind of a subordinate way but such testimony as they give is not considered oi of much weight THE POLICE RECORDS I 1 spent some time in the rogues gallery and in the detective departments of the police organization at tokyo it is wonderful how they have bave adopted all modern conveniences in keeping track of their criminals they have records of nearly men who have either been in jail or in the opinion of the police are decidedly liable to get there they catalogue their criminals like we catalogue a library putting them in sections and having baving cards containing their names in alphabetical order one division of this branch was devoted to foreigners and I 1 found that they knew everything connected with every european and american in the country you cannot sleep in a japanese hotel without name sent to the and your passport is liable to be called for when you buy your railroad ticket at the station the order kept in the cities is wonderfully good and you are perfectly safe almost anywhere at any bour hour of the night I 1 dont mean to say that there are not many thieves and criminals but the government keeps them in check and the policemen are as brave as any you will nod find in the world they are wonderfully well trained in the use of the sword they have a regular fencing drill which they practice daily in fencing halls which are connected with every one ot the stations during my visit to one of the stations the superintendent had his policemen go through a fencing bout to show me what they could do with the foils the men put on iron masks and heavy breastplates breast plates and fought like demons fencing and parrying after the most approved rules of japanese art there are policemen in tokyo and there are about policemen in all japan the detective force is very large and one ot of the crime in every city is the CURIOUS FEATURE OF JAPANESE LIFE I 1 have hesitated some time before writing about this curious feature ot of japanese life but the interest in such matters is such a vital one at the present time in the united states and england and the japanese methods of control ling them are so different from those of other countries that in response to a number of letters requesting it I 1 have decided to do so I 1 neither praise nor condemn their system I 1 merely describe it as well as I 1 can and as delicately as I 1 can I 1 to say however that my information came directly from the police and through the police and that it is absolutely authentic the is that part of every japanese city which is devoted to women of questionable character such institutions are keep entirely under the police and the establishments are required to keep an exact account of every one orie who comes into them they mut must register the names and addresses of all people connected with them and any committed in in the way of expenses or otherwise are at one reported to the police it if a young man of good family leads a very dissipated life his parents are notified similar reports are given to employers as to their clerks and japanese bank cashiers cannot carry on a continued life of dissipation without being suspected of something wrong I 1 looked over the records ot ol one of of the stations in in company with the police it was that connected with the great at tokyo the names entered on its books during one month amounted to and the receipts of the establishment lish ment were I 1 was told about 78 per month or nearly per year THE few travelers get to know much about the inside workings of things in japan my letters however to the chief of P police 01 ice gave me the assistance of private policemen with whom I 1 went through the great at tokyo which contains maidens it is the largest establishment of the kind in in japan and its houses are among the finest of tokyo it embraces in in addition to the professional houses hundreds of hairdressers singers and dancers cancers and it is is shut off entirely from the rest of the city it has wide streets through the middle of which are strips of flowers and the streets are decorated with fountains stone lanterns hits bits of waxworks and all kinds of all of quaint things to draw the sightseers nearly every other house is is a tea house or restaurant the houses in which the gitis girls live are of immense size and are of much the same nature and shape the scene is is in fact very like the animal show at a circus the first story of each of these houses consists of of cage like parlors facing the street and running on each side of a hall which leads into the house A the side of this hall in a little cage like that of a ticket office a man sits and gives information to all who pass by each of these ca cages es is about feet long and twenty feet feet deep and its floor is is as high as your waist this floor is covered with carpet or matting and at the back of the room there is a line of girls ranging way from twenty to squatting on the floor with little boxes charcoal before them they smoke and they chat and they make eyes at the men who pass along the streets some of them have samisens sami sens or the japanese guitars gi tars and now and then one ond will get up and an waddle out to the bars bafs ot of the cage and chat with the people outside in some of the cages they sit upon cushions and chairs and in others you will find perhaps fitly g girls i als dressed all the same way and looking like sisters some have dozens ot of pins in their hair each of which is as long as a crochet needle and which stands out about their waterfalls like the quills of a porcupine they are all highly powdered some of them have lanterns in front of them and many of the establishments are lighted by the electric lights just as you would light up a shop window in which you had beautiful goods exposed for sale some have plate glass windows between them and the streets street the girls all have their obis or belts belt tied with a bow in front instead of behind as other japanese women do this I 1 think is provided lor for by law and this finest part of the japanese womans comans dress known as the obis is the badge of the bad and the good AT THE COURTS I 1 spent some time in the police courts or examination rooms where all girls who wish to enter the must first get their licenses they are practically sold by their parents or guardians gard ians who fiust must come with them and who in company with the proprietors ot of the houses then make a contract with the fully girl rl for three years the judge carefully examines the girls and they were asked as to whether they entered into contract of their own free will they hung their heads down when they were questioned but they replied almost automatically and evidently uttered the words which their parents had put into their mouths some I 1 doubt not are forced to this by their parents and it lis is considered a good deed among some some japanese for a girl to go into a house of this kind in order to make money to pay her fathers debts or to support her family the girls have to be of a tain age and every precaution is taken to protect them they are usually sold to the keepers for from and upward this cash is given to the parents and the usual contract is for three years the girl is also charged with the clothes which the proprietor of the house gives her and he tries as much as possible to get her in his debt as she will not be permitted to leave until everything is is paid though if a friend or her parent comes in and puts up all the money that she owes him he must let her go each girl has a book of her own which is kept at the police office and which gives a full description of her this book is about the shape of a magazine and about thirty or forty pages it is much like a passport and it contains a full fall description of the maiden the dress allowed the young woman is according to the price pric e paid for her A girl is usually charged 30 for her dress and sometimes beautiful giris have given as much ds for a dress this is all put down dawn in in the book two pages of the book are given up to the laws and rules of the house which must be signed by the girls each girl has a seal of her own and with this she signs eve ry thing at the end of six years the government contract at an and the girl is free ALL HOPE ABANDONED YE WHO ENT ENTER ER HERE the girl who once goes into the shi wara however is like her sister who falls on this side of the world she seldom comes out and over the street et which leads into this city of sin should be written the words which were over the gate of dantes hell all hope abandoned ye who enter here you will hear now and then well informed travelers say that a life of this kind does not hurt the reputation of a Jap anees woman and that she may go from such places into the most refined society and be highly respected this is not true there are instances of men in japan marrying women of questionable reputation but it is no more respectable there than here such marriages sometimes take place between the geisha girls and well to do men but these are of a different class and many of them are virtuous the majority of of the girls who enter the stay there many of them go in unwillingly I 1 might say the majority but once in ii they get into debt to their keepers and their debts increase and they stay sometimes they commit suicide on account of their lovers and the japanese stories are full of the quarrels which take place in these places on some account or other once in the the girl cannot go outside of the city of sin without permission the police know all the girls that are in and they have passports to go to other parts of the town they are practically all Y in n slave most horrible slavery at that tha t THEY LOOK MODEST I 1 was surprised at the modesty of such japanese women they have nothing of the boldness and brazen effrontery of their class in other countries and there are some advantages in the japanese of treating the social evil the wicked of the city are confined to one part of it and those who wish temptation must go in search of it the london streets are full of vice every night some parts of new nev york are not much better and there are no dancing halls and empire theaters to tempt the young japanese it is not true that it is respectable spec table for young men to frequent such places and the japanese whom I 1 saw on their way to and from the had in most cases handkerchiefs wrapped around their heads and over their faces in order to keep the people irom from knowing who they were THE JAPANESE government AND THE WOMEN the laws concerning this matter have grown more strict in japan from year to year and there has recently sprung upa movement for the doing away entirely of the system the japanese govern ment in fact is doing everything it can to protect its people and their reputation in respect to such matters durin during the past few years numbers of girls lave have been carried out of the country sometimes almost against their will and taken to the different seaports of the pacific for improper purposes A law has been recently passed preventing this and no japanese woman can now leave the country unless she can show exactly where she is going and why A foreign lady taking out a japanese maid has to give information to the government as to just where she is going and sign such passports and bonds as will insure the girl being properly cared for and it is contrary to law tor for girls to leave the country alone systematic attempts have been made to evade the rules in this regard and during my stay in japan the authorities caught parties who were smuggling out girls in trunks two girls were put in tight boxes and were shipped on one of the steamers as baggage but before the boat left there was a cry from one of the boxes and upon its being opened a plump japanese girl was found doubled up within it she could scarcely breathe and her heavy clothes had gotten over the air holes the other trunk cobain contained another japanese maiden and it if was found that this business had been going on for some time the people concerned were arrested and the girls were taken back to tokyo |