JAPAN AND ITS LEADERS PROBLEMS OF THE PACIFIC BY JULIAN STREET APANESE history, as taught in Japan, begins JAP with the Emperor Jimmu (Jimmu Tenno), 660 B. C., alleged to have been a grandson of the Sun Goddess who created everything. Jimmu is, therefore counted divine, and as it is claimed that the 123 subsequent emperors are his descendants, they too are regarded as having attributes of divinity. This may not be believed by the more sophisticated and scientific Japanese, but is, I think, generally believed by the masses. The first dozen centuries of this Japanese history is however regarded by cold-blooded historians from other lands as mythology, and the continuity of the Japanese Imperial family is questioned, though it is admittedly the oldest reigning family in the world. From an Occidental standpoint it would be considered that the directness of the line was impaired by reason. of the fact that many emperors have been the sons of concubines; but in the Orient a different view is taken though it may be remarked that in Japan the practice of concubinage is rapidly losing favor. The Japanese think in terms of family. The family, not the individual, is the national unit. The head of the family decides all important questions for all members of his family; this applies not only as concerns his sons and unmarried daughters but all their offspring. But when a girl marries she renounces her own people and comes under the absolute domination of her husband's family, in which relation her important acts are governed by the head of that family, while in unimportant affairs she is under the thumb of her mother-in-law, in whose house she generally lives. The mother-in-law is greatly dreaded by Japanese brides. Having herself been bullied as a young married woman, she is curiously lacking in compassion when her turn comes, and it is said that she customarily takes out on her daughter-in-law all the pent up resentment she feels at the treatment accorded her, earlier in life, by her own mother-in-law. Some idea of the complete ascendency of the family system may be gathered from the fact that marriages are arranged, not by the individuals concerned, but by the families of the bride and groom, and that a man under the age of thirty cannot legally be married without the consent of the head of his family. The Emperor is rated as the head of all heads of families. |