Chapter I: Foreword

The very best way to give boys and girls a clear idea of just what life is to their brothers and sisters of other lands is to take them through those lands. If they cannot go in person (and of course few can), a well-written story of travel will be a valuable substitute for personal experience.

To be of educational value to the reader, a book of travel must first of all be authentic. It must have been written by one who knows at first hand the things about which he writes. A superficial knowledge gained by flitting through a country along its main traveled routes is not sufficient to enable a writer to tell a complete story about it.

Among the notable travelers of our time, probably none has more thoroughly covered many countries than Harry A. Franck, the author of this book. His travels have not been mere sight-seeing tours. He has gone into the out-of-the-way places and lived in the homes of the common people, to study their habits and manner of living. He has visited their temples and schools. He has learned something of their language and talked with them on all manner of subjects so as to become familiar with their views of life.

From boyhood, Harry Franck had a desire to know about the great outside world. In 1900, during his first summer vacation while attending the University of Michigan, he set out, with only $3.18 in his pocket, to see something of Europe. He worked his way across the ocean on a cattle-boat, visited the principal cities of England, then Paris and the Exposition that was being held there. He signed as an “able seaman” for the return trip and reached Ann Arbor for the fall term, only two weeks late.

Mr. Franck worked his way through college and intended to make teaching his profession, but that first European trip gave him an appetite for more travel. When he was graduated, he started out, with only enough money to buy supplies for his camera, to work his way around the world—which he did in sixteen months. After this trip he wrote “A Vagabond Journey Around the World,” which is regarded as one of the most remarkable books of the kind ever published. Since then he has written many other volumes telling of his experiences.

During more than twenty years of travel, Mr. Franck has covered half a hundred countries. He has journeyed 50,000 miles on foot and at least an equal distance by primitive native methods. In gathering material for this volume and for “China” (in the same series), he traveled for two and a half years through the Far East. He often endured hardship and faced danger to give the world the truth about the Oriental lands.

This book may be given to children as supplementary geographical reading with the assurance that every statement is based on actual facts gained by recent travel. The world to-day is not what it was even a decade ago. Conditions, customs, the very people themselves have changed; some greatly, some slightly. A book of this kind to be really helpful must reflect these changes. The author, having recently returned from the Orient, is able to write and show pictures of the Far East as it now is. Mr. Franck carries equipment for taking the best possible pictures and most of the illustrations in this volume are from photographs taken by him personally, often under conditions that involved difficulty and sometimes danger.

As children read this book on the Japanese Empire, we feel sure they will be impressed with the fact that the people of the whole world are one great family; that what affects one nation affects all nations to a greater or less extent. They will realize that while certain lands may seem “backward” to us who enjoy the conveniences of Western civilization, we are indebted to them for many things that have made our civilization possible. For example, the compass, which was essential to the development of navigation and which, as improved by the Italians, enabled Columbus to make his great voyage of discovery, was invented by the Chinese nearly 4000 years ago. Children, like adults, must be led to see that people everywhere have their virtues and ambitions, their trials and hardships, and that the misfortune or the prosperity of one country is reflected in other countries far away.

Knowledge of these facts should prompt us to work for the peace and well-being of all peoples, particularly through the channel of our schools. In this connection, Payson Smith, Commissioner of Education for Massachusetts, has aptly said: “Education in all lands should lead the youth to recognize those interests which are common to humankind, to magnify the virtues which all men hold in common, to minimize those differences and distinctions which divide, and to interpret the history of race and nation in those terms that are helpful to world progress as well as to national self-respect.”

THE PUBLISHERS.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Grateful acknowledgment is made to The Century Company, New York, for their courtesy in allowing us to use the illustrations on the following pages of this book: 89, 91, 92, 99, 101, 102, 105, 109, 110, 113, 114, 119, 124, 126, 128, 131, 133, 134 (right), 137, 140, 144, 145, 147, 157, 158, 159, 160, 165, 169, 171, 178 (right), 186, 193, 197, 211, 219, 223, 233, 235, 240.

Acknowledgment is made also to the South Manchuria Railway Company, New York, for their kindness in providing the illustrations used on the following pages: 213, 242, 244, 245, 247, 248, 249, 250, 253.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I WESTWARD TO THE FAR EAST 11
II WE LAND AND GO TO TOKYO 17
III LIFE IN THE JAPANESE CAPITAL 35
IV LIVING WITH THE JAPANESE 45
V THE JAPANESE AT WORK AND PLAY 61
VI JAPANESE EVENINGS 78
VII I TRAVEL INTO THE NORTH 88
VIII AMONG THE “HAIRY” AINU 98
IX WESTWARD HO! 108
X SOME HOLY PLACES OF JAPAN 122
XI WESTERN AND SOUTHERN JAPAN 139
XII FORMOSA, JAPAN’S TROPICAL ISLAND 151
XIII JAPAN’S WILD MEN 162
XIV KOREA OR CHOSEN 175
XV HOW THE PEOPLE OF KOREA DRESS 185
XVI HOW THE KOREANS LIVE 194
XVII KOREA UNDER JAPANESE RULE 207
XVIII COUNTRY TRIPS IN KOREA 214
XIX THE DIAMOND MOUNTAINS AND NORTHWARD 229
XX JAPAN’S RENTED TERRITORY 243
PRONUNCIATION LIST 255

MAPS THE JAPANESE EMPIRE 10 THE HEART OF THE JAPANESE EMPIRE 28 FORMOSA 152 KOREA 174

THE JAPANESE EMPIRE