g a river of suicides' blood having
its springs in devotion of retainers to masters, and of soldiers to
a lost cause.... Not only a thousand, but thousands of thousands of
soldiers hated their parents, wife, child, friend, in order to be
disciples to the supreme loyalty. They sealed their creed by
emptying their own veins.... The common Japanese novels read like
records of slaughter-houses. No Molech or Shivas won more victims
to his shrine than has this idea of Japanese loyalty, which is so
beautiful in theory but so hideous in practice ... Could the
statistics of the suicides during this long period be collected,
their publication would excite in Christendom the utmost
incredulity."[T]

I well remember the pride, which almost amounted to glee, with which a
young blood gave me the account of a mere boy, perhaps ten or twelve
years old, who cut his bowels in such a way that the deed was not
quite complete, and then tying his "obi" or girdle over it, walked
into the presence of his mother, explained the circumstances which
made it a point of honor that he should commit "seppuku," and
forthwith untied his "obi" and died in her presence.

These are the ideals of courage and loyalty that have been held up
before Japanese youth for centuries. Little comment is needful. From
the evolutionary standpoint, it is relatively easy to understand the
rise of these ideas and practices. It is clear that they depend
entirely on the social order. With the coming in of the Western social
order, feudal lords and local loyalty and the carrying of swords were
abolished. Are the Japanese any less courageous now than they were
thirty years ago? The social order has changed and the ways of showing
courage have likewise changed. That is all that need be said.

Are we to say that the Japanese are more courageous than other
peoples? Although no other people have manifested such phenomena as
the Japanese in regard to suicide for loyalty, yet any true
appreciation of Western peoples will at once dispel the idea that they
lack courage. Manifestations of courage differ according to the nature
of the social order, but no nation could long maintain itself, to say
nothing of coming into existence, without a high degree of this
endowment.

But Japanese courage is not entirely of the physical order, although
that is the form in which it has chiefly shown itself thus far. The
courage of having and