neas. To quote Professor Chamberlain
again:--

The first glimmer of genuine Japanese history dates from the
fifth century _after_ Christ, and even the accounts of what
happened in the sixth century must be received with caution.
Japanese scholars know this as well as we do; it is one of the
certain results of investigation. But the Japanese bureaucracy
does not desire to have the light let in on this inconvenient
circumstance. While granting a dispensation _re_ the national
mythology, properly so called, it exacts belief in every iota of
the national historic legends. Woe to the native professor who
strays from the path of orthodoxy. His wife and children (and in
Japan every man, however young, has a wife and children) will
starve. From the late Prince Ito's grossly misleading _Commentary
on the Japanese Constitution_ down to school compendiums, the
absurd dates are everywhere insisted upon.

This question of fictitious early history might be considered
unimportant, like the fact that, with us, parsons have to pretend to
believe the Bible, which some people think innocuous. But it is part of
the whole system, which has a political object, to which free thought
and free speech are ruthlessly sacrificed. As this same pamphlet says:--

Shinto, a primitive nature cult, which had fallen into discredit,
was taken out of its cupboard and dusted. The common people, it
is true, continued to place their affections on Buddhism, the
popular festivals were Buddhist; Buddhist also the temples where
they buried their dead. The governing class determined to change
all this. They insisted on the Shinto doctrine that the Mikado
descends in direct succession from the native Goddess of the Sun,
and that He himself is a living God on earth who justly claims
the absolute fealty of his subjects. Such things as laws and
constitutions are but free gifts on His part, not in any sense
popular rights. Of course, the ministers and officials, high and
low, who carry on His government, are to be regarded not as
public servants, but rather as executants of supreme--one might
say supernatural--authority. Shinto, because connected with the
Imperial family, is to be alone honoured.

All this is not mere theorizing; it is the practical basis of Japanese
politics. The Mikado, after having been for centuries in