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The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 100

Concordia Seminary Library, St. Louis (scholar.csl.edu/lutheran_pioneer/47)

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

100

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

number of iron foundries has increased tenfold in
recent years. Japan has also become a heavy pro-
ducer of coal, while copper, gold, and petroleum are
produced in appreciable quantities.

Elementary education is compulsory in Japan.
One can go nowhere without finding good school-
houses, with the pretty little Japanese children
swarming around like bees. Primary schools are
to be found in every village and hamlet, while the
larger towns have their high schools, academies,

are in a position to know claim that they are the
hairiest people in the world.

The Japanese people are of unknown origin,
though they claim for themselves descent from “the
gods.” Of their emperor, the Mikado, the children
in school are taught that the god “Amarterasu is
the ancestor of His Majesty the Emperor.”

The Japanese are a cheerful race, fond of bright
flowers and gay scenes. In general, they are kind
and friendly and a pleasant people to live among.

Entrance to a Shinto Shrine (Torii).

agricultural, industrial, normal, and other schools.
There are a number of government colleges and
‘universities. A large number of elementary and
secondary schools are conducted by various mis-
sionary agencies, as well as a number of higher
schools.

The People.

The aborigenes of Japan are the Ainu, about
15,000 of whom still survive in the island of Hok-
kaido. They are a very primitive people and of
a very low social, mental, and physical rank. They
are evidently not of the same race as the Japanese
and by some are thought to be Aryans. Those who

.

The children are apt to learn, and the lower and
higher schools of Japan are able to take through
the same course of study that we have in our
schools. Japan has furnished not a few scholars
and scientists of all kinds. The people have a great
aptitude for assimilating knowledge presented to
them, for they have an open mind and are receptive
to new ideas. They are far more progressive than
any other Asiatic people and present a remarkable
contrast in this respect to their fellow-Asiatics.
Their enterprise and ambition is almost without
a parallel.

Though of small physique and lacking in power