Industrialization in England & Japan DBQ

I have visited many factories, both in Manchester and in the surrounding districts, and I never saw a single instance of corporal chastisement [beating] inflicted on a child. They seemed to be always cheerful and alert, taking pleasure in the light play of their muscles. . . . As to exhaustion, they showed no trace of it on emerging from the mill in the evening; for they began to skip about. . . . It is moreover my firm conviction [opinion] that children would thrive better when employed in our modern factories, than if left at home in apartments too often ill-aired, damp, and cold.

By this oath we set up as our aim the establishment of the national weal (well-being) on a broad basis and the framing of a constitution and laws.

1. Deliberative assemblies shall be widely established and all matters decided by public discussion.

2. All classes, high and low, shall unite in vigorously carrying out the administration of affairs of state.

3. The common people, no less than the civil and military officials, shall each be allowed to pursue his own calling so that there may be no discontent.

4. Evil customs of the past shall be broken off and everything based upon the just laws of Nature.

5. Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundations of imperial rule.

The other is the old, the often-repeated, and as often-refuted, argument that the work is light. Light! Why, no doubt, much of it is light, if measured by the endurance of some three or four minutes. But what say you, my Lords, to a continuity of toil, in a standing posture, in a poisonous atmosphere, during 13 hours, with 15 minutes of rest? Why, the stoutest man in England, were he made, in such a condition of things, to do nothing during the whole of that time but be erect on his feet and stick pins in a pincushion, would sink under the burden. What say you, then, of children--children of the tenderest years? Why, they become stunted, crippled, deformed, useless. I speak what I know--state what I have seen. When I visited Bradford, in Yorkshire, in 1838, being desirous to see the condition of the children--for I knew that they were employed at very early ages in the worst business....I asked for a collection of cripples and deformities. In a short time more than 80 were gathered in a large courtyard. They were mere samples of the entire mass.

With these low figures of wages before you, you may naturally conclude that the great mass of the Japanese workers are in a most pitiable condition . . . but, when you consider the fact that in Tokyo the working class can get . . . a wholesome meal at two and a half cents, you will know that their condition is not as distressing as that of sweating [American] workers. These conditions fit very well to our national status, so long as we are satisfied with our present degree of civilization and material wealth. But to bring our civilization and material wealth to a higher point it is necessary to break down the prevailing systems, and this can only be done by industrial revolution, brought about by long and patient work of education, agitation and organization among the great mass of the Japanese working people.

By comparing the Japan of fifty years ago with the Japan of today, it will be seen that she has gained considerably in the extent of her territory, as well as in her population, which now numbers nearly fifty million. Her government has become constitutional not only in name, but in fact, and her national education has attained to a high degree of excellence. In commerce and industry, the emblems of peace, she has also made rapid strides, until her import and export trades together amounted in 1907 to the enormous sum of 926,000,000 yen.

Her general progress, during the short space of half a century, has been so sudden and swift that it presents a rare spectacle in the history of the world. This leap forward is the result of the stimulus which the country received on coming into contact with the civilization of Europe and America, and may well, in its broad sense, be regarded as a boon conferred by foreign intercourse. Foreign influence was what animated the national consciousness of our people, who under the feudal system lived localized and disunited, and foreign influence is what has enabled Japan to stand up as a world power. We possess today a powerful army and navy, but it was after Western models that we laid our foundations by establishing a system of conscription in pursuance of the principle "all our sons are soldiers," by promoting military education, and by encouraging the manufacture of arms and the art of shipbuilding.

We have reorganized the systems of central and local administration, and effected reforms in the educational system of the empire. All this is nothing but the result of adopting the superior features of Western institutions. That Japan has been enabled to do so is a boon conferred on her by foreign intercourse, and it may be said that the nation has succeeded in this grand metamorphosis through the promptings and the influence of foreign civilization.