Note 292 — Chapter XL
Reading edition
"Some of our statesmen," notes a Japanese reader of this Chapter, "are carried away by ideas of an industrial El Dorado." Such men have no understanding of the relation of rural Japan to the national welfare. They are as blind guides as the Japanese who, caught by the glamour of the West, threw away the artistic treasures of their forefathers and pulled down beautiful temples and yashiki. Japan has much to gain from a wise and just industrial system, but not a little of the present industrialisation is an exploitation of cheap labour, a destruction of craftsmanship and social obligation, and an attempt to cut out the foreigner by the production of rubbish.