Japanese Nation by Nitobé Inazo

Author:Nitobé Inazo [Inazo, Nitobé]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General, Ethnic Studies, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781136215919
Google: SwvCTfOoWZgC
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-01-11T03:42:08+00:00

Now I have never studied lying—by which I do not mean that lying comes natural to me. I mean that I have never devoted serious attention to the philosophy or history of mendacity; neither to its classification, characteristics, and different uses, nor to its effect upon man and woman. It is a matter of surprise to me that no scientific treatise (unless it be the didactic dissertation by Amelia Opie) has been written on an intellectual feat so old and universal; a device so convenient and historically so important. Just at this moment what interests me most is its chromatic quality—the relation between light and lie. In Japan there is only one colour for a lie—viz., the red. But in this rich country, you have at least two species—the black and the white. Like the colours worn by different Hindu castes, the white is, I suppose, of a higher grade than the black. They correspond, I think, to the “lie direct” and the “lie circumstantial” of Mr. Touchstone in “As You Like It.”

To our benighted souls the verbal denial of a disagreeable situation (such as the state of one's health) does not assume any hideous moral or immoral aspect. It scarcely deserves to be called a red lie. Perhaps you would call it a white lie; but impartial comparison will soon reveal in what respect it differs from a species of the same genus, not unknown in this country—feigning absence when one is at home. Of late, unfortunately for both countries, there seems to have developed the yellow lie of journalism. Referring to yellow journalism, I am reminded of a use of this adjective in our own language; for we have always spoken of a shrill excited voice as ki-iro no koe, voice of yellow color!

Speaking of Japanese lies, I ought not to forget to mention the American lie about Japanese lying, which has been widely circulated in this country, and is constantly confirmed by tourists. You must have heard that in Japanese banks only Chinese tellers and clerks are employed, because our own people are too dishonest to be trusted by each other. In corroboration of this accusation, those who have gone to banks in Yokohama or Kobe swear to the startling fact. “I have been on the spot and have seen with my own eyes”—carries great weight in the determination of any question. I myself have seen Chinese employed in banks in Japan, but not in Japanese banks. Tourists in the Far East, for obvious reason of convenience, usually have their letters of credit drawn on English banks. Those who come to Japan have them drawn either on the Chartered Bank of Australia, India, and China, or on the Banking Corporation of Honkong and Shanghai, instead of on one of the two thousand three hundred and thirty-seven Japanese banks in the country. Where these British houses have their headquarters, is evident from their names. Their agencies in Japan are only a small part of their business, and their transactions with the Japanese are quite limited—their chief patrons being foreigners.

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