Excerpt from The Far East and the New America, Vol. 2: A Picturesque and Historic Account of These Lands and Peoples Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Japan to the United States. The rapid progress which the Japanese Empire has made within a comparatively brief period seems to be a source of surprise to foreign observers. They apparently believe that Japan has Sprung almost at a single bound from mediaeval barbarism to modern civilisation. Only two score and ten years ago Europeans and Americans had nothing but the vaguest ideas concerning the Empire and its people. It is perhaps natural that they should now be astonished when they behold Japan in full enjoyment of the comity of nations, amply proving her capacity to administer constitutional government and justifying her title to all international rights and privileges. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.