Excerpt from The Guilford Collegian, Vol. 17: October, 1904 April, 1905 The development of this wonderful little people from their earliest contact with foreigners may be divided into four periods. The first, beginning with the opening of the ports to foreigners and covering about a quarter of a century, includes the Revolution of 1868 and the Civil War of 1877. During this time, Japan was quietly observing the civilized conditions of the Western nations, and was preparing her fields for the seeds of civilization. The second, covering a single decade, includes the adoption of a constitutional government, and the sowing of the seeds of civilization in fields already prepared. The third begins with 1888, and ends with the chino-japa nese war of 1894. During this time, Japan was busy gathering the fruits of civilization by acquiring all the essential things which a civilized nation must have to be ranked as a world power. She demonstrated her position among the nations of the world by her war with China in 1894, but this was grudgingly acknowledged by the European nations. Japan, therefore, in the decade just passed, has, by almost superhuman effort, doubled her military strength, and has rapidly advanced her industrial enterprises and commercial expansion. The out come oi her present war with Russia will end this last period and will determine Japan's standing among the nations of the world. 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.