All Talk Of War Ridiculed In Japan.

New York Times 100 years ago today, May 19, 1913:
Faith in Justice of American People Dominates Peace Meeting at Tokio.
ARMY MOVE ONLY ROUTINE
Troops Started from Fort Slocum for Hawaii Under Order Promulgated Long Ago.
    TOKIO, May 18.— Faith in the American people to see that the Japanese get justice is the dominating note in the discussion of the California alien land legislation. War talk is denounced as ridiculous and only calculated to embarrass two Governments which are laboring for a peaceful settlement by diplomacy.
    It is conceded, however, that failure on the part of the Americans to respond to the Japanese appeal for a discontinuance of the alleged discrimination will be likely to lead to some estrangement of the Nations. The Japanese public generally is convinced that the land bill is a racial and not an economic measure, and hence a blow to National pride. This being the case, the great masses of Japanese feel that the necessity of equal treatment for the whites and non-whites must be taught to the world.
    The Tokio newspapers are loud in praise of President Wilson's zeal in his endeavor to preserve the traditional friendship of the two Nations, and they recognize the difficulties which confront the President of the United States in the confusing conflict between State and Federal rights.
    The Nichi Nichi says the question of whether the Washington Government can procure equal rights for the Japanese depends upon the strength of Japanese diplomacy, and urges the Government to take a firm attitude.
    The joint celebration of the Japanese and American peace societies to-day was attended by 1,000 Japanese. Speeches were made by Count Okuma, formerly Minister of Foreign Affairs; Baron Yoshire Sakatani, Mayor of Tokio, and Tsunejiro Miyaoka, who was counselor of the Japanese Embassy at Washington in 1906. All of the speakers endeavored to clarify the situation and decried jingoism.
    Count Okuma was loudly applauded when he compared the attitude of the California legislators to the anti-foreign movement in Japan half a century ago, which he looked upon as an abased race prejudice.
    "We despised foreigners," he said, "because they looked different. We did not consider them human beings. Japan finally saw the falsity of its position and became an admirer of everything western. The same causes underlie the California question, but, like the Japanese, the Californians will see the folly of their position, and truth and justice will triumph.
    "At some future day the Californians will laugh at their fathers and grandfathers for driving off the Japanese, just as we laugh now at the anti-foreign absurdities of the Samurai."