Excerpt: "By many friends, both in this country and in the Far East, the question has often been asked me: “Why do you not write a book about Japan?” Whatever answer to this question à propos of each particular occasion, may have been given, there have been two reasons which have made me decline the temptation hitherto. Of the innumerable books, having for their main subject, “The Land of the Rising Sun,” which have appeared during the last forty years, a small but sufficient number have described with a fair accuracy and reasonable sympathy, certain aspects of the country, its people, their past history, and recent development. To correct even, much more to counteract, the influence of the far greater number which, if the wish of the world of readers is to know the truth, might well never have been written, is a thankless and a hopeless task for any one author to essay."
