AWAKENING OF THE EAST	417
ganized war, and administered Japan so well that it was
content to be ruled by his posterity and his principles for
eight generations." * The principles of lyeyasu were sum-
med up by himself thus : * Take care of the people. Strive
to be virtuous. Never neglect to protect the country.'
Internally Japan suffered from the evils of feudalism, but
extenally she appears to have been always united in her
attitude towards foreigners. The patriotism of the Japanese
is unique and ancient; it has been almost their true national
religion. 'The Great Yamato (i.e. Japan),' wrote one in
1334,' is a divine country. It is only our land whose founda-
tions were first laid by the Divine Ancestor. It alone has
been transmitted! by the Sun Goddess to a long line of her
descendants. There is nothing of this kind in foreign coun-
tries. Therefore it is called the Divine Land/ This has
been the faith of the Japanese people ever since. As a
corollary to it they have ever looked upon all foreigners
with suspicion if not hatred. Particularly has this been their
attitude towards the white races—the Europeans.
The first European of note to enter Japan was St. Francis
Xavier, the great and noble Jesuit missionary who intro-
duced Christianity in that island in 1549. It is said that
within a generation after his coining there were not less
than seventy Jesuits and 150,000 converts to Christianity
in Japan. But soon the Japanese realised that the advent
of the foreigners was a source of great danger, especially after
a naive European trader told them : ' Our Kings begin by
sending, into the countries they wish to conquer, Tdigieux
who induce the people to embrace our religion; and when
they have made considerable progress, troops are sent who
combine with the new Christians ; and then our Kings have
1,   Ibid., p. 841,