"What's that, what's that?" Roberts had been taking it all in anxiously.
"Oh, it's simply a proverb to the effect that lies, deceit, craft, whatever you may choose to call it, is the treasure of Japan. It's a fine sentiment for a proverb, isn't it? Still it's fairly typical of the situation. In fact, I think that that point, the fact that Japan regards falsehood, deceit, in a light far more lenient than we do, accounts more than anything else for the feeling of racial difference between us. The average Japanese does not greatly mind being caught in a lie; it conveys no distinct sense of shame to him; it's simply a difference in ethical viewpoint, just as the Japanese look with abhorrence on some of our ethical shortcomings, our comparatively scant respect for old age, and all that--but it's the variant in Japanese character which we find it the hardest to understand."
"You claim then that all Japanese are liars, to put it tersely?" insisted Roberts.
"Not by a long sight. I know Japanese whose word is as good to me as that of any white man. Of some of the big men and big firms you might even say that their word is better than their bond; they'd rather be generous than merely just, and the Japanese is far from being a piker. There are lots of absolutely truthful Japanese just as there are lots of whites who are thorough-going liars. But you might say that whereas with the white man we take it for granted that he tells the truth until we find out that he's a liar, with the Japanese one's inclined to take it for granted that he's a liar until one learns the contrary. It may be a blunt way of putting it, but it's the best I can do; and I think that once the Japanese come to adopt our ethical point of view in this respect, the same as they have adopted so many material things from us, the greatest bar between the races will be removed.
"I should like to see it removed. I like the Japanese, and even if I do realize that they don't like us, I can't greatly blame them. I feel that we must appear arrogant to them, even when we are trying to produce the feeling of quality--possibly even more so then--and so many whites, especially among our own newcomers here, are beastly trying. When I see our drummers and flappers, just off the ships, sitting in trains, pointing at and commenting about Japanese men and women, careless of the fact or not knowing that many of these people speak foreign languages, I feel resentment myself, and I can understand what the Japanese must feel. They have their faults and their scandals, but are they worse on the whole than are ours? They treat us better here than we treat them in America. I rave and rant at them as much as do the rest of you; and yet, when it comes right down to the point, I like them, and I wish them well, at least the people, the great masses, the real nation, and I am sorry when I see the country shooting down-grade, power going, wealth, industry, commerce, all going, I feel it is a great pity. I want to see some great man come and lead them out of this wilderness, some one like the great Meiji--but, where is he?"