The Seattle Star Newspaper, August 29, 1919, Page 13

7 Louise Gebhard Cann Louise Gebhant Cann, who ts In private in Seattle a on marriage to the Seatt a writer few year settling in V the rev Her ¢ and a ret aber of the Washingt ution France Cann the n is a New York Sur contributed ve vaines and } to Overlan: Section Two life Mra, Yarusht Tanaka " Mre nn, foug The SeattleS Tanaka, American, Is Talented Writer fo we rnal, Poetry Journal, International we dislike pe on N known | y that v Tanaka poal art ct the has recently appeared tn The Dial, Stratford Jou stu the Green Fook and Ainslee At present she | nd to Jone nt onteta,” | “We wieh V ‘Others here ancestor in the wars of 1 te legislat je Idyl Mditor mag Yasushi T joned much b n, California of which the name he lint of names of during SEATTLE, WASH., FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 1910 Art and Lit ects etry ridiculously our The sculpture we ac erary Subj to reorganize « tmnilt Pages 13 to 24 SEATTLE WOMAN, WIFE OF JAPANESE _ | CHAMPIONS INTERMARRIAGE — ARTIST, “To the Right Woman, | Japanese Is a Perfect | Husband, Homemaker” * BY LOUISE GEBHARD CANN i‘ (Mrs. Yasushi Tanaka) The r of The Star asks me to give my opinion on i between Americans and Japanese. The senti-| ment jong the anti-Japanese faction of the community Seems to be that on this issue depends the possibility of imilation. | Judging by my own experience, I should say that inter-| ge, given the essential conditions of happy conjugal! life, may work out successfully. Indeed, I believe that the Japan may be assimilated—would be, in fact, were we a! less ,i ted and racially prejudiced community. To my) mind, there is no greater obstacle to the assimilation of the! Japanese by means of intermarriage than of the assimila-| tion by the same means of the Russian, the Italian, the! French, the Scandinavian, or the various nationalities of| The failure of intermarriage as we have witnessed it on ioe Focitie Coast, where one party to the contract is an \ ican woman, is primarily due to the effect of hostile environment on the wife. The fact of the hostile environ- ment also causes the more personal reason for the disaster of these unions; for there are, generally speaking, but two kinds of women who are able or willing to oppose public opinion by marrying out of their race. The first kind I shall dismiss for the present, for its Minority renders it almost negligible in the discussion—I refer to the superior woman of high education who regards individuals, not races, and who is incapable of race or color Prejudice, as such—and I take up the usual case of the silly, weak-minded or degraded woman who marries a Jap- anese for foolishly romantic reasons, or for sordid reasons, pr for the reason that she is ineligible in her own race. It is obvious that none of these motives is likely to promote} permanent marriages, especially when coupled with a lack of character in other respects and with a lack of mentality. | Such women are indifferent to public opinion so long as/ that indifference furthers their self-indulgence; but so soon as it interferes with their comfort, they begin allying them- selves with it, in order to use it as a weapon against their husbands. Women of this class are rarely home-makers, and they never have a definite purpc or which to work, 80, inevitably, they are the victims of ine society in which they live—and thru them the Japanese husband becomes} decidedly also the victim of that society. It is especially for the Japanese that such marriages are unfortunate. Intermarriage on Pacific Coast Is . Perilous Game of Chance for Japanese It is evident that intermarriage on the Pacific Coast is for the Japanese a most perilous game of chance, for his choice is practically limited to the least responsible of American or European women, and he will always be the One to receive community blame if disaster befalls the ven- ture. Moreover, tho the failure of American marriages, because of its frequency, no longer excites new per com- ment, the failure of intermarriages provokes any editor to Vituperative Moralizing. Since ordinary marriages today may dissolve without arousing the headliner, he justifies his existence by the exe e of his most striking talents at the expense of intern arriage and its catastrophes. Per- manent and happy inter-racial unions are never chronicled. ut let me assure those who have looked merely on the paverse side of this question, that intermarriage between an merican woman and a Japanese can be successful even here on the Western slope. To the right woman, the Jap- enese is a perfect husband. He is patient; he endures cheerfully; he is an enthusiastic home-maker, which means in more humble terms that he is a good provider. He has Personal charm. There is certainly no more refined and Courteous being on earth than the Japanese of good class; and his understanding of woman and the significance of true marriage is more profound than any I have yet dis-| Covered among American men. And this understanding on| the part of man is a positive force for happiness in mar- riage. hay Color and race prejudice, as such, means nothing to me.| gee people for their ability, refinement, appreciation of e things I appreciate, for their powers of resistance to} the commonplace, for their capacity for mental develop-| Saad and their actual accomplishment of it. Moreover, the pete do not appear to me as so strikingly different Form ourselves in color, nor do they appeal to me essen- tially alien. I their straight black h their pe olive skins and their brilliant and characteristically te er "eg A » I consider them a beautiful and attract- ‘ee * Sets ai I am never more at home, more contentedly | » Myself, than when I am with a group of intelligent and} weli-bred Japanese, | But when I married Y {married the indi admire i ei Tanaka, the Ja vidual and not the race. 2 fully as} ee American, as Tam. At least, he seems so to} ‘ Rng hed ae of him as different from myself, my| Or alien about hie pod my own family. There is nothing odd| tte 18 appearance to me; it affects me just as a| among our own would affect.me. | as all our friends know, is the most consid- @ Mr. Tanaka, ers man it is possible to imagine, Like many Orientals, artist, | ee Mr. and Mrs. Yasushi Tanaka in Seattle Home wife in ture is » by Cress Dale he prefers to have his wife manage the finances, so he,anxiety from this arrangement, for I gives me all his money and never asks me what I spend it/ good business person or exceptionally economical; but for. Tho he is the earner, he is in the position of having) uncomplainingly enduxyes any mistakes I make, and if to ask me for his spending money. Some men might suffer lapse into seasonal extra ance ¢ a hat, he invariak * ke ke e ek & # 9% ca * Tanaka Gives Opinion of American Women ntitled tion of the am far from being * Pa “Harmonic Taste his 1914 « of Softnes Cheese," In the ttle Fine Nightir myster Yasushi Tanaka, tho born near Tokyo, Japan, claims to be an Amer says he, “M claims further that $ art department of the ons of the world’s masterptece 1 self-trained man has been writ and brought up right | er cent of his art train ttle public {brary fean pair art was in Seattle i was obtained in the he studied the reproduct He is an in ndent ro? where that he owe about In New York luced in International of Engiand nothing to any teacher. His work art publications and examples of it ha ognized to be the le and then ¢ is chiefly among you . Tanaka for Studio, which is rec ading- art magazine and the United Stat Tanaka's modernistic been painting port je shows here as el: tendencies in art h#¥e been the local sensation gyhere his geniu composition and color gradation, BY YASUSHI TANAKA My observations of the American woman—the editor ofjman who has been in this country even so short a peri The Star asks me to write them. But I have never as six months, looks upon the American woman in t served her! I have only appreciated her qualities and en-| American way. He does not look upon her as the Amer ie joyed her society. Really, the American woman is nature’s man looks upon the Japanese woman in this country or masterpiece! These wonderful beings, originally imported| Japan. He does not compare her to his SNe Goan tee ane from Europe, as J understand thru history, have been newly | for the adaptability of the Japanese is ae i hat Ne a lo tempered to fit this new world. To write about them needs!the standards of the country in which he sojourns for t an artist—this tremendous task! Just as tremendous as) judgment of its life and people, : painting a symphony of softness and fragrance, or as paint- Personally, the Japanese woman Fede ne { ing the sensation of walking on a newly paved walk. than the American, 1 do not apparent y A lo \ This American woman, like any great art work, takes|for I do not find in her the response to my ideas that I fi time, a long time, to be understood, appreciated and en-!in the American woman. f joyed—at least, to the mind of a: Japanese. Sometimes she|have been her sisters of the Occident. is a butterfly, fresh from dews, poignant; but unlike some butterflies she is quite poisonless. This is character’ tically is she who pr 1 the American woman, even to the slant Japanese eye. But| music, acting or dancing. sometimes, and this is especially the type of shadow-box, precious female, she is just as inartistic as a watermelon. However, the Ame n woman as a butterfly or as a water- melon, is a new species. Like any masterpiece of art, we} F ke time to appreciate her. u ‘ hers i ail gavicisknbees 1 should say that any Japanese!must afford his patienc ‘ ob- lien to actices or studies an art—painting, lually quite deadly, for she is so matter-of-fact! , her European ter has But as I said before, the r masterpiece—and to appreciate and enjoy a masterpiece o: and her, My friends and acquaintances centrate and define her being by some such pursuit is us- A Tn ‘such |the artist. “We Havea Few Solid Friends; No Difficulty With Our Neighobrs” assures me with utter geniality that he will earn more money, so I need not worry. In fact, I never worry; for I am rendered most confident and secure by his attitude. I know that he will always take good care of me, that I am economical because I wish to be, not because he insists on it, and that he is willing to proe vide more of the material things of life if I want them, and is quite capable of doing so. The basis of this reliability in him is loyalty. He comes of the old Samurai,*or military, class that cultivated bushido or loyalty ethics. This sense of duty is ingrained in him ~ as it is in many of his countrymen. With such a man, were his wife even false, he would remain true to his principle” of responsibility for her welfare. I am convinced that : is likely because I know of actual cases among this class of Japanese where great hardship is endured, or even death, for sake of fidelity to principle. This ethics gives the Ji f anese power to resist and overcome adverse circumstance it makes him an exceptional friend, and it endows him that strength of devotion in fatherhood and family ties enables the genuine home. ! For, as we Americans recognize in our welfare pro | ganda, that home where the “head of the house” fails j}do his loving and thoughtful part, is but half a home, | deed, it is often much less; and its sorrows sometimes fost ja species of rebellion really dangerous to established soci I speak from personal observation merely, so, of course, my, following contention may not be just, which is that | American man has little talent for sharing the pleasures jthe home with, his family but that the Japanese man has |veritable gift for co-operating with his wife in jhome the most desirable place on earth. | The Japanese are a characteristically mild people. Thi very sensitive, high-spirited natures are always held leash by consummate self-control. This self-control jamounts to reserve. Yet I have never known a more hone est and sincere man than my husband. He is so highly ims telligent that he is honest with himself as well as with others, and he has the courage that sincerity breeds. This jis a trait for which a wife must be grateful. And if ther@: be a defect of temper in our household it is on my side, no® on his; for when dinner is late he does not complain helps, no matter how wearisome his day’s work has beeng he never nags; he always welcomes our guests. Of his own accord he nges little holidays for me and special occas sions of pleasure, such as parties and excursions; and h@ jrarely comes up from town without some small gift or pane ticular delicacy of which he knows I am fond. Tanaka’s Exquisite Art Would Alone Account for Marriage and Its Success But I must admit that Yasushi Tanaka is an extraors dinary person and that the fact of his exquisite art would alone account for our marriage and also very largely for i s I saw him for the first time four and a half ) his own exhibit of paintings in the rooms of the Seattle e Arts society. It was a Sunday afternoom and Mr. Tanaka was giving a.lecture on the modern art movement, with an explanation of his own modernistie works. I was so impressed by the profundity of his cons clusions that I took notes of his talk. I had but recently returned from several years’ sojourn in New York, and while in the East I had become interested in the Bergsonian philosophy, the new poetry, the photo-secessionists, the Ab- bey theatre players and had welcomed the art-pioneering of \,|those days as an answer to my own cravings. | Tho, doubtless, there were many persons in Seattle wha were fully as aware of the modern movement as I wi it had been my fate not to discover them, so at the time o: Mr. Tanaka’s lecture I was suffering from an overwhelmin; sense of intellectual and aesthetic isolation. How natw it was, then, that when I heard the lecturer clarifyi jideas towards which I had been groping Berpsonian aa and ideas on the new aesthetics—I should recognize\ that here was the only mind I had found in the city that responded to my own. I had been meeting librarians, uni# versity professors, artists, writers, and my ideas had struck them as imported from a hermit on Mars. The discovery of a kindred consciousness was like a glass of pure cold water after desert travel. It remains a fact that, on the whole, Mr. Tanaka’s mind .is the most congenial I hay@ ever ciated with out of books. However, not until six months later did I actually meeé /Mr. Tanaka. The occasion was his May, 1915, exhibit. Al student of his had made an appointment for me to meet him for the purpose of interviewing him about his ultras modern paintings. I think I hesitated about keeping the engagement, but I did tap at the door of the Fine Arts {rooms at the time agreed. And then while a group of aR a| he 1 aly | ng od he an in n;| ots he me nd ; say that the most interesting American woman| Mr. Tanaka’s students continued their work on the other Pcpce clin Os: avec Naat! literature, | Side of the gallery, we sat opposite each other by the door The woman who does not con-|4nd,discussed Bergson, A striking and complete impres< sion was made on me in that hour by the personality of It was an impression from which I have never © escaped; and’ it was different in quality from any I had ~ ightly more A Acaavicah re nature’s|ever before experienced, It was at that moment that my hed itself; for our friendship Dinan neldestiny accomplis . (Continued on Page 17.).