Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/252
forward into a position more in harmony with what the nation is reaching for in other directions. This desire shows itself in individual efforts to improve by more advanced education daughters of exceptional promise, and in general efforts for the improvement of the condition of women."
Miss Bacon, in her book, traces very clearly the progress that has been made in the condition of woman, and shows how "better laws, broader education for the women, [and] a change in public opinion" are still necessary. And she affirms that "we can feel pretty sure that, when the people have become used to these [recent] changes [of the new Civil Code], other and more binding laws will be enacted, for the drift of enlightened public opinion seems to be in favor of securing better and more firmly established homes."
The following is also worthy of quotation: "It is not possible to understand the actual progress made in Japan in improving the condition of women, without some consideration of the effect that Christian thought and Christian lives have had on the thought and lives of the modern Japanese."
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
"The Real Japan," chap. viii.; "Out of the Far East" (Hearn), pp. 85-125; "The Yankees of the East," chaps. ix., xix.; "An American Missionary in Japan" (Gordon), chap. xv.; "Japan and her People," vol. i. pp. 178-191; "A Japanese Interior" (Miss Bacon); "Every Day Japan" (Lloyd); and, last and best, Miss Bacon's "Japanese Girls and Women," revised edition, illustrated.