100 YEARS AGO
We congratulate Yokohama on its attainment of a half century of existence as an open port, which it celebrates today. Fifty years are not so very long a period of time in the life of a city. But when one looks back to the sleepy hamlet of fishermen of fifty years ago, and turns to the thriving city of today, Yokohama may, indeed, be said to have good reason to feel proud of its phenomenal growth. Here transformation is more eloquent than statistics and we dispense with figures. Nor was it so very far back when the nation at large used to look askance at the Yokohamaite because in those days foreign trade meant getting the best of others by hook or by crook. Today one counts the leading businessmen of Yokohama among the most respected of our citizens and looks to foreign trade as a vital motor in the nation's continued wellbeing. It is not exaggeration to say Yokohama and its builders have played a very important part in the very history of the Empire in the past fifty years.
Speaking of the builders of Yokohama, we think it only proper and fair to most generously remember the service done for its growth by its foreign residents. Whatever story the future may tell, the past and present of Yokohama is a monument to foreigners' constructive genius.