As to customs they have little in common with the Chinese. They do not dwarf the feet of their girls. The “pigtail” is not preserved -- on the contrary a lock of hair is often worn in front; a shipwrecked sailor escaping death invariably lays his front lock as an offering on the altar of the sun goddess Ise. The peculiar gait of the Chinese is never seen; the dull air is replaced by a brisk, off-hand manner. In fact the Japanese is unlike the typical Asiatic who is sober, sedate and reflective. He is far less conservative than the Chinese, more influenced by new ideas, and has little or no dread of change. He is, in truth, an Asiatic Yankee.
In view of these peculiarities and in the absence of fuller scientific research, we conclude that the Japanese, though chiefly of Turanian stock, are not without some large mixture of Aryan blood; that in their formation as a people they have assimilated some of the finer qualities of both the Turanian and Aryan branches of the human family; and also that they are undoubtedly allied to a very curious and ancient people called Ainos, a race of prehistoric times, which is rapidly disappearing before Japanese civilization.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
