From: Michael Goldman  <miklg@acuson.com>
Subject: Re: The R-J War: Prelude to WWII (part 2)
Organization: Acuson; Mountain View, California
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 17:16:54 GMT


From Michael Goldman  <miklg@acuson.com>

	One of the paramount incidents in Japanese
	modern mythology centers around the idea that "blood
	overcame steel"  (i.e. courage and willingness to die for
	the nation conquered technological and miliatary
	superiority) at Prt Arthur in the Russo-Japanese war of
	1904-1905.  The character of General Nogi is of interest not
	only because he was nominally in charge of the siege of
	Port Arthur but also because he became the young Hirohito's
	tutor, almost like a surrogate parent.


	From "The Tide at Sunrise - A History of the Russo-Japanese
	War" by
	Denis and Peggy Warner.

	"Faced with this dilemma [needing to destroy the Fleet at Port
	Arthur while simultaneously attacking Kuopatkin at Liaoyang],
	the Japanese made the same cardinal error that had already been
	forced on Kuropatkin.  They divided their forces.  Before the
	year was out, four Japanese divisions were to be required for
	the assault on Port Arthur.  Two only were earmarked for this
	task.  To command this force, now known as the Third Japanese
	Army, Imperial General Headquarters appointed General Nogi
	Maresuke, who had taken Port Arthur with a single regiment in
	1894....Nogi landed at Dalny, taking command on June 6, on the
	same day that Togo was promoted to full admiral.

	"Nogi's attempt to kill himself after he had lost the
	regimental flag in 1877 when fighting against Satsuma rebels
	had been thwarted by command of the Emperor [Meiji].  His war
	injuries healed, but the disgrace of the lost flag remained
	with him always.

	"...Nogi was denied the right [of suicide] and without a war in
	which to die he returned to "drinking under the scarlet
	lanterns." His marriage to the nineteen-year-old daughter of a
	Satsuma official began badly.  He spent the wedding night in
	drinking and debauchery.  On many occasions during their
	married life Nogi and his wife lived apart, he with his
	dominant and overpowering mother, his wife with the two sons of
	the marriage.

	"In 1886 he was sent to Germany to study warfare, and after 18
	months returned to Japan convinced that the Kaiser's army was
	far to frivolous[!!?? mg].  He became stricter than ever with
	his wife and family.  Harsh discipline towards them and his
	troops now took the place of his former heavy drinking and
	intemperate ways.

	"Always the dishonor of losing the flag...taint[ed] his life
	and his relations with his family...wrote one Japanese
	biographer 'He is full of love and affection, yet he does not
	show them, or shows them in the opposite manner.  He must have
	thought of his home and family, yet he is often cold toward
	them.'"

	"Yamagata, who had ordered Nogi to commit suicide in order to
	clear the name of his regiment in 1877, now chose him to
	command the Third Army.  [This] surprised many other members of
	the imperial general staff.  But senior generals were few in
	number, and Port Arthur seemed unlikely to present a serious
	challenge.  Nogi had fought bravely in the war against China
	and after serving in Formosa as governor was given the rank of
	baron.  He had been living a quiet and lonely life in
	semi-retirement in Nasu-No, close to the Emperor's detached
	palace, writing poetry, farming, and spending his meager
	allowance on books extolling the emperor system.  Feudalism had
	taught him that money was "dirty," and Nogi believed soldiers
	did not require it.  He also thought it was depraved for a man
	to be drawn towards a woman for love.  Retired and retiring,
	almost a recluse, and with little knowledge of, or interest in,
	modern military techniques, he had been thrust into what was to
	be the most difficult of all Japanese field commands.  With no
	real confidence in his own ability he was content to leave the
	decision-making in the hands of his chief of staff, Major
	General Ijichi, a Satsuma, who was related to Oyama [another
	general in the war] and reflected in full the clan's aggressive
	spirit.

	"The day he left for the war, Nogi told his wife that she would
	not hear from him until the war was won.  His two sons,
	Katsusuke and Yasusuke, were also in the army and their mother
	prepared a special dinner the night before her husband and sons
	left home.  "Please show a smiling face at least for once," she
	pleaded with her husband.  Nogi looked sternly at her.  "This
	is not a smiling matter," he said, as he sipped a farewell
	glass of wine.  "A father and two sons are going to the
	war...None of us knows who will be killed first.  There should
	be no funeral until all three are returned in coffins."

	"Nogi arrived at Dalny to learn of the death of his eldest son
	Katsusuke at Nanshan.  Before the son died, he presented to a
	fellow officer the sword that his father had given him.  "I
	give it to you and you shall enter...Port Arthur instead of
	myself.  My soul is in the sword."

	"'I am glad he died so splendidly,' said Nogi.  'It was the
	highest honor he could have.'

	"...Nogi visited the Nanshan battlefield and was shown the
	grave of his son, marked by a plain wooden plaque with
	katsusuke's name written on it in india ink.  He took two
	bottles of beer from his adjutant and placed them before the
	grave."

	During the seige of Port Arthur, Nogi's other son died while a
	delivering a message.  Nogi asked if he had delivered the
	message before dying.  When told he had, "Nogi said he was
	pleased that the task had been completed.  "I often wonder how
	I could apologize to His Majesty and to the people for having
	killed so many of my men.  But now that my son has been
	killed..."  Shirai, his staff officer, saw tears in the
	general's eyes as he asked what should be done with the body.
	'Cremate it,' he was told.  'Turn it into ashes.'"

	Most bodies could not be burned both because they could not be
	recovered (there were almost never truces arranged for this
	purpose) or because there was a severe shortage of wood to burn
	them with.

	- Michael Goldman

-- 
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have
exhausted all other alternatives." - Abba Eban
	Disclaimer:  All views are solely my own & not the views of Acuson.
	<sun!sono!miklg>  or  [miklg@acuson.com]

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