The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-01-02
THE HONOR OF JAPAN.
1T ~ UPHELD IN A CAREFUL or
rICIAL STATEMENT.
pened AFTER the stronghold Was
Captured Prisoners.

THE following is the text Of an official
| document furnished by Mr.. Goru Marta
secretary of the Japanese legation
1. Chinese soldiers flying discarded
uniforms.
2. Those in plain clothes killed at Port
Arthur were mostly soldiers in disguise
3. Inhabitants left before engagement
d. A few remaining were ordered t.
fire and resist and did so.
.. Japanese arny greatly excited by
sight of fearfully mutilated bodies burnt
alive and some crucihed.
0. Still Japanese preserved discipline
Z. About 355 Chinese prisoners taken
at the fall of Port Arthur. kindly treated
and being brought to Toxic in a few
days.
STATEMENT.
The reports sent abroad by foreign
newspaper correspondents, and more
especially by the reporter of the Nea
York World, regarding the capture of
Port Arthur, were greatly exaggerated
and are of highly sensational character,
| tending to impair the good name OF
Japan.
soldiers, seeing that open resistance was
futile, discarded their military uniforms
and, putting on citizens dress, disguised
themselves as peaceful inhabitants of
the place and erected themselves in the
vacant houses from which the real
peaceful inhabitants had taken their de-
parture some days previous to the attack
by the japanese army, and to which
hey returned again after peace and Or
der had been restored. The Chinese
soldiers thus disguised carried concealed
arms, and as they were not accustomed
to give quarter to their enemy, they
were afraid of being killed in case
they surrendered. Consequently
when they were at last discovered
by the japanese troops they offered re-
slstance and fought to the last. In ad-
dition some of the peaceful inhabitants
who had not left the place before the
battle, acting under orders of the Chi
nese troops fred upon the Japanese
forces, but most of the Chinese killed at
Port Arthur actually proved to be
soldiers in disguise. This statement is
established by the fact that upon nearly
all the corpses were found Chinese
military clothes underneath the outer
garments.
One of the foreign correspondents
stated that IS most of the killed at Port
Arthur bore sword cut wounds their
bodies presented more horrible spec
tacles than would have been the case ii
they had only shown bullet wounds.
This may be one of the causes that led
to some misapprehension regarding the
real fact.
The Japanese army were not unnatu-
rally greatly shocked or excited by sight
of the fearfully mutilated bodies of their
conn AIDES who were taken prisoners by
the Chinese troops, some being burnt
alive while others were crucified. Upon
entering the town of Port Arthur the
Japanese forces We're confronted by the
empaled heads of their dead comrades
stuck up in front of the houses. Acting
under the impulse of these atrocities,
the Japanese soldiers may have carried
on hostilities longer than they had done
in previous engagements-and it is pos
sible that they killed greater number
of their enemy than absolutely neces-
sary. But it Is not true that there was
wanton, cold blooded, or indiscriminate
slaughter. Such action would be utterly
opposed to the spirit which regulates the
discipline of the Japanese troops in the
field
None of those who peacefully sur
rendered were killed or maltreated. On
the contrary about 1856 Chinese prison
ers who were taken at the fall of Port
Arthur have been treated kindly and
are being brought to Toxic where they
will arrive in a few days.