Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1895-08-14
THE JAPS AS FIGHTERS.
A Correspondence Reasons for BeIie vim &
Them the Hest In the world.

bul couIu Japan become tne aEgreSsOr
and attack Asiatic Russia? To my mind
that Is a question of money rather than
of relative fighting worth. Japan Is not
rich, though she can make the war more
cheaply than Russia, and she might he
able TO bear the strain of long
struggle with a great power, but resting
the issue upon the fighting merits of the
combatant armies, the Japanese would
put the Russians to the severest military
test they ever had. Why? TO answer
this l shall give reasons for the belief
that the japanese is the best soldier in
the world
First, is the matter OF courage. He
not only has no fear of death, but he
does not value life. So great are the
honors paid to the bodies and families
OF men who have fallen in battle that
the common soldier or sailor looks to
such a fate as to a bright prospect or
fair maven, and he goes to meet it not
only unfiinchingly, but with smile.
In all the battles that Japan has fought,
from the bloody struggle at Pin Yang
TO the assaults upon the forts at Talen
Wan, Port Arthur and Wei Hal Wei,
not a straggler or a deserter has been
known to the army. Every man did
his duty. When at Chinchow a soldier
was wanted to go to the city gate, un-
der fire from the walls above, and blow
1t open with dynamite, every man who
heard the request volunteered, and
of the task We're envious of him who did.
In Corea buglar, mortally wounded,
blew the signal of advance until he drop
ped dead at General Nodzus feet. Be
fore Wei Hal Wei was won Major Okan-
abb and 800 men did battle with 5000
Chinese and never once thought of re-
treat. A lieutenant rushed into a de-
serted Chinese fort and rescued a burn
ing joss stick from sack of gunpowder
in magazine. Trembling fingers might
hn,. ,AEt 1t, g. \,
steady. have seen lines of men march
up to batteries which were one long red
spur of flame, and there was not a
waver nor halt in the advance-a
calm, steady, Irresistible push forward.
The charge of the Six Hundred was no
braver than the action of the ambulance
corps when it marched into the zone of
the fire on the beach near Wei Hal Wei
and tenderly picked up the wounded
and dead while several Chinese ships,
distant but a few hundred yards. were
bringing every gun to bear against
them. Then in the navy as we'll were
examples of herosm which would glor-
ify the annals of any country. Witness
the men who ran a wooden transport
into the sea fight at Yalu and pounded
away with its little gun at the black
Chen Yuen, withstanding broadsides and
torpedoes, and coolly fought their flmsy
ship while its cabins We're on fire. Wit
ness also captain and crew that held
Hal Wei bay, launching their missiles
against the Chinese fleet until, with
boiler fires out and overcome with cold,
they froZe to death at their posts.
Indifferent to death himself the
japanese soldier or sailor is undismayed
by its bloody spectacles. In the Ameri-
can civil war all officers in action noted
the demoralizing effect upon advancing
men of the dead and mangled bodies
along the line of march, but on the
~ hat a n
such sights was to arouse the instincts
of retribution. No Japanese fell i'll or
went into the bushes to tie his shoe, and
then skulked to the rear when the order
came TO charge bloody slope
The next consideration is that of pat
riotism. The love of the Japanese for
his country is a fanaticism. The soldier
enlists for a wage of but a few cents
a day, but if he thinks that Japan is
having trouble to raise its war loans, as
was reported to be the case last winter,
he offers to serve without pay. A lieu
tenant gets less than ten American
dollars a month, out of which he clothes
himself, but he never asks more. The
enough for him. No Mussulman was
ever more devoted 10 his prophet than
Is the Japanese soldier to Japan. In
one of the battles trooper shouted
"Vanzai" with his last breath, and 1t
is said that when this news reached
Japan the mothers of hundreds of sold
iers wrote their sons to seek death that
they might do the same. When the
story was told in public meeting IN
Toxic an old man was seen to weep,
Have you a son in the army?" asked
the orator.
Yes" was the reply; "but he has not
died like that"
Patriotism prevades the nation. 1t is
what made the mikado come out of his
gilded cloister and summon the people
TO the paths of progress, and 1t is what
inspired the coolie in the late war to
leave home employment and friends ana
follow the army with freezing feet, car
rying it's burdens that he might witness
the triumph of his country's arms.
The third point of excellence in the
Japanese soldier is the perfection or ms
discipline. In old Japan the many were
born saddIed and bridled and the few
booted and spurred. The ridden never
thought of throwing their riders In a
word, the common people obeyed their
lords in all things without question |
These people now MI the ranks OF the
army and give to their officers the same |!
unhesitating service that they or their !
ancestors were wont to give their dai- /
mios. Owing to this there is no more /
need of guard house in a Japanese |
bounty at a recuiting office Let the |
officer speak, and his men obey; let him |
lead and they will follow him through |
the gates of death, and they will freeze,
StarVe and Sulfef ana never tnlnk or /
mutiny, feigned sickness or desertion.
They do not even grunible,
Another item of superiority is that
the japanese soldier will march and
fight on the smallest and cheapest
ration. A ball or roll of compressed
rice serves him for day. and IL he can
get a potato, or bit of fish, the latter
Of which he eats raw, he has materials
for a feast. on the march TO Wei Hal
Wei the army began very well in the
matter of provisions, but finally nothing
was left but rice. and rice answered.
While |, as foreigner, lost forty-two
pounds of flesh on this diet the Japanese
soldier did camp and patrol duty and
incidental fighting for twelve hours a
day, with nothing else to eat, and was
in splendid physical condition when the
surrender came. The importance of this
fact upon a long march, enabling an
army, as II does, to go ahead without
the impediment of long provision trains,
is one that all military men must ap-
preciate.
Again, japanese soldiers can march
more rapidly than any other troops,
with the possible exception of the native
Indian forces, the Sikhs and Goorkhas.
Visitors of japan are astonished when a
'rikisha man puts a stout foreigner in