The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-21
TOMMY ATKINS OF JAPAN.

To those who allow themselves to be l impressed by mere avoirdupoise, the
 spectacle of little Japan casting her
 gage at the feet of gigantic Russia is, doubtless, infinitely humorous.
 But unless memory fails me, many prophets who tried predict before the event were firmly persuaded in 1894 that
 there could be but one ending to the
 China-Japan war--and that the com i plete humiliation of Japan. have a very distinct recollection of having in- terviewed at Vancouver an intelligent British officer, who had been detailed to accompany the Japanese army, and he
 seemed greatly tickled when I sug-
 gested that Japan might possibly defeat
 her bulky opponent. He used the stock
 arguments: China could overwhelm
 Japan by sheer weight of numbers; the Chinamans physique was far superior to that of the Japanese, and he had no
 fear of death; China's resources were 1 immeasurably greater. etc.
 It is not necessary to enlarge upon what actually happened. A few far seeing men there were, on the spot, who realized from the first that the issue was certain. They recognized in the Japanese army and navy-small as
 the latter then was--a compact and
 homogeneous whole, organized in &C., ncordance with the best Occidental mod els commanded by officers trained in the best Occidental schools, and ani-
 mated by a spirit not imported, but
 indigenous to the soil--the yamato
 damashi, or soul of old Japan, which is ! invariably in evidence when there is fighting to be done.
 The military unit, it is true, has been drilled to the highest degree of mechan- ical accuracy, so that it's response to | the word of command may almost be termed reflex action; but, on the
 other hand, he retains in addition to
 that burning patriotism already re-
 ferred to resoureefulness and intelli-
 gence that stamp him, to my mind, as
 the superior of the Russian soldier He
 combines elan and dash with ineffable
 phlegm in critical moments, as witness
 the absolute naturalness with which the
 Japanese troops during the last Chinese
 campaign would take advantage of a
 Hull in the firing to extract a fan from their gaiters and fan themselves.
 But while not ignoring the underlying
 truth oe Falstaff's definition of the qualifications of 8 good recruit, it is ne- cessary to point out that size and weight in the individual are not neces- sarily synonyms for strength, and that, even when strength is possessed by one of these Goliaths, the degree of skill and brain- power essential to it's successful
 application is very often lacking; and
 now that the Spanish-American and
 South African wars have proved the
 paramount importance of initiative and
 intelligence in "the man behind the
 gun." I think it is not unfair to con- clude that, other things equal, the army and navy possessing the more self-reli- ant and better educated units will win. Kipling ayers that blackguards and gentlemen make the best soldiers. Such
 a rule may apply to the heterogeneous communities of the Oceident, but it can-
 not be extended to Japan, where the
 two arms of the service are composed of
 men the majority of whom are inspired
 by sentiments of awe and devotion to
 the emperor to which Europe can fur
 nish no adequate parallel, and where,
 too, the unwritten tenets of Bushido
 C'military- y-knight-ways") are still
 cherished amid the vortex of iconoclas-
 tic zeal which has followed the downfall
 of feudalism.
 have no hesitation, then, in affirming that Japanese morale can be second to
 none in the world. ButI have referred
 above to the physical factor The shib-
 boleth of Japanese dininutiveness has
 been so obstinately perpetuated by writers like Pierre Loti and Matthew