Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1903-10-02
DARING JAPANESE EXPLORERS.
They Claim to Have Entered the
Sacred Capital of Thibet.

young japanese explorers. They are,
says Japan and America, Capt. Yo-
shiteru Marta, Hiroshi Nomi a1d
Keikai Kawaguchi, Buddhist priest
of Hoganji, Kyoto.
Capt. Y. Nanita is.a promis-
ing young soldier and son of Sam
urai of the Satsuma clan. He went
to China several years ago, staying in
that country for several months while
he was preparing for his arduous ex-
petition. After many dangers and
hardships he succeeded in reaching
Lhassa, having taken several years to
accomplish his self-appointed task.
He stayed in the city for Is days, and
then returned to Japan, about two
months ago. About the same time that
Capt Martha visited Lhassa Mr. Hi
roshi Nomi reached the interior of
Thibet. There has been no news
from him for some time, and he is
supposed to be on his way home. He
is very young man, but brave and
cool and quiet in his ways. Mr.. Kei-
kai Kawaguchi, the third of the Jap
anese explorers, had the hardest ex-
perience. He went by way of the
Himalaya mountains and suffered
severe attack of snow blindness. He
was totally blind for some time, but
has entirely recovered from this
mountain disease. Once he was mis-
taken for robber by the Thibetans,
who came near making him pay the
penalty, which is in Thibet to put the
robber on a horse and then shoot
him Mr. Kawaguchi, who isa Bud
dhist priest, at last succeeded in
reaching Lhassa and is still residing
in that city.
These achievements, remarkable
in themselves, are significant in an
other way. In the first place, they
show the tremendous energy and in
domitable bearing of the japanese.
It will be found in the case of others
who have tried to reach Lhassa that
they were men who had fitted
themselves by long study and expert
ence for the attempt, and who made
the final effort under the most favor
able conditions possible All of them,
with one or two rare exceptions,
failed lamentably.
Missionaries who have won the
confidence of the Thibetans, and who
have learned their language, failed to
penetrate even to the vicinity of the
sacred city. Some succeeded in get
ting within days march, and were
tortured or turned back or killed.
Even the most accomplished explorer
of modern times, Sven Hedin, the in
comparable Swede, who had fitted
himself for his work by years Of study
and travel, could not pass the Thi-
betan guards that protected the sa-
cred precincts of Lhassa. Yet the
japanese, young and untried adven-
turers, with the exception of Capt.
Marta, who prepared for this expe-
dition by living in China for several
months, succeeded in attaining goal
that has been denied to the most dar-
ing and experienced travellers in the
world
But the chief significance of these
remarkable achievements is the rela-
ton Of new force and energy in the
| world of action. 1t reveals an awak-
ening in Japan such as occurred in
| Spain when there dawned upon her
early greatness, and when she was
preparing to send forth into the
world her explorers and conquerors-
Columbus, Cortez, Pizarro, De Soto,
or in England when Drake and How
ard and Hawke led the way to the
| glories of England on sea and land
and transformed her into a world ex-
| plorer and world conqueror. It re-
veals the birth of tremendous nation
al energy and an indomitable national
spirit. Japan is no longer group of
islands, collection of people, but a
nation possessed by a fiery national
spirit. These things reveal it just as
it was revealed by the greater things
of the war with China, and by the
splendid heroism of her soldiers in
the advance on Picking, and by their
more than splendid chivalry toward
the conquered Chinese.