Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-04-26
WOMEN PATRIOTS OF JAPAN.
THOUSANDS VOLUNTEERED FOR
THE FRONT As. WAR NURSES.

II IS because OF what we call va
mato damashii. or the Japanese spirit,
that think we will win. This va
mato damashii is something foreign
ers cannot understand. 1t is not only
love of country. but love of honor.
The Japanese are small of body
but Urge in spirit Even the police
MAJ on the street, whose pay is very
snail, does his duty well because of
his yamato damashii, and would be
insulted if offered a tip.
Because he is full of yamato da-
mashii the Japanese soldier marches
away to war. singing the songs that
already the japanese poets have writ
ten for the war with Russia; nor do
the women of Japan shed tears when
the men march away, nor even if their
husbands and sons and brothers are
brought home dead 1t is not only
an homer and a privilege to fight
for Japan. but a greater honor, a
greater privilege, TO die for Japan.
If an only son falls, mother might
weep, not because he has fallen, but
because she has no other son to take
his place
The women of Japan do not go out
and fight today as they have done on
rare occasion in the past We had an
Empress once who led an army into
Korea and fought at the head of her
soldiers And even in the last CEN
tury, when the Shotgun made his last
stand against the Mikado, nearly a
thousand women and girls belonging
to families attached to the Shotgun
fought behind and upon the castle
walls. and many were killed.
1t is different now. Only the men
go out. But there is much left for
the women to do, and there is not a
woman in Japan who will shirk her
duty. Not only must she take care
of the family while tins men are away,
but she must work for the soldiers.
Our Empress herself is the patron of
the Japanese Red Cross Society, whose
president IS always a prince of the
royal house. With her own hands the
Empress prepares bandages and cloth
Tag for the men in the field; and so
great was her personal interest in
the men who fought in the war with
China that at the close OF the war
she gave an artificial limb to every
man who had lost one on the battle
field.
More than ten thousand women have
already volunteered to go to the front
to act as nurses. I cannot understand
why they should be needed at the
front, for there are so many men
nurses. 1t is very cold in Manchuria
at this time of year, and the Japanese
women are not strong, and | should
think they would be more hindrance
than help in the field; but all who can
leave home are anxious to go.
The women who act as nurses must
lay aside their kimonos and wear the
regular dress of hospital nurse,
Both before and since the war with
China the women of Japan have at
tended the hospital training schools,
where instruction is given by Ameri-
can and European nurses. and there
are now no better nurses in the world
than those of Japan. Many of these
nurses. as well as the women physi-
clans are widows of generals and
other officers who were killed in that
war. Others are very young girls. for
in Japan the girls marry at from
eighteen to twenty. and after they
marry they have so much to do to take
care of their families that they can
not give the time to study. When
war comes along, however, they find
time to work for the Red Cross.
Tt is a common thing to see at the
headquarters established in all the
villages women seventy-five and eighty
years of age working side by side
with girls who have just begun to go
to school. And of course there are
women of all ages between We do
not have many old maids in japan,
for marriage is regarded as duty,
and as soon as a girl is old enough
she is urged by her relatives to marry,
But what few old maids there are, are
generally either doctors or nurses,
and they always volunteer
Nor are the acts of patriotism and
self-sacrifice confined to any one class
of women. Even as all class distine-
ton is put aside by the men in the
army. which is composed of noble
men, merchants, students and common
laborers. so it is with the women who
do their part at home The Empress.
whom | have met and who is very
clever woman, may be seen frequently
visiting the military hospitals. often
accompanied by party OF court IA
dies: and the society women of :. o.
kyo make quite a point of giving up
some luxury or saving money they
might otherwise spend upon new XII
monos or fine European gowns, to add
to the war fund or contribute 70 the
Red Cross treasury Even the geishas,
who would seem to be too light heart
ed to think seriously of anything, give
much money and sometimes spend
time sewing for the soldiers. As for
the peasant women. there are none
more loval in the empire.
Perhaps you have heard the story
of the peasant woman who sent her
only son to fght for the Emperor in
the war with China. She had always
worked hard and saved all the money
she could earn that her son might
have an education. for you know We
think much of education in Japan.
He had served his term in the army.
as all Japanese must who are of GER
tain height and physically strong, and
had theme begun business career,
when the war broke out.
Although it meant that she must go
back to hard work in the fields, the
mother babe her boy join the army,
and his was one of the first regiments
to reach the front.
Every morning at daylight the wo-
man went to the temple near her