Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-12-08
THE JAPANESE IDEAS.

Outside of the commercial aspect
the war in the far east is bringing to
the other nations, those that look on
at the slaughter, knowledge hitherto
never experienced, of the two peoples
whose fighting men are engaged in
the death struggle on the Port Ar
thur heights and in the valleys and
on the hillsides near the sacred city
of Mukden. Of the two nations, fair
Japan is probably the more interest
ing to the greater number of people,
and fortunately for them the Japanese
are ready and willing to talk Of the
country, its people, customs and be-
liefs. Japanese news has become
quite the style, at least in America,
and the story of Adach Kinnosuke, a
Japanese writer in a current maya
zine, will be read by thousands with
interest.
Mr.. Kinnosuke tells of the drilling
of the Japanese youths for service in
the army. Athletic exercises begin in
babyhood. The four-year-old boy is
sent out with fencing master who
makes him stand barefooted in the
snow and strike with his bamboo
sword until he is covered with per.
spiration. The Japanese idea of physi-
cal development is to undergo hard
ships and take certain amount of
exercise every day in the year if an
active life is desired The father tells
the son that some day he will be called
upon to fight for his country-there-
fore he must live the life that he will
be compelled to live when he joins the
army. This part of his training means
that he must live on the army ration
The daily diet of the boy is simple
and not too plentiful He will have
rice, some vegetables, little dried
fish, but rarely meat. The upshot of
it all is that he goes into the army
accustomed to hard marches and pri.
vations.
But more essential than the fine
bodily condition in which the boy finds
himself on entering the army is the
mental training which he has re-
ceiyed through his life. This training
is to give him courage and strength
of soul It shocks to some extent our
occidental ideas, but no one can deny
that it has resulted in the most ex.
traordinary examples of steadiness OF
nerve which the world has ever wit.
messed. The small boy is told the most
horrible ghost stories. He has in.
! herited superstitions far more numer,
GUS than those of the American or
English boy. Professional story tell
ers work on his Imagination amidst
! the most ghostly surroundings and
! then he is required to go alone in the
darkness to some graveyard and spend
an hour among the tombstones. A
variation OF this may be to send him
in the darkness of the night to the
ldecapitated heads of criminals ex
posed upon the highway, and he is
required to make his mark upon the
scaffold supporting them.
| The Japanese author despairs Of
making the occidental mind !. under
stand just how the japanese regard
death and the prospect of undergoing
it, 1t will be remembered that il
1.-THE early campaigns of the present
war the Russian soldiers regarded
1 their enemies as little short of fanat
ical because of the bravery and utter
/ disregard of the imminence of death
which they displayed in rushing over
mined ground and into the very jaws
of death itself in their efforts to cap
ture positions or to compel retreat
That the cause was more simply dis
regard for death rather than special
bravery is indicated by Mr.. Kinnosuk
in the following interesting para
graph:
'In the far east he says, we say
that life is something that is quite
supersensual. You have never. seer
life. never smelt, heard, touched it, 1