The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-11-01

|JAPAN'S ARMY GENIUS,
Record of Baron Kodama, Chief
Of Staff to Oyama.
SCION OF GOOD FIGHTING STOCK.
William e. Curtis Says Field Mar
shal Oyama Considers His Assistant
One of the Worlds shrewdcst strat-
egists-His Arrangement For Locat-
ing Japanese and Russian Forces.
Everybody agrees that the genius of
the RussO-Japanese war is General
Baron Kodama, recently assistant
chief of the general staff, and now
chief Of staff to Field Marshal Oyama,
commander in chief Of the japanese
army in the field, says William e.
Curtis, the Chicago Record Herald's
correspondent writing from Tokyo.
Kodama was formerly assistant min
lister of war, then minister of the in
terror. and is now governor general
Of Formosa, on leave of absence, hav-
ing been called to Tokyo at the out
set of the war because, while assistant
minister of war some years ago. he
planned the campaign which the Japa-
nese armies are conducting in Man
churia. After serving in Tokyo for six
months and carrying out his plans con
corning the mobilization and transport
tation of troops, lie was sent to the
front about the first of July.
General Baron Kodama is about fifty
years old, and a descendant Of a sa-
mural or knight Of feudal times. He is
therefore of good fighting stock, and he
has made a brilliant record as a SOL
dier, bearing honorable wounds re-
ceived in Korea some years ago, where
he was shot through both shoulders.
For months he lay in a plaster of paris
mold, unable to move a muscle OF lie
upper portion of his body. His patience
and courage have been talked about
ever since. His left arm is helpless. |
Otherwise be is in perfect health and
is the hardest worked man in Japan.
He has spent from sixteen to eighteen
hours a day at the general staff build
ing. He has read every report that
has been received and every dispatch
that has been sem from Tokyo con
corning the army in the field, and has
dictated most of the orders from the
war department at Tokyo to the COM
manders in the field. Although Field
Marshal Oyama is in good health and
his mental vigor is unimpaired, he re-
everything to his assistant be-
cause he recognizes his superior abil-
[ty and considers him the shrewdest or
one of the shrewdest strategists in the
world today.
Baron Kodama looks more like a
Frenchman than a Japanese. EXCEPT
his diminutive size, he is entirely I'M
Japanese in appearance. He is small
md slight, weighing not more than
l2O pounds. His scanty hair is iron
gray. His mustache and goatee, which
wears in the French style, are al
most white. His skin is tanned like
Gather from great exposure and has
he weatherbeaten appearance notice
able in sailors and old campaigners.
His eyes are keen, but kindly, and
heir color is blue. He has q quick.
nervous manner and a hearty laugh.
speaks no English or French, but
'eads the latter language imperfectly.
Tanaka, an aid-de-camp.
Who speaks both English and French
luently, is always at his side to in
erpret conversations. No reports are
'iven out without the approval of Ko-
lama. In fact, he is Japan as far as
army is concerned.
He has an assistant of his own kind
q Major General Fukushima, a man of
'reat ability, energy and learning,
whom many consider the equal of his
hief. Fukushima has ridden from one
of Manchuria to the other. He
.nows every road and stream, every
and valley, every town and
amlet and can make a chart Of the
ountry with his eyes shut. /
Fukushima and Kodama work as
and are entirely in sympathy.
Among other duties Fukushima looks
tier a curious chart which hangs in
lodama's Office. The headquarters of J
he general staff are in a two story !
lila, built for the residence of a for
fgner about twenty years ago, just !
Inside the walls that inclose the park
I the imperial palace. Within every {
hing is severely simple. {
Kodama's oom is the plainest of all. !
t is uncarpeted, entirely without orna- J
lent, and the only furniture is an In |
annapolis roll top desk, an ordinary {
itchen table and half a dozen hard J
ottom chairs. The table is covered 8
18th maps and charts, and upon the
10 q no nj. anp 1,nov<iF,,l Yc~cno.. 4