The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-04-12
JAPAN IN WAR Time
Japanese Patriotism Is Like a
Dead Volcano
HRPEARS TO BE QUIET
But When Occasion Arises the
Explosion Will Come.

Moji, Japan, April 1.-THE. volcano
Fujiama is dead. apparently, but its fires
are still sleeping under the crater. which
well figures the intensity and the reserve
of japanese patriotism, its paradoxical
question that the world has been wonder
ing at since the opening OF the war.
The celebration in Toxic after the first
attack on Port Arthur was over at mid
night; those who had reeled through the
streets as in a May day procession, wav-
ing lanterns at the end of sticks, shout
ing .Banzai,' were all abed: and the
green tourist landing at Yokohama, in
the present closed season for his kind,
still wonders on the vacant streets, as he
will in every eastern city where Asia
hides her teeming millions. and if all the
banks have not just failed.
The sort Of patriotism which we as
sociate with incessant excitement and
feverish tension in war times does not
exist in Japan today The Asiatcs phil
osophy of calm sufferance in the affairs
of daily life appears to dull his war fer
vor. and thus when it does break ire
sistibly forth it appals more than it stirs
you, a yellow peril seems real. and the
shouts and madness directed against Rus
STA draw all white men toward her by
The very remotest ties OF blood, white
men are REVISED by savage orgies.
The other day the second detachment of
Yokohama reserves were leaving that
city for mobilization in Toxic. II was i'm
possible to get within fifty yards of the
railroad station. Bugles. banners strung
from bamboo poles and covered with
black autographs countless lags-the ma
tional skates sharpened" and the bar
Der polls emblems-brazed and swung over
the throng of coolies, yellow-braided boy
soldiers wooden-shoed women with babies
pouched on their backs. and merchants
in the usual civic costume of an old
American macintosh with moth-eaten
fur collar. Exploding firecrackers poured
from the trains roof and violated the
plush sancity within the tiny first-class
carriages. For miles along the line no
child was too young, 10 woman too tear
full, to raise unbent arms of salutation,
till palms touched above the head aeven
so with hint o. oriental obeisance) and
Shout ''Banzai! Banzai,'
And yet the Jap newsboy. with a run1or
of victory. clicks woodenly through the
street, ringing a dinner bell instead of
shouting his extra and no one buys it.
In Kobe the other day, when the attack
of March 10 on Port Arthur was news.
the facts were known in all the bazaarS
at in the morning in the mysterious
manner of the eastern bazaar, when in
stances Of news out-traveling the tele-
graph are on good record.
The facts were simply being discussed
and whispered from mouth to mouth Two
hours later bamboo poles, each topped
with a golden ball. began arching the
streets all over the city BY tifin time |
the rumors had reached the hote Hobbies. /
and the foreign trader who lives and |
speaks throughout Japan today as if the /
war were between Chill and Peru, say,
was '.jollying" the Japanese manager, as .
If the latter were school boy, that the /
news was false At o clock a small /
crowd rabbled past behind drums and /
banners The trader was answering a /
question about his choice for victor in /!
the war, saying. The side that will bring I
us the most trade'-when he suddenly I
added but if l loose my job. Ia like to 7
get that Jap drummers He makes a
lot. These people have gone way down /
into their pockets for this sort of thing
The struggle for existence here is fear
ful. the poverty appalling" Thereupon
you pitied and loved chivalrously this
fra gment of a dark little people fighting
for life.
At p. m. the official report of the vic
tory was posted in the streets. The rab-
bic had changed to small mob The
with their babies on their backs.
were not in it. For a moment Fujiama
had broken out Many OF the men We're
drunk The passed waving their bamboo
sticks and paper lanterns. bowling like
dervishes You felt revulsion You won
dered if up the street upon the golden
balls there we're not a human victim And
in an hour the city was still as death
Is civilization here only a veneer? Ask
any foreign diplomat of Ions residence in
Toxic, only provided you know him init
mately. Then he Will look ut YOU search
ingly and say: Some day III tell YOU"
Such mans rebuff is worth the sav-so
of a hundred fowery books on Japan
for the diplomat least of all in Japan.
cannot say what he thinks of his hosts
least Of all in war
Yet the feeling among all OF them is
that Of the world; that in the long run
Japan cannot win. And. perhaps. it is in
fuenced by the curious fact that the
japanese war Office. in conflict. mind you.
with the most 5resourceful of modern
nations IS already drawing up its terms
for peace, and they demand complete
cession OF Corea ana restoration Of Man
churia to China.-Robert Dunn to y. y.
Globe.