Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-02
HER YANKEE ADMIRAL
Henry Walton Grinnell
Helped Train the Japs.
CHATTY TALKWITHHIM
BECOMING A WORLD POWER I'm A
FEW YEARS
Experiences In Teaching in the War
Co1lege-A Civil War
Record.
CHATTY TALKWITHHIM

College-A Civil war
Record.
Written for The Evening Star by Harry p. Taber.
Englishmen have long been given the
credit of building up the navy Of Japan.
But they did not do all the work. They
were ably assisted by a descendant Of one
of the old New Bedford whaling families
Henry Walton Grinnell. And because he
did so much in training the Japs in the
way of modern sea warfare and helped them
materially in the battle of the Yalu he Is
Japan's Yankee admiral.
Before he went to Japan and the war
college Admiral Grinnell had had a long
training In the sea service of his own coun-
try. He enlisted in the United States navy
on June q, 1862, and was made a mate of
one of the minor ships. During the same
year he was raised to the rank of acting
ensign. and two years later he was master
of his own ship. He fought with Farragut
and Kimberly and the rest at New Orleans
and Mobile, serving with distinction At
Somerville, N. c., under the cover of dark
ness, he carried dispatches from his ship
through the confederate lines, which
brought him honorable mention from the
department at Washington.
At the close of the war he took his dis
charge with the rank of lieutenant, and as
there seemed to be no immediate prospect
for further sea fighting for his own coun-
try he went to Japan, where, with the
other foreigners, he was largely instru-
mental in building up the imperial navy
which has smashed Russa's sea power.
He served throughout the Carbohydrates
war; taking part in the battle off the Yalu
river-the first sea fight in which modern
the battle ship had a chance to display its
fighting qualities. For his work at the time
and for the help which he gave in the
training of the seamen at the war college
he was made rear admiral of the imperial
navy.
When his work was done there, and peace
was declared between China and Japan. Adj
mfral Grinnell returned to the United
States. At the outbreak of the war with
Spain, though he had reached the age Of
retirement, he again volunteered his serv-
ices, and received an appointment as lieu
tenant on board the battle ship Iowa. He
served through the war. and in January,
1899. was honorably discharged
Now, at the age of sixty-eight. Illness
alone prevents him from rushing to Japan
to find what work may be cut out for him
in the navy which he helped to bring to its
present stage of perfection.
Training the Young Japs.
81 saw a good deal of the training for
seamanship in the Japanese navy" said
AuIlITdl OTiHHeli, anu tuc MANNER III
which the students went about their work
in making their nation a world power is
characteristic of the people as a whole
remember that one of the teachers in
giving out a subject for an essay asked one
of the boys to write upon the subject What
Is the Most Difficult Thing to Understand?
The essay came out in a single sentence,
The proper use of English propositions
In all the training necessary to fit the
VA To for h. Il =
at the difficult problems of mathematics
navigation and all that sort of thing. What
they could not understand was what was
to them unnecessarily complex methods of
our arriving at certain conclusions.
Why take so much time in figures?
they asked. 1T is all simple enough. II
you have to fight people. be patient and
let them spend their strength before you
exert yours.
After ALL that is the characteristic ele-
ment which makes for the success of the
Japanese in whatever they set out to ac-
complish. They have amending patience,
and they come to their conclusions, not by
what we think is the shortest route, but by
their oriental method of reasoning in cir
Giles. which finally lands them at the proper
place. To us their method seems compli-
Gated. but they have a manner of stating
a direct truth in a very few words. In all
the problems which were given to the stu
dents at the war college they came to an
answer which was correct. but which they
illustrated by telling of the Aino method
of figuring.
For the most part the Japanese Ian
guage Is drawn from the Chinese. but there
still remains some elements of the ancient
Aino, and this displays itself unexpectedly
III the Japanese manner of solving the SIM
plest problems. If You ask one of the
boys how old he is. and his age happens to
be nineteen. 1t IS probable that he will reply
that he is nine plus ten taken from twenty.
You can easily imagine how difficult it is to
teach arithmetic to class which expresses
itself in this manner. While this is true
they still have the faculty of arriving in
stantly at the correct conclusion.
How the Navy Was Built.
THE Japanese have built the navy just
as they do anything else-by patience and
sticking earnestly at the subject in
hand In the imperial university and
in the war college the students have
shown what can be done by practicing
such virtues as these. What would one of
our college boys think IL before he could
enter Harvard or Yale he had to pass
rigid examination not only in the English
language, but in French and German and a
mastery of written ChinesA2 1t is not diff
ficut to train such men. They are not
merely college students. nor are they simply
working for a career as an officer in the
army or navy. They are earnest taciturn
men, inspired by loyalty to their country
which amounts to passion and is some
thing more than mere patriotism. Such
men grow into heroes like Admiral Ito
who had command of the japanese fleet at
the battle of the Yalu river. and such men
as the present commanding officer of the
imperial navy. Admiral Togo.
''In the battle of the Yalu, in which
had the fortune to take part, had an op-
portunity to see the result of the training
which had been given the officers and men
in the college The Japanese fleet
consisted at that time of only second
class cruisers. We were pitted against
| the great Chinese battle ships, which were
commanded by experienced officers.
81 remember discussing the outlook as