The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1904-08-01
WAY OF THE WARRIOR.
Stole Greed Of the Fighting Caste
of Japan.
SWORD WORSHIP ITS RELIGION.

Eye TO Prove His Courage and
saved Canary Birds In the Midst OF
Battle.
1t is announced that the Russian sol
diers moving out to meet the Japanese
forces carry holy icons, or images, and
that General Kuropatkin on leaving
st. Petersburg TO take command Of the
/ imperial army in Manchuria carried
with him more than forty icons and
jeweled shrine, all gifts from his
friends and admirers. says James
Z Creelman in the New York World.
One does not hear much of that sort
of thing from the war correspondents
in Japan. The moral inspiration of the
Japanese soldier, which makes him
unique among the fighting men Of the
world, does not derive from Buddhism
nor from Shinto, the state church of
Japan, but from bushido, or the way
Of the warrior, an ethical cult prevail
1 ing among the samurai, or military
caste AS the mikado Is sort OF
warrior demigod and the profession Of
arms outranks every other occupation
In japan it is natural that the stern
spirit Of the way OF the warrior should
survive all changes in japanese civ
ilization.
General Yamagi, whose division cap
tured Port Arthur and Talienwan ten
years ago, plucked one of his eyes out
at school as a reply to a playmate who
doubted his courage. And yet at the
battle OF Talienwan | was present
4 when he ordered the canary cages
( found in the forts to be opened and the
1 birds set free, lest they should starye
to death. That order was given while
the Chinese cannon We're still thunder
ing. 1t was he who was mainly re-
sponsibe for the great massacre of
/ unarmed Manchurians at Port Arthur.
In many respects Yamagi is a type of
the samurai spirit fighting in a modern
dress.
v II ~ impossible to understand what
it IS that makes the japanese army SO
n formidable without taking into ae-
count the traditional heroics Of the
way Of the warrior 1t Is a stole
rather than Il fatalistlc creed. TO the
soldier it stands In the place of a re-
ligion or a moral system. 1t is founded
on the virilities, on devotion to a
sword bearing caste, whose highest
obligation is to die without question
for the divinely ordained warrior lord.
1t is true that many of the grewsome
practices of the bushido have fallen
into disuse, but its underlying spirit
animates the japanese army today
Captain Brinkley, the we'll known
writer on Japan, says in explanation of
the way Of the warrior:
Because breadwinning was originally
the business Of those not physically quali-
fed to be soldiers the bushi regarded
money with Indifference and even con-
tempt. TO be swayed in the smallest de-
gree ~ mercenary motives was despiea-
bic In his eyes.
This tradition largely accounts for
the ordinary aversion Of the japanese
army to the practice Of looting Cap
tain Brinkley, continuing, says:
The bushi was essentially 4 stole. He
made self control the ideal Of bis exc
istence and practiced the courageous en-
durance Of suffering so thoroughly that
he could without hesitation infiict on his
own body pain Of the severest description.
The power Of surrendering life with he
roic calmness has been developed By men
in all ages and Is regarded by philoso-
piers as an elementary form of human
virtue practiced with most success in an
unciyilized state Of society before the finer
appropriations OF the imaginative and i'm
tellectual faculties have been developed
by education. But the courage of the
bushi cannot justly be ascflbed to blunt
ness Of moral sensibility resulting from
semisavage conditions of life. The cur
rent Of existence in Japan from the Nara
epoch onward, set with general steadiness
IN the direction Of artistic refinement and
yoluptuous luxury amid which men could
scarcely fail 70 acquire habits and tastes
inconsistent with acts Of high courage or
great endurance. The bushfs mood there
fore, was not product Of semibarbarous
conditions, but rather protest against
emasculating civilization.
He schooled himself to regard death
inflicted by his own hand as normal
eventuality. The story Of other nations
shows epochs when death was welcomed
as a relief and deliberately invited ais a
refuge from the mere WEAKNESS OF liv-
Ing But wherever there has been liberty
70 choose and leisure to employ painless
mode Of exit from the world men have I'm
variably selected 1t.
The bushi, however, deliberately adopt
ed a mode Of suicide so painful and so
shocking that to school the mind to re-
gard It with indifference was a feat not
easy to conceive. His method was to
plunge a short sword into the left side of
the abdomen, sweep it across TO the right,
giving Il sharp turn upward at the end
OF the CASH. then to withdraw it. thrust 1t
into the back OF the neck and cut toward
; the throat Assistance was often rem
dered by a friend who, sword in hand,
stood ready 70 decapitate the victim inn
nnedately after the stomach had been
Z Rashed, but there were innumerable ex-
Z amples Of men who consummated the
| tragedy without aid.
The mere contemplation Of such aus
tere traditions, with precepts Of frn-
! gality and unfaltering loyalty, ac-
counts largely for the peculiar spirit
Of the army which Is graphing with
Russia today 1t is not, as in the case
Of a Mohanmedan. the hope Of para
disc as a martyrs reward, but rather
studied contempt for suffering and
death which makes the little Japanese
soldier so terrible in the field. He goes
into the fight thinking neither of hell
nor heaven, but rather of the dauntIess