The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1904-06-10
THE WONDERFUL JAPANESE.
Their Achievements During First
Three Months of War with Rus
STA Will Live in History.

Less than three months have elapsed
since the clash of arms between Japan
and Russia, and already the most SAN
guine Japaphiles find that their pre-
dictions of success were far below the
mark of real accomplishment, says the
Cleveland Leader, of recent date.
Since the opening of the war the
Japanese navy has destroyed, disabled.
crippled, or confined the Russian fleet i'll
eastern waters. The fleet thus made in
effective was greater, on paper at least,
certainly far more imposing in battle
ships and armored cruisers, than the
entire navy of the United States at the
do this the Japanese had sea force in
ferior in numbers, though possibly
somewhat more coherent and homo
geneous. Through the operations at sea
the mainland of Asia has been opened
to Japanese invasion; and Port Arthur
the boosted Gibraltar of the orient
made innocuous, if not untenable.
When the war opened Russia was
dominant in the Korean peninsula
Russian ministers, agents and spies al
Seoul had made of the Hermit kingdom
dependency of the car.
In less than three months the Jap
anese have assumed and enforced pro-
! tectorate over Korea, have freed the en-
tire peninsula of Russian troops (ol
practically SOY, have landed an army Of
| off Of nd n
occupation of $1,000, with a garrison Of
between 5000 and 5000 at Seoul, ant
have established an immense and well.
guarded depot for supplies at Chemul
| po.' Under weather conditions that sug.
gested the word impossible" the JAP
anese troops have advanced to and oc,
cupied the east bank of the Yalu river
and are preparing to cross that boun'
| Diary into Manchuria, with little doubt
that Russian opposition to the crossing
will prove ineffective. Every mountain
pass on the road from Seoul to the Yalu
has been fortified, the inhabitants have
been pacified and taught to look upoI
the Japanese as their preseryers from
oppression, and line of communica
ton with the base at Chemulpo hal
been established, fortified, and guarded
so that in case of defeat retreat coult
be accomplished with minimum of loss
The physical and apparent accom-
plishments of these wonderful littl
brown fighters are equaled by the NOR
al and speculative results attained
The Japanese have made such effectiv
use of torpedoes and submarine mine
that the great powers of the world ar
forced to debate in congresses and par
liaments, and in their war and nav,
departments, the question whether bat
tleships, as weapons of offense, are, o
are not, obsolete. New possibilities o
strategy have been shown, and thos
who contended that under modern con
ditions no enemy could be deceived, a
was once possible, are confronted will
the fact that Admiral Togo laid a tral
for Makaroff, baited it, and would prob
ably have utterly destroyed his oppo
nent's fleet, had it not been for the lift
ing of morning mist. AS it was hi
mines did in two minutes what tw
months might have been regarded a
we'll spent in accomplishing. 1t is sim
ply marvellous that, so far as the worl
is informed, the only vessel of the Rus
slams sunk by gun fire was the Variag.
In the courtesies demanded of partici
pants in modern warfare the Japanes
have been as conspicuous as in tn
sterner aspects. No more gracefu
tribute was ever paid by heroic foe t
his heroic enemy than that accorde
Makaroff in Toxic. Russian prisoner.
well or wounded, have been treate
with exceptional kindness; and IL tn
! japanese are not civilized, as some as
sert, civilization might learn lesson
from those insular barbarians.
No matter what the final results ma
be, the first three months of the Russo
Japanese war will go down in histor
as trenching upon the miraculous, an
as teaching lessons to the world in DO.
sibilities of offensive operations at Sc,