The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-09-17
Army and Navy Officers Returning from
China Say Japan Has Not a Friend
Among Whites in East.
The Disillusion of the Correspondents Who
Flocked to Toxic Early in the Year
is Now Complete.

to strike an enemy.
Among Southern men, especially
sympathy is now entirely with the
Russians. AS a former Confederate
colonel stated the other night in a
hotel CORRIDOR
| I'VE Southerners don't like to see
colored man licking a white man"
And this feeling seems to have en-
tlrely supplanted the former sympathy
with the small man fighting the big
one.
1t is realized now also that so far
as resources available at the point of
contact were concerned Russia was at
disadvantage at the beginning Of the
war and has continued in that condi-
tion. The splendid defence of Port
Arthur and Kuropatkin's desperate
efforts from Tashechiao to Liao-Y Yang
to hold back far superior Japanese
army have appealed to our soldiers.
Among military men there is gen.
eral feeling that the Japanese soldier
is ''uncanny." The average white man
does not care to die and does not well
come an opportunity to advance to GER
tain death. He is ready to take all
necessary chances in the pursuit of
glory, or through patriotism, and is
willing to go wherever he is told to.
But the ancestor worshipping Japan
ese, who regards himself as but link
in long chain, who is content to die
at any time if he is sure that a GER
tain number Of joss sticks will be
burned in his memory by his descend
ants or successors, and who fears his
officers more than any possible enemy,
has introduced new factor into the
war game. He is not acting accord
ing to the rules which govern the
sport. ....
Soldiers such as the men on trans
ports who refused to surrender when
lying helpless under the guns of ar
mored cruisers and who are compelled
under pressure of public opinion to
commit suicide rather than yield even
when resistance is hopeless are not
the kind Of soldiers that modern
armies have been accustomed to meet.
Reports from the East picture the
Japanese rank and file as inspired
with a willingness to die that might
almost be termed anxiety. The Arab
followers Of the early caliphs and the
original Ottoman levies were inspired
by this spirit, but the only recent ex-
amples Of the kind have been the
dervishes who, armed with knives and
spears, dashed themselves to pieces
against the blazing British squares in
Egypt.
Like the dervishes, too, it is report
| ed that the Japanese wounded are as
dangerous to approach as rattIesnakes.
Lying disabled on the field they stab
and shoot any one who comes near
them unless he bears the red cross,
| which marks the non combatant.
While giving the Japanese navy full
credit for it's efficiency and pluck, the
Japs have never been popular with
our sailors. It is recognized that Nip
pon's navy is the most homogeneous
| fighting force of the kind in the world.
Largely manned by the Satsuma men
and differed almost entirely by de-
| scendants of the mobiles and samurai
Of that fierce clan, many Of the rank
and file have personal loyalty to
| their superiors apart from the obedi-
ence due to rank and station. Japan
| has probably larger seafaring popu-
lation than any other nation. For CEN
turies it's fishermen have been bred to
the sea-they are hereditary sailor
men. The officers are we'll educated
| under Western methods-skilful, de-
voted to their profession and stern ad-
herents Of the "Bushido" code.
The officers and men Of Japan's
navy have evinced the contempt for
death characteristic of Orientals and
also dashing spirit of emulation more
akin to that of white men. Whole
ships crews have volunteered for
desperate enterprises, but as a rule