Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1905-01-13
A JAPANESE HERO.
One Example Of the Spirit That IL
Actuating the Soldiers Of Japan.

Ft%%4&tttfA AftG 3NfAtkt8 W ~0k0tts
Sanko Takano, sergeant-major, spe-
cial duty, belongs to the Second Com
pany, Second Cavalry Regiment, Sec.
tnd Division. On a dark night in early
April, soon after his regiment had
reached the Yalu river, he and Lance
Corporal Shinobu Watanabe were sent
out with third man to ascertain the
width and depth of the main stream
OF the river where it flows between
two large islands opposite Wiju. They
crossed the first channel in a boat
which the sergeant-major and the cor
poral left on the first island in charge
OF the third man. Then the two
worked across the island to the main
stream. The Russians occupied a lit
tie village on the opposite side, direct
ly across from the place where TAX
ano and Watanabe struck the river
Iakano saw that it would be very diff
ncult to get across without attract
Ing their attention. Ice was running in
the river, and the water was bitterly
cold. Takano thought that if he tried
to swim he would surely arouse the
Russians. So he determined to walk
across on the bottom of the river, ris-
ing occasionally for BREATH They had
coil of light rope with them.
Takano took off his uniform and fast
ened one end of the line to his body
Then he picked up stone to help him
keep on the bottom, and waved in,
leaving the lance corporal to hold the
rope by which he was to be dragged
back whenever he gave a signal Of
two sharp pulls.
Pounded by the ice and chilled to
the marrow by the cold water, Takano
struggled on. The water rose over his
head, but the heavy stone he carried
enabled him to keep on the bottom.
Now he could walk a little faster, for
he was free from the battering ice;
but as he neared the center of the
stream the current grew swifter and
swifter, until, if it had not been for
the stone he carried, it would have
swept him down. He grew numb from
the cold, and it took all his strength,
stout swimmer as he was, to rise to
the surface and stay there long enough
to breathe. Yet he dared not drop the
weight, for he knew he could not get
down to the bottom again. So he work
ed, with Watanabe paying out the
rope, until he felt the bottom rising
and knew he was beyond the middle OF
the stream. Almost senseless, Takano
CfTmhlQd olnnn CD, Is
the letter of his orders and reach the
opposite bank. But not even Japanese
nature could stand such a test. and
Watanabe, waiting on the bank, felt
the long, steady pull on the rope that
told him Takano had lost conscious
ness. With all his might the cor
poral hauled in the line, and soon had
the unconscious sergeant-major out of
the water.
A brisk rubbing and the contents
of his flask finally revived Takano
who got into his wafE, dry uniform
again and started ba, k with the cor
poral across the island. But when
they reached the place where they
had left the boat, it as gone. The
third man, concluding that t4ey had
been captured by the Russ ans, had
started back. There was rothing for
it but to swim, so in the two men
plunged. The floating ice hammered
them and the cold water numbed them.
so that they could not make Roadway
against the current a1d were carried
| down stream. But fortune had not
deserted them, and they drifted
against the boat ID which their COM
rade was trying to scull back to shore
He, too, had been swept down stream
by the swift water nnd the Ice hinder
ed his sculling. He hauled them in,
and soon they wei1 landed on the
Win side, to be CON inended by their
captain for showing the real spirit of
Yamanto Damashii.-From Oscar King
Davis's Japanese Devotion and Cour-
age" in the Century.