Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1905-06-07
DRESSED IN BEST TO Die
How Japanese Soldiers Prepared
For a Desperate Enterprise.
INCIDENT OF PORT ARTHUR SIEGE

Il through the DnrfnS WORK OF Jap
' anese Ensineers-some Sacrificed
Their Lives-CrawIing on ston,nchs
and Feigning Death TO Fool Enemy.
The London Times publishes the fol
lowing account written 10y a japanese
engineer officer OF the preaching of the
defenses of North Keekwanshan Cocks
comb Hill fort at Port Arthur.
1t was thus that the capture was an
nounced by the Official Gazette of the
north fort of Cockscomb hill. which
was the beginning of the series of de-
Structions and captures of important
strongholds of the Russians at Port Ar
thur: ON the 9th of October. in the
thirty seventh year OF Meiji. part of
the walls of North Cockscomb Hill fort
was blown up by our working party.
and the infantry assaulted successfully
and occupied the fort securely by the
2Sth.'
ION that day ut about 1870 p. m. the
working party in The right wing of the
mine gallery came across an opening
measuring about ten centimeters by
| ten centimeters. from which issued
strong smell of coal tar The discovery
was made thirty-two meters from the
entrance of the gallery leading in from
the sixth parallel After examination
we concluded that we had fallen in
with the enemy's countermining tun-
mel We found it necessary to locate
and. If possible. remove the explosive
material set for out destruction. This
work was intrusted to n party of six
men, volunteers from the imperial en-
gineer battalion on the spot-Seryeant
KatsuGi Mitani, Corporal Tamejiro Ia
kahashi. First Glass Privates Tomoichi
HOri, Kinzo Furusawa. Toshiro Kawa
bata and Second Glass Private Asataro
Matsushita. They understood the des-
perate nature of the enterprise full
well. and, wishing to die decently. as
the gentlemen soldiers OF Japan should.
they dressed in their best and went-to
their certain death.
''At 1:30 exactly the sound Of VIC
lent explosion rent the air. and the
comrades anxiously waiting at the
mouth Of the gallery were assailed by
pebbles. shingles and debris. Mitani,
Takahashi and Furusawa were pulled
out of the crater by means of the ropes
which were tied TO their ankles for this
purpose. all severely wounded, while
the rest sacrificed their lives at the al
tar of patriotism ands duty.
1.-THE quantity of the dynamite used
was unnecessarily large and the force
OF the explosion so great that itsuttcr-
Is demolished our mine gapS S6kRut |
at the same time il split the ground to
such an extent that the outer surface
of the wall became detached from the
natural soil. enabling us TO determine
the nature of II. The wall appeared |
TO be about three meters thick, OF con-
crete tarred over on the outside and |
covered with tarpaulin sheets. This |
method of construction is proof |
against almost any caliber of mobile
siege guns.
ave at once organized a party for
the purpose Of blowing up the exposed
wall Sergeant Ida, with two first |
class privates OF engineers, crawled
up over the edge of the crater into the
ditch for the purposes of reconnois-
sance, returning safely with a salts
factory report Then Sergeant 0kura
was sent with gun cotton in sand bags
along with Corporals Horikawa, Flu
kunaga and Private Muzuki They
daringly advanced right up to the foot
of the wall. crawling on their stom-
achs very slowly and lying down ut
every few PAGES. feigning death. They
placed and fired the gun cotton. The
explosion tore the wall of the ground,
leaving a gap of four centimeters be-
tween. The Russians took not the
slightest notice of il. Perhaps they
imagined that to be an impact of a
japanese shell. We again inserted
large quantity of gun cotton under the
wall and exploded il. This made a
hole, but not sufficiently large for our
assaulting party TO enter
so the persistent engineers deter
mined upon the third attempt. They
shot down several Of the Russians who
looked wonderingly out OF the rent.
The third attempt was entirely success
full. This time the explosion of the
gun cotton tore hole in the solid
Of concrete about one meter
in height and one and half meters
wide Through this aperture twelve
We're thrown in. and under
The cover OF the smoke and confusion
a party of infantry numbering not
more than half company filed in and
the part Of the underground
chamber; the other part still remained
IA the possession of the enemy. The
Japanese sand Russian combatints
were separated only by the thin khaki
.olofed wall of sand bags between.
I'VE slowly and steadily advanced,
nch by inch. each soldier pushing in
'ront of him n bag of sand or a paraffln
in filed with single The sound OF
bullets striking these paraffin tins was
weird in the extreme. The Russians
sought protection under the cover OF
steel plate partitions. striving stub
Dornly and yet I'm vain 10 stem the ;