The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-07-06
MOJ| JAPAN'S GIBRALTAR
1t is One of the Best Fortified
Places on Earth.
POWERS ONCE SHELLEDl IT
The Hills are Honey-combed With
Forts and Protected by Artillery,
But Guns Cannot be Seen.-Place
Is Now the Scene of Great
Activity.
Moi is the Gibraltar OF Japan.

Whether you arrive by land or by
sea- the place gives an immediate i'm
preston Of eliminating majesty, says
the London Daily Mail. Great hills
tower up in every direction, and be-
hind them lies snow-clad mountain
peaks proudly topping them.
Here and there you spy openings on
the rocky shore, artfully concealed
natural harbors. A well protected
channel itself, and here, after a short
journey, you come on the twin towns
Moji and Shimonoseki, on either side
of the bay.
The hills, black and lined with mist,
stand grimly around. Stacks of tt
tanic chimneys on the low levels of
Moji vomit forth thick smoke. recall
ing the horrors of Pittsburg. Ten
thousand craft, from the S,OO0ton
Harland and Wolff steamer to the
antique junk, lie packed around.
Stacks of coal, almost mountains in
themselves. are one great center of
work An almost unceasing success
sion of trains adds to them, while
myriads workers bear the accumuat.
ing loads to lighters nearby. The To-
comotives you notice are Baldwin, and
the coal trucks are the newest pat
tern--steel, automatic emptying. The
open fires burn weirdly on the native
boats. There is feeling of haste in
the air
In the harbor, both on the Mojl and
ChitpnnngA1yi ct ho
craft emptying and filing with great
speed. In the deeper water great
steamers are lying. surrounded by coal
barges. and an army of women and
men is coallng them by hand with a
rapidity no machinery can rival. This
is not the sleepy Orient, but has the
spirit of the bustlng West.
The multitudinous junks themselves
are well worth notice. Here is a junk
so large that half a dozen households
could find room on it; here one so
tiny that its poor owner and wife and
children can only find room to sleep at
night by pulling mating over the bare
deck. This junk is outwardly the re-
plca of an old Spanish galleon, and
this is the image of the pictured pirate
craft which awesomely rejoiced ones
bovhood days.
II is hard to realize that around here
Is one of the best fortified spots on
earth. Every trace of the gigantic
military and naval preparations now
proceeding in the neighborhood is as
carefully covered as possible. The
hills around are honey-combed with
forts and protected by artillery at
every point, but one looks in vain for
the guns. The supplies now being
landed from a thousand junks are,
every one Is aware for military use.
But there are no men in uniform
supervising. Tens OF thousands of
troops lie ready within brief march;
but there is not a soldier on the
streets. This scenery, at least, Is
typically Oriental.
Those who are enraptured with the
poetic side Of Japan would receive
shock from the streets of Moi or its
sister town, Shimonoseki. They are
as prosaic and as dirty as those OF the
worst parts Of the Black Country.
Every one bears the traces of oil.
The streets are narrow and tortuous,
and have that indescribable "slummy"
smell (the nearest approach to a de-
scription can be a combination of the
odors Of boiled cabbage and spilled
parafin) familiar in the back STREETS
of London. The children too OF en-
show plain traces that their mothers
are busy at other work than car'ng
for them. The roadways are without
footpaths, and on wet days are any
thing but pleasant. Drainage is ex-
ceedingly primitive. Every shop has
It's front open all day, even in these
winter times.
Shimonoseki and Moji have been
the center for two Of the most no
mentous events in modern Japanese
history. 1t was here, in 1858, that the
fleets of the Great Powers came to
punish Japan for some offences
against foreigners. Many men still
living nearby took part in that con-
flict, and they say whether rightly
or not, have no means of knowing)
lHdt lHt llO HlllStll was
among the defenders. The fleets
shelled Moji, and the people mounted
their batteries and vigorously replied
But every Japanese shot fell short.
The result Of that bombardment was
not merely local ruin at Moji, but
stretched out to the overthrow of the
old Japanese feudallsm and the in
ception of new ideal Of an Occiden.
talized Orient.
1t was therefore fitting that this
same bay, which had witnessed the
humiliation of the old, should be the
scene of the crowning triumph of the
new. In 1895 Japan proved, by force
OF arms, her power to enter the ranks
OF the world-nations. China law de-
feated before her despised rival, and
1t was to Shimonoseki that Ii Hung
Chang, China's envoy, came craving,
and obtaining, peace.