The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-07-26
VISCOUNT KODAMA WAS
JAPAN'S GREATEST HERO
From the New York Commercial.

From the New York Commercial.
N THE death of Field Marshal Wis
count KodamA, Japan loses not only
the supreme head of her splendid
army, but perhaps the greatest, although
not the most widely celebrated, general
she has produced in the last 1000 years
of her military history.
While the fact is not generally known
outside of Japan. those who knew the
inner workings of Japans stupendous war
machine. which swept the Russian armies
from Manchuria, have been aware from
the first that Field Marshal Kodama was
the man above all others who made pos
sible the unbroken series of Japanese
victories over Russia.
While Field Marshal Oyama was SUI
preme commander of all the armies in
the field, by reason of his superior rank,
1t was Oyama's modest and self-effacing
chief of staff General (then Baron) Ko-
dama who was the real brains of the
Japanese army. Oyama, as a leader of
the forces in the war against the usurping
Shogunate for the restoration of the En-
peror in 1858. and as leader of half the
Japanese forces which humbled China in
1894, had distinguished himself as a hard
FOUNDER and bulldog fighter, rather than
as strategist. Far superior to him were
General Nodzu and the brilliant but SUI
perannuated Field Marshal Yamagata. 1t
was Oyama who took Wei-ha-wei and
Port Arthur from the Chinese, and for
the massacre of the natives at Port Ar
thur he was believed to be responsible.
On the breaking out of the war with
Russia, Yamagata, the ranking field mar
shall owing to i'll health, was kept in
Toxic as chief of the general staff, while
Oyama was sent to take charge of all the
field operations in Manchura with Ko-
DANA as his chief of staff and the bril-
liant Lieutenant General Fukushima,
hero of the map-making horseback ride
from Berlin to Vladivostok, as Kodama's
right-hand adviser. These generals had
under their supervision four separate
armies. each In charge of a lieutenant
general.
These subordinate commanders were
Generals Kuroki. who marched across
Corea; Nodzu, who led 1.-The mysterious
Takushan army" Oku, who fought his
way northward from Dalny, all operating
| against Kuropatkin, and Nogi. who in
vested and captured Port Arthur
The marvellous plan of campaign which
| led to a series of the greatest and blood
iest battles of all history, In every one of
which the Japanese forces were victor-
GUS, had been in the main planned ten
years, before In Toxic by the far-seeng
head of the war department. General
Terauchi. and such officers of the general
| staff as Yamagata, Kodama, Oyama and
FuSushima, assisted by the Mikados in
ner circle of unofficial advisers, called
| the Gonroku, or elder statesmen compris-
| ing such far-seelng statesmen as the
| Marquis Ito and Counts Ofluma and In
| ouye and Premier Katsura. Yet in ac-
| cordance with the custom OF the Emperor
| Mutsuhito, one OF the worlds most pro-
| gressive rulers. who has always followed
| the policy of looking to his younger adj
visers for counsel, the main details of the
| invasion of Manchura were planned by
| Kodama.
| Like Won Moltke, before the Franco
| Prussian war. Kodama had in his pigeon
holes complete plans for hurting the
armies of Nippon against the Russians,
| together with the most elaborate maps Of
every rod of Manchurian territory. After
Port Arthur had been practically stolen
from Japan in 1895 Japan was quietly
turned into one vast military camp the
army was recognized and enlarged, new
military and naval schools were opened,
and the navy was greatly strengthened.
and to kodama, more than to any one
man. was given the task of working out
the intricate and perfect strategical de-
tails of the campaign which Japan. nurs-
ing her wrath for years. knew must soon
er or later be opened against Russia.
In this work, and in his subsequent
grand strategy on the field from Port
Arthur to Nukden, Kodama, intellectual,
brilliant student of modern war meth
( DDS proved / imself the equal of Lee, Won
Moltke and perhaps even of Napoleon.
The Japanese armies moved like clock
work. The cecise work and route OF
/ every line oflicer was laid out for him
weeks in advance. A staff officer in the