The Dermott news., 1916-09-14
SOLDIER SPIRIT IN JAPAN
Boys Are Taught, From the Earliest Age, Every Sort of Military
 Drill Exercise.

)' ''i A-NSi SioC-
 The warlike spirit is instilled into Japanese boys from mere babyhood the first presents to them belng tSy Samarai, armor, etc So says Con Hoske Komai, q distinguished Jap aHese writer, now in England for the period of the war Continuing, in the London Times, he writes of these boys They have their own special manlike festivities on May 5, These are eu1iyeAed by ags and by Samura warriors, each bearing the celebrated ancient crest of the boys family. And in thelr gardens are fixed long bamboo poles, on which are hoisted carp made of cloth of paper. shimmering in gold and silver, dappled and scarlet. as symbols CT Warlke fortitude and read mess to endure adverse fate with the catmuess of those brave fish.
 These customs have been observed in Japan for centuries, and naturally We Japanese feel very proud if we have more boys than girls in our fam fly. The festive opportunities are seized by us 10 make presents to oui friends whenever they rejoice at the birth of boy.
 Apart from these boys festivities We celebrate on the same day the great anniversary of the famous 'Yasu kuHl Hnsha shrine in Tokio. where all the spirits of our officers, soldiers | IafEaI h For. as the reader may easily recall We Japanese are great worshipers of our ancestors, to whom we really owe our present existence and who are embodied in and represented by oui iilustrious Mikado.
 At the age of seven boys enter the elementary schools and at the com pietion Of their six-year course, at the age of thirteen or fourteen they are entitled to enter the middle school course during which they have to un dergo the military drill exercises, the faverite national games of wrestling fencing, and jiu jitsu all being op tional. Some cannot afford to enter this course Others go on to college and university At the age of twen. ty, whether rich or poor high or low priest or no priest comes the ques. ton of couscription. says the writer whose treatment of this subject Of universal service is affected by the gurre4t discussions in England, for ha says Chat t js not regarded by the Japanese as q heavy duty. but as g.ar41s privilege
 Prior to the restoration in Japan" he sa1s. military service was regard. ed as the honored privilege of the @amurai class and prized as such The Samurai were our hereditary warriors and enjoyed a monopoly of all fighting The system continued unGl the abolition of feudaism in the country in 1S68.' Conscription proper, he saws, was really introduced in 1S72, and provided in principle for the obligatory service of all men. mar ried and single, from eighteen to forty l'ut in practice the states right was never executed, even during the Chi uoJapan war in 1S94-5. or in the Rus. sian war in l904-5. Then 1.250,00G men were mobiized in Manchuria alone. Universal service, the writer says. is individually prized by the Japanese as an opportunity to each and every one to become a Samurai and to be allowed to fight for his ia ther and mother. It never occurs to Us he writes. to call it com pulsian. We regard it as a persona shame or disgrace if we are rejected through physical mdtness for the arHs Ne do not hasten to get mar ried before we join the army. There is 10 such thing as separation allow auees, etc, in Japan
 But as Japanese are increasing a, the rate of 100000 year. there ire Quently happens to be au enormous excess of candidates for military serv ice and in such cases exemptions art decided by lot. Apart from this the only exemptions permitted are of only sons of aged parents more than sixty years old who's maintenance depends on them, and number of liberal con sessions made to students and thos, employed on special missions Tn, latter are allowed to postpone theh term of military service until theJ finish their course of study.