The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-02-05
Yamagata: The Sword Of Japan
Last but One of the Empire Builders and Organizer of
the First Modern Disarmament Conference.
By WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIs.

The frst modern disarmament con-
ference was held In Toxic IN January.
1871. I received wi,at--wa . virtual
| invitation to see the. preliminarfes and
tho results when knock came at my
bedroom door at A. N. The president
lot the Imperial University. asked me
to arise. dress and accompany him to
| a remote part OF the city.
| Two Englishmen. teachers In the pre-
paratory language school. had been cut
down by ruffians--or gentlemen armed
/ with swords and were lying IN q house
Eawaiting surgeons and intention. Hav-
| Ing been notified by the Government
and escorted by four armed men, we
reached the modest dwelling in q back
street.
On the walls Of the house were the mask
Of the laughing goddess Uxuns and the
household shrine. with its burning can
dies and food offerings, and near BY the
tablets of worshiped ancestors. So The
matter in hand and to come when day
light appeared savored of both tragedy
and comedy. as we were soon to see.
| In tho dim light Of the vegetable wax
candles and lantern wc could see the
two wounded men on quilts on the mat
ting covered door. One. partially sit
ting UP. had received cut extending
| downward from shoulder top to near the
diaphragm. The other. lying on his
back. was crossed with two gaping
sword wounds extending from one
shoulder to the pelvis. showing a dag
onal red line that made one wonder
whether one or more ribs had been sew
cred; while the other slash was on the
other shoulder, running some eight
inches downward.
Already the native doctor. well used
in old Yedo to this sort Of case was
on hand. With deftest skill he stanched
the flow OF blood with thick mulberry
bark paper Of Corean invention and
bound up the gaping flesh. When DR..
Willis. the British Legation surgeon,
arrived he declared admiringly that he
could not have done better. Loose cot
ton wool was laid under the men and
they fell asleep, exhausted.
Slowly the dark hours passed and
morning came. Then. as sailed forth
and back to breakfast over a long
stretch, both the dramatic and the comic
consequences were visible. stD
It being by no means the first, but
rather the twentieth, deadly assault on
foreigners-in one case the matter had
called for the bombardment of Kago-
shima, the Satsuna capital, by the
British fieet-things were looking seri-
GUS for the new Imperial Government,
composed Of handful of young men and
| then scarcely more than a year old in
Toxic, especially as British squadron
Of ironclads lay in the harbor and the
Tenth Regiment OF British Infantry was
encamped on the hill at Yokohama. An
other regiment Of French troops was at
hand to assist the British. Both forces
were in Japanese waters and on Japa-
nese land for this very purpose Of stop
ping the sword play of the proud samu-
raj. Within a few hours the Foreign
Office received demand for inquiry and
explanation from Sir Harry Parkes, the
British Envoy. a
Still it was a matter Of satisfaction for
US Americans-the ten or twelve then in
the capitalize realize that the only for
eign flag then flying in Toxic. the proper
seat of all legations. was the Stars and
Stripes, which except for short period
had been nailed to its bamboo pole from
the day that Townsend Harris in 1853
raised It. M
But what Of the tragedy, remedy and
steps for disarmament of which this in
cident was the occasion?
1t was believed as matter of tradi-
tion that bloodstains on a Japanese
sword of steel, edge welded or Illuminated
on an iron backing, could not be re-
moved except by grinding. So to dis
cover the assaiiants of tho two English
men an inspection OF swords was begunt
Every swordmaker In town was visited.
Gentlemen, on their sallying out Of their
houses. were outraged by being obliged
publicly to stop and unsheath their
swords. and, worse than ALL to be hu-
initiated by an official inspection II may
be before a crowd Of gaping commoners
or street men, as IL suspected of crime.
And this despite the ago old fences of
etiquette and the acid bitten or steel
excavated notices In their ancestral
blades. such as, Draw me not without
cause; sheath me not without hoLor..
Yet hore were both drawing and she ath-
ing Of a sort not desired nor In the
tradition Of respectable households. ~
But tho comedy7 Ali the Thousand
or two of inspectors. regular or specially
detailed, who that day stopped gentle
men on the street or entered houses to
discover the miscreants. and thus head
off a British armed visitation on land
or a naval demonstration. must needs
do their duty. even to an extreme rigor.
that caused among boys and young
men weeks Of inextinguishable laughter
Whole classes were called out OF the
lecture rooms. for all samurai boys
came to school daily each with two