As I have already intimated, there was very little to eat or drink, for the Japanese carry few luxuries with them, so that they can never display anything approaching the lavish hospitality of the Russians, but they seemed to do all they could to entertain us.
CHAPTER XVI
On Monday, March 13, I was told to get ready to start in an hour for Dalny. I did not take five minutes to get ready, for I had no packing to do, and at daybreak I set out with — or, rather, " in custody of" — a young soldier called T. Hara. Hara San, who speaks English well, was a delightful travelling companion, and possessed in an exceptional degree the Japanese qualities of tact, good humour and physical endurance. He said to me: "Sir, you will be much civilised when you reach Dalny," meaning that I would have an opportunity of getting a good wash, and I thanked him for this piercing, but well-intentioned, comment on my personal appearance.
During our little trip to Dalny Private Hara taught me some Japanese, and discussed all sorts of subjects with me, from the merest trifles to the most abstruse problems of philosophy, and his smile, his "aliveness" and his fine teeth were my entertainment all the way. In sooth, he was a very engaging little fellow, and if Japanese privates are all like him I am afraid that there will soon be no chance for us poor whites on the face of this planet.
Like all Japanese, Hara was entirely under the Anglo- American influence, save in the matter of religion.
" None of us, Japanese, believe in religion," he said, proudly; " we believe neither in a God nor in a hereafter. In our funeral services, it is true, we address the spirits of the dead as if they were present, but that is only our politeness. Besides," he added cheerfully, a question twinkling in his eye, " no educated European or American now believes in Christianity."
I quote him because, from a four years' experience of Japan, I am convinced that he speaks not only for himself, but for the more advanced portion of his nation. Of few things is intellectual Japan so perfectly certain as that religion is merely an old wife's tale; and if an earnest man from Oxford or Maynooth thinks he makes a good impression on a Japanese philosopher by confessing that he believes in Christianity he errs grievously; in fact, he might as well seek to make an impression on his Japanese friend by assuring him that he is one of an ancient band of believers who hold that the earth is flat. In short, the Japanese think that what they regard as the extraordinary delusion about Christianity is, perhaps, the one weak point in the European intellect.
Hara said that the Japanese generals had no religion, and, so far as he was concerned, that settled it. He told me that there were Buddhist and Shinto priests in the army, some attached to the forces in the capacity of chaplains, some wearing the uniforms of private soldiers which they temporarily discarded for the sacerdotal robes whenever the necessity arose, but that, though the officers attended their services, they ' 'did not believe in them."
This did not, however, prevent these officers from encouraging the simpler soldiers to wear Buddhist amulets and phylacteries, so that in no way, even in the faith in supernatural assistance, would the Russians have the advantage of them. The Japanese have already adopted the Russian " bashleek," and in the Russian Prisoners' Quarters, where I was afterwards incarcerated, at Shizuoka I heard squads of soldiers engaged in a cheering drill a la Russe. If Christianity is found to increase the fanaticism of the soldier and to lessen his fear of death the Japanese will also adopt it.
A long residence in the Far East is calculated to shake one's faith in Christianity. You find non- Christian tribes and nations contain about the average number of respectable citizens. If you bring forward the good points of Christianity, the educated heathen will promptly dig up something of the same kind out of Buddhist or Confucian theology. The sight of the Russian prisoners saying their prayers three times a day amid a circle of their polite but incredulous conquerors tempts you to believe that Christianity is, after all, a superstition, and that the agnostic Japanese are right.