Japan must still spill oceans of blood before Europe consents to overlook it completely.
Some of them are, however, of almost perfect European type, straight eyes, unobtrusive cheekbones and small nostrils. I told a young lieutenant, answering to this description, that he was descended from the Portuguese who settled in Kyushu in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but he did not appear to be flattered. No Japanese is complimented by being told that he has foreign blood in his veins. Nevertheless, in the case of this young man, I was probably right in my surmise, for he came from Kumamoto, a great missionary centre of the Portuguese, and he looked more like an Iberian than a Japanese.
During this trip I was brought into closer relations with the Japanese officers than ever I was before, and I must say that I found them very pleasant companions. Their courtesy and their clear pronunciation of their own beautiful language were delightful, while their English was quaint, with an unspeakable charm. Nor were they suspicious. They told me everything they knew about the disposition of their forces; but the Japanese War Office need not be alarmed, as, in the first place, they did not know much, and in the second, I have not communicated what they told me to anybody.
And here I may remark that, as a rule, the young Japanese officer is as civil and unsuspicious as any young English middy. During this war he was, however, under the influence of the stern men who were born under the rule of the Shogun and fed in their early days on the iron traditions of the Samarai; but it is, in the nature of things, impossible that this stoicism can last much longer. I could, if I liked, give many instances of its breakdown.
In these days of commercialism, when many of us have become cosmopolitans and few of us are disinterested patriots, the little Jap officer can teach us a good lesson. He gets at first only thirty-three yen fifty sen (or about £$ IOS-) a month, and his salary, even when he has attained high rank in the army, would be scornfully laughed at by the average foreign clerk in Yokohama. With him, therefore, money is as little an object as it is with a Carthusian novice.
He devotes his life to an ideal — the glory of Dai- Nippon — and if, philosophically considered, it is not a very high ideal, it is surely better than none at all. It is a great privilege in these decadent days to be able to die for something.
The conversation of these young men was as original and piquant as the first taste of an excellent strange wine or the first perusal of an interesting foreign author. I shall select some examples of their small talk:
" Russky no Heitai-wa wari-wari no teketoshite-wa amari yohaee."
" The Russian soldier is not worthy to be our enemy, because he is too timid.,,
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
TV" TV TV" TV*
"When come Russky prisoner, then I feed poor man (aware-nashto); I give whisky, b(u)randy, cake and milk. Prisoner not enemy.... Yes, I catch Russky prisoner, many I catch" (" watakshi-wa horio wo takusan toriimashta ").
The above, by the way, from a young fellow of twenty-one, with a face so mild that you would think butter would not melt in his mouth.
A phrase, often repeated during the latter end of this trip, was " Nippon-wa chikai desu " (" Japan is near ").
A youth, whom I congratulated on his luck in getting home, responded seriously: — " I am not glad to return to my native country because the war is not finished, and, when my wound is healed, I shall again return to Manchuria."
It was surprising the unanimity of opinion they showed with regard to their enemies. The Russian soldiers were good, the officers not good, the generals bad.
It was also surprising how unanimous they were in thinking that Kuropatkin ought to commit suicide sooner than accept a subordinate command.
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
" I have a bottle of whisky for when my courage is gone; severe attack of enemy, long, long march down the hills, along the valley, then whisky very grateful."
"Watashi-wa Tokio-no Rikogun dai gakko ko ni hairimai sosh'te sambo shoko ni narimasho."
("I will re-enter military college, Tokio, and from that school will become staff officer.")
^ W ^ W T&
One officer admitted that the Russians were braver than the Chinese — an admission which reminded me that, just before the outbreak of the war, Russian privates at Port Arthur used to admit that the little Jap would give them more trouble, perhaps, than the Chinaman.