Part 25

In March 1904 there was a gathering in Tokio to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the treaty made between Japan and the United States of America, consequent on the visits of Commodore Perry in 1853 and 1854. Count Okuma, in giving a sketch of the Educational progress achieved by Japan in recent years, made some thoughtful remarks which showed how thorough is his grasp of the teachings of history as well as his breadth of view. Alluding to the circumstances which had compelled Japan to close her doors to Western nations early in the seventeenth century, he remarked that for a long period prior to that time she had been in free and unfettered intercourse with Europe, particularly with Spain and Portugal. That intercourse led to the introduction of a new religion, which made such rapid progress that tradition put the number of converts at several millions within a hundred years. “The first religious propagandists,” he said, “were men of noble character. But they were soon followed by men of inferior quality. These began to meddle with politics. People began to suspect that the real object of missionary work was to conquer the country. The home Governments at Lisbon or Madrid might possibly have been innocent of any evil designs, but their missionaries in the Far East behaved in such a manner that the rulers of Japan came to the conclusion that the object and presence of foreign missionaries was inimical to the peace and tranquillity of the country. At the time Japan adopted this policy it so chanced that Europe was also grappling with a religious trouble. It was the harassing period of the Thirty Years’ War. But during the seclusion of 216 years which followed Japan was not altogether out of touch with the West. The light of Western Civilisation was all the time penetrating Japan through the little port of Nagasaki, where the Dutch, alone of all Occidental nations, were permitted to reside and trade. The result was the spread of a knowledge of medicine, astronomy, botany, and other branches of Western learning among the people long before the advent of Perry. Preparations had thus been steadily made during the period of seclusion for the reception with advantage of the full flood of Western Civilisation. As to Perry’s mission in 1853, the Pacific Coasts had been touched by more than fifty Japanese fishing craft driven across the ocean from their own islands by storms. And in 1860 Japan herself sent the Oguri Mission to the United States, in a warship of her own, commanded by Count Katsu, at that time the lord of Awa province, at the entrance to Yedo bay,—a mission which received as much attention, if not more than was accorded in America to the Iwakura Embassy a dozen years afterwards. One of the many beneficial results of the Oguri Mission was the discovery which the members of it made of the importance of studying the English language. At that time Dutch was the only prevalent European tongue cultivated in Japan.” Count Okuma’s opinion has always been that the adoption of English as the standard foreign language,—it is a compulsory subject in the national schools, while all other Western languages are merely optional,—had wide reaching effects on the mental bias of the people and in the direction given to national development. Coming down to very recent times, Count Okuma spoke of the fact that Japan was at the moment unfortunately entangled in war with a great power. In that conflict his country represented, he said, the aspirations of the civilised world, since she was striving in support of the great principle of the open door. She had had to draw her sword to sweep away a great obstacle in the path of the practical realisation of that principle. Her success in the struggle would therefore be the triumph of the common policy of the Commercial Powers.

In one of Count Okuma’s best speeches, made not long since in connection with the rise of Japan, he claimed that the whole nation had acted from the beginning on the principle which was so clearly enunciated in the Imperial Rescript at the time of the Restoration in 1868 of “seeking knowledge throughout the world.” The Emperor’s words, in the fifth clause of the Rescript were:—

“We shall endeavour to raise the prestige and honour of Our Country by seeking knowledge throughout the world.”

The intention was to copy what was worth copying in every country and to enter into an honourable rivalry in culture and civilisation with all nations. It is the fundamental principle which accounts for Japan’s rise: she has never hesitated to adopt anything that she has found to be good; she has ever tried to swim with the current of human progress; she has never shrunk from any sacrifice in eradicating that which she has found to be bad. The voice of the people can make itself heard in the management of public affairs and it was the same Rescript, as Count Okuma always declares, which gave to the country the keynote of a liberal form of administration, when the Emperor bade his subjects “settle affairs by public opinion.” If the principle of swimming breast-high on the tide of human progress is to be adhered to in its entirety, the intellectual faculty, as Count Okuma urges, should be applied to all the concerns of daily life, and that cannot be done without education. For more than thirty years the Government of Japan has devoted much attention and energy to the question of education, and the best training that could be procured has been given with a generous hand to students of political, social, and military affairs, as well as for those preparing themselves for humbler but no less important walks of life in commerce, industry, and agriculture. The country, declared Count Okuma, has also stepped out into the wider area of the world of reality and has become a formidable competitor in the field of international trade and commerce, her policy during the last thirty years having greatly assisted her development along this line. The Japanese nation is not merely a nation of fighters,—it has no mean skill in agriculture and commerce, for the statistical tables which are available show that the national wealth has increased six or sevenfold during the last thirty years, and if one compares the present revenue of the country with what it was at the conclusion of the Japan-China War only ten years ago it is seen to have already more than trebled itself.

In 1899 Count Okuma expressed himself publicly as being very anxious for Great Britain’s co-operation with Japan, and the Anglo-Japanese Agreement of 1902 had no more zealous supporter of the policy involved, nor is there a more thorough admirer of British institutions, though he has never visited our shores, than Count Okuma. Indeed he has not, so far, quitted his own land, yet he knows from close study of contemporary literature as much about the countries and peoples of the Occident as he would probably have acquired in years of travel. In private life his hobby is horticulture. At Waseda he has a magnificent collection of orchids and tropical plants in general, sheltered within huge conservatories which stand in the spacious gardens attached to his residence, and he is a great lover of the chrysanthemum, of which he cultivates many new varieties. The mansion itself is in two parts, one purely Japanese in style and construction, the other European, and he entertains his friends accordingly, the privileged visitor being received in the Japanese apartments even though he may be a foreigner. In adopting this plan of building Count Okuma has followed a practice that is becoming almost general among the Japanese nobility.

XV

FIELD-MARSHAL MARQUIS IWAO OYAMA

Born sixty-four years ago at Kagoshima, the chief town of the famous province of Satsuma, in Kiu-shiu, Marshal Iwao Oyama is a nephew of the renowned Marshal Saigo Takamori, and a type of the _bushi_ of which the nucleus of the army of Japan was largely composed. He was in his twenty-fifth year when the war of the Restoration took place, a contest that it will be remembered arose between the followers of the Sho-gun and those of the Dai-mios or feudal chieftains who had practically ruled their own provinces in the south and west. On the side of the Sho-gun were ranged the Tokugawa barons, and the northern clans generally, while for the south and progress there stood the men of Satsuma, Nagato, Hizen, and Tosa. By Japanese Nagato is commonly known nowadays as Cho-shiu, and Satsuma is officially styled Sasshiu. Satsuma had taken the lead in many respects in introducing the arts and sciences of the Occident into Japan, for she had not only established a cotton mill at Kagoshima some years before, and owned several very useful steamers of small tonnage, but had drilled a body of troops on the western system. It was this foreign-drilled corps that took so prominent a part in the operations near Kioto, in which the Shogun’s adherents were signally defeated and the opposition of the northern clans finally overcome. Oyama took his share of the hard work entailed in this memorable struggle, and was head of one of the Satsuma companies that shone conspicuously in the engagement at Fushimi, a village situated midway between Osaka and Kioto, close to the existing main line of railway. When the civil war was over, and the reign of Mei-ji had fairly begun under the beneficent auspices of the present occupant of the throne, the organisation of a regular army on an Occidental model occupied the attention of all who were interested in the rise of their country to power and wealth. If she would take her place among the nations of the West, skilled as they were in all the arts of modern warfare, Japan must provide herself, it was seen, with the means of securing peace within her borders to develop her energies and call up all her resources. Peace, as no people were better able than the Satsuma clansmen to perceive, was only to be attained by making the most complete preparations for war. Satsuma was foremost in advocating the adoption and assimilation of every improvement in the mechanical arts and the earnest study of every science that would be likely to promote the welfare of the nation, more especially those that might lead to military success if ever the country should be plunged into hostilities with either an Eastern or a Western Power.

Marquis Oyama was in part educated in France, and after the Restoration had been accomplished and the existing Mei-ji era of Enlightenment had been inaugurated, he was sent to Paris as Military Attache, and was in Europe throughout the Franco-German War, his sympathies, no doubt from early association, having been keenly aroused in favour of France. Naturally he was greatly disappointed with the result of the campaign, and there can be no doubt that he laid to heart the lessons which the failure of the French arms in this gigantic struggle were well calculated to impress upon his receptive mind. Immediately on his return to Japan he received a command in the army, and he had opportunities at this comparatively early period of turning to account the knowledge that he had acquired of Occidental systems of warfare, though as yet he held no position of paramount responsibility that admitted of his putting his ideas into actual practice. The ball was not yet at his feet: his consummate ability was yet to be manifested.

The year 1877 is especially memorable in the annals of Japan as being that in which clan dissensions, despite the genuine endeavours of able statesmen, culminated in a disastrous internecine strife. It is not necessary to enter into a consideration of all the events which led to that deplorable result, for they have been set forth at length in connection with the life story of Marshal Saigo Takamori, elsewhere recorded in these pages, and it is only necessary for the moment to refer to the part which Marshal Oyama took in the suppression of the rebellion. He was despatched to Kiushiu at the outbreak of hostilities and his division was conspicuous among the Imperial forces that landed at Hakata, the chief town of the province of Chiku-zen, in March, some five weeks after the Satsuma men had marched out of Kagoshima 12,000 strong. An ardent believer in the efficacy of military training, and a most enthusiastic supporter of the principles of universal military service, as the sole security of a nation against foreign aggression, Oyama now found himself, by the force of circumstances, compelled to take the field against one to whom he was closely related, and who had been the consistent upholder of an identical policy, if not, indeed, its originator,—as far as Japan was concerned,—and who had himself occupied the post of Minister of War in the first State Council of the Meiji era.

General Oyama, as he was then, distinguished himself in connection with many engagements at Minami-no-seki (South Barrier), Takase (High Rapids), Kawajiri (River’s end), and Kumamoto (Bear’s origin), and on other fields of battle, being present at the final scene at Kagoshima, late in the year 1877, when the remnants of Saigo’s troops were annihilated and their leader met a soldier’s death, fighting to the last.

At the close of this regrettable civil war General Oyama was sent to Europe specially to study the working of the military systems then in operation, and he visited the principal capitals and made himself master in every instance of the needful details. He spent much time in Berlin during this later visit to Europe, for the German system had been definitely adopted in Japan as the most suitable to the needs of the nation. But he did not wholly dissociate himself from his former friends in France, and in the course of his stay took opportunity more than once to pass a day or two in Paris, combining pleasure with profit, for he continued to find in the methods of the French most valuable features, admirable from every point of view, but especially so when applied under given circumstances to the peculiar needs of the Japanese army. It was designed that the studies to which he had to devote himself in Berlin should be of a character to enable him to render Marquis Yamagata the maximum of assistance in the grand work of reorganising the army and providing adequately for military education. When, therefore, his mission in Europe was deemed sufficiently accomplished he was recalled to Tokio and made Chief of the Staff under General Yamagata, and when in 1890 Marquis Yamagata was the Minister-president of State in the First Cabinet formed after the proclamation of the New Constitution, Marshal Oyama, as he had by that time become, held the portfolio of Minister for War. That administration lasted until April 1901, and was followed by the Matsukata and Ito Cabinets, in both of which Oyama Iwao was War Minister, and when in 1894 the great conflict with China began, he begged to be relieved of his post in the administration with all speed in order that he might be able to take part in the actual fighting in Manchuria. He was given the command of the Second Army Corps, Marshal Yamagata being at the time with the First Army in Liao-tung, and while the preparations for despatching the Second Army over-sea to the capture of Port Arthur were in progress, the Commander of it dwelt at the town of Hiroshima, in south-west Japan, close to the port of embarkation, named Ujina. While organising the expedition he took up his quarters in a very unpretending little shop in Hiroshima, and there the final arrangement of the campaign was planned in company with the late General Kawakami, by common consent esteemed the greatest of Japan’s strategists.

The Second Army consisted of the First Division, and a mixed brigade of the Sixth, with a siege train, and it was despatched in part at the end of September 1894, to Chemulpo, and partly to the Ping Yang inlet in the middle of October, the Japanese fleet being there already, keeping watch on the movements of the Chinese squadron and reconnoitring the coasts of the Liao-tung peninsula for a suitable landing-place for Marshal Oyama’s force. There was little cause to apprehend interference from the vessels of Admiral Ting’s fleet after its defeat at the mouth of the Yalu in September, however, and on the evening of the 23rd October the first convoy of sixteen ships steamed over from the Ping Yang inlet to a point on the coast at the mouth of the river Hwa-yuan. Ten Japanese men-of-war acted as escort, but the Chinese made no attempt to interfere with the landing of the troops. At this time the Chinese held Ta-lien-wan and the adjacent walled city of Kinchau with some 6000 men, and Port Arthur was garrisoned with 10,800 men after the 6th of November.

On that date the Japanese captured Kinchau and next day Ta-lien-wan forts fell into their hands, and the port was thenceforward their base of operations against the fortress at the extremity of the “Regent’s Sword.”

Marshal Oyama’s army remained in the region of the Talienwan isthmus until the 18th, and then the advance towards Port Arthur was commenced. On the 20th the Marshal issued orders for the attack to be made at daylight the next day, his whole force at that time numbering 25,700 combatants. The Chinese had 4050 men in the coast forts in addition to the 10,800 men before mentioned in the various land forts which formed the semicircle of the defences, of about two and a half miles radius. These land forts were armed with a great variety of ordnance, including Krupp, mountain, field and siege guns, 40-pounder Armstrongs, 10-barrelled Gatlings, and even Chinese pieces of antique design. Long before daylight on the 21st November the assailants were on the move, and had reached their assigned positions by 7 A.M. without encountering the least opposition. The famous Itsushan forts were taken in the first onset, and General Hasegawa, commanding the mixed brigade, speedily took the positions on the Two-dragons’ hill and adjacent heights, the fighting being practically over by noon. At 3 P.M. the Japanese were in possession of the town, and though the coast forts continued to fire at the fleet, which took no notice of them, the positions were evacuated during the night, and Marshal Oyama, with the headquarters of the First Division, returned to Kinchau.

The Chinese fleet lay at Wei-hai-wei, a danger to any expedition which might cross the gulf of Pechili, and as it was part of the Japanese plan to march to the Chinese capital, the capture or destruction of the ships became imperative. It was therefore resolved that Marshal Oyama should lead his army to the assault of the Shantung fortress. For this purpose it was decided to reinforce him to the extent in all of 24,000 combatants, and the fleet of transports with the men on board left Ujina early in January 1895, and steamed to Talienwan, where the bulk of the troops which had been victorious at Port Arthur were likewise embarked and the whole expedition set sail for Yung-cheng Bay, at the extreme north-east point of the Shantung peninsula, which was reached on the early morning of the 20th January. By degrees all the men were landed, with provisions for six weeks. From Yung-cheng the advance was made by two roads, six days after the landing was commenced, and the ridges to the south of the harbour were carried without any difficulty on the 30th. It was part of the Japanese plan to turn the guns of the Chinese land forts, as soon as they could be taken, against the men-of-war in harbour commanded by Admiral Ting, and it is to this officer’s credit that he had foreseen this and had even begun to dismantle the eastern forts in good time, but he was over-ruled, and the guns replaced in their positions in obedience to peremptory orders from Tien-tsin. So confident was Marshal Oyama that he would be able to turn these heavy guns to account that he had brought bluejackets with him to man them, with sundry stores and fittings from Port Arthur to replace similar articles which it was thought probable the Chinese would either remove or destroy. There was somewhat hard fighting on the 1st of February, but next day the Japanese forces entered Wei-hai-wei unopposed, and it was found that the guns in the western defences had been rendered useless. The cold was at this time so intense that the ships were covered with ice, and blocks of ice three inches thick were frozen into the muzzles of the guns. Marshal Oyama’s army had, however, completed the work assigned to it, and it only remained for the fleet to bring about the reduction of the forts on the island of Liu-kung-tao, and the destruction or surrender of the Chinese vessels. It was effected by a series of daring torpedo-boat attacks, in the first week of February, followed by a systematic bombardment of the island positions, and the surrender of Admiral Ting took place on the 12th of that month.

Having captured Wei-hai-wei and removed the danger to the Peking expedition which the presence of a Chinese fortress on its flank would have created, the next step of the Japanese was to prepare for the march to the Chinese capital itself. Marshal Oyama returned to Talienwan, and the troops were disposed between there and Port Arthur, or at the fortress itself, in readiness for the final concentration.

On the 14th of April the Guard and the Fourth Division passed through the Straits of Shimonoseki in fifty transports on their way to Talienwan to unite with the troops under Marshal Oyama. Prince Komatsu accompanied them as Commander-in-chief of the Land and Sea Forces, intending to set up his headquarters in Port Arthur. The entire Japanese forces now included seven divisions, and the Chinese had massed practically an equal number between Shanhaikwan and Peking, in addition to the army they still had in Manchuria. But on the 17th of April the treaty of peace was signed, and an armistice established until the 8th of May, when ratifications were exchanged at Chifu and the war of 1894-5 was at an end.

In the course of the war the total losses on the Japanese side were:—

Killed 739 Died of wounds 230 ” cholera 1602 ” other diseases 1546 ---- Total deaths 4117

Wounded 3009 Cholera patients 2689 Invalids from other causes 51,164 ------ 56,862 ------ Total loss, 60,979

In the settlement with China it had been agreed that she should cede the peninsula of Liao-tung to Japan. But Russia, France, and Germany stepped in to deprive her of these legitimate spoils of war, in order that Russia, and at no distant date, might seek to permanently occupy the territory herself. The wrong done was never forgiven nor forgotten in Japan, and when Marshal Oyama took up his position as Chief of the General Staff in Tokio, shortly after the conclusion of peace, both he and Marshal Yamagata set about the task of making Japan’s military power sufficient to secure her against the peril which they foresaw would continue to menace their land while the advance of Russia southward might remain unchecked.

Marshal Oyama held the post indicated, at the General Staff, during the intervening years down to 1904, and it was a period of steady and eager preparation for the inevitable, by reorganisation of every branch of the military system, and by paying very particular attention to the education and training of the Japanese military officer. What that training is may be ascertained from the Kinkodo Company’s excellent history of the late war.