Part 30
When the prospect of war with Russia in 1903 necessitated much preparation at Tokio, Togo was summoned by Admiral Yamamoto, his old friend and schoolfellow, to the Capital, and he rose from a sick-bed to go, replying to his wife’s remonstrances, “I shall be well the moment I set foot on deck and drink in the salt-laden air.” It is recorded of him that while stationed at Maizuru, the naval depot on the west coast of the main island, facing Korea, he practically lived in his office, and scarcely spoke to any of his officers, merely saluting as he passed in and out. His taciturnity is proverbial, yet children in Japan find nothing forbidding in him and crowd round him with delight. He resides in an exceedingly modest dwelling-house in a Tokio suburb, its furniture and decorations being of the simplest kind. So imperturbable is he that had he been aboard his flagship the _Mikasa_ when she went down recently in harbour at Sasebo it is certain that he would not have lost his self-possession for an instant, and to those who know him best he is the “silent one,” who loves to be alone with his tiny silver tobacco pipe. His recreations are hunting game with his breech-loader and his dogs, or trout-fishing in some mountain stream. Madame Togo has said that when he went to join the United Squadrons a short time prior to the outbreak of hostilities in 1904, he merely asked her to be kind enough to take care of his dogs.
Even for a Japanese the Admiral is short, and rather stout, of figure, and people marvel when they see him that he can be “the great Togo, the Nelson of Japan.” But the energy of the man is revealed in his quick, piercing glance. He is a strict disciplinarian, and a hater, above all things, of display, or of public homage. A story is current at Sasebo that before the fleet sailed for Port Arthur he called all his officers on board the _Mikasa_ and briefly addressed them to the effect:—“We sail to-night, and our enemy flies the Russian flag.” On a tray in front of him lay one of those short daggers which in former times were used to commit _Seppuku_. As the officers filed past him he looked each one in the eyes, and all of them understood his meaning. None would have survived the disgrace of a defeat. It is his practice, it may be added, as showing his indifference to danger, to direct operations during an engagement entirely from the bridge, and he has had some narrow escapes.
The incidents of the Naval campaign of 1904-5 are so fresh in everyone’s memory that it would be tedious to go into minute details. On the night of the 8th of February 1904, the Russian fleet, which lay conveniently for Admiral Togo’s purpose outside the harbour of Port Arthur, found itself attacked. Two Russian battleships and one cruiser were torpedoed, and next day the assault was renewed with the result that another battleship and three more cruisers were badly damaged. Five days later Admiral Togo sent his destroyers to the attack in a snowstorm, and another Russian cruiser was torpedoed. On the 24th of the month an attempt was made to seal Port Arthur by sinking steamers which officers of Admiral Togo’s fleet navigated, and on the 9th and 10th March there was another destroyer attack, followed by a bombardment on the 21st and 22nd.
Five days later another desperate effort was made to block Port Arthur by sinking steamers, and on the 13th of April a Russian Squadron was decoyed out of harbour and the _Petropavlovsk_, with the Russian Admiral Makharoff on board, was sunk by a mine. At last on the 3rd of May Port Arthur was at all events temporarily blocked, for battleships and cruisers, but on the 15th Admiral Togo had the misfortune to lose two of his finest battleships, the _Hatsusé_ and _Yashima_, both built on the Tyne, having run upon drifting torpedoes. There was a naval sortie on the 23rd June, which was easily repulsed by the Japanese fleet, and on the 10th of August took place the memorable battle in the Yellow Sea, when the Russian fleet, issuing from Port Arthur, was defeated and dispersed, some of the ships getting back to harbour at the fortress, but others making for neutral ports, where they were interned until the conclusion of the war. On this occasion the Russian Admiral Vitoft was killed in action. There was a long running fight in which the _Mikasa_ greatly distinguished herself, and at 6.12 P.M. a 12-inch shell came aboard her and burst close to her bridge on the port side. Admiral Togo, with his Chief of Staff, and the captain of the ship, with five others, were on the bridge at the time, and four of the eight persons were hit by fragments, but the admiral was untouched. He had been on the bridge throughout the action, from the first exchange of shots at one o’clock, but his subordinates were resolved that he should stay there no longer, and by efforts little short of an application of physical force, he was induced to enter the conning-tower. At 8 P.M. the Russian ships had fallen into inextricable confusion, and it was left to the Japanese torpedo craft to continue the fight, with what result was never precisely ascertained. The Russian vessels at Port Arthur were ultimately sunk by their Commanders prior to the Capitulation of the 2nd January 1905, but most of them have since been raised and taken over to Japan.
On the 12th of April Admiral Rojdestvensky arrived at Kamranh Bay in Indo-China, and on the 22nd left there under pressure from France after Japanese protests had been lodged against infractions of neutrality. The battle of the Sea of Japan was fought on the 27th and 28th of May 1905, and Admiral Togo succeeded in annihilating the Russian Baltic Fleet.
After peace was made the Japanese vessels remained for a time at Sasebo, where an explosion occurred on board the _Mikasa_ and she sank at her moorings, but was not wholly submerged, the work of refloating her being one that it was fully expected would be completed early in 1906. In October the Combined Fleet was reviewed by the Japanese Emperor at its moorings, drawn up in seven lines, in the bay of Tokio, extending from the mouth of the Rokugo river at Kawasaki to the vicinity of Hommoku Point, near Yokohama. Prior to the fleet’s arrival in Tokio Bay it had paid a visit to Isé Bay, which opens out of the Pacific in lat. 34° 30´ North, and was formerly known as Owari Gulf. The assembly of the combined squadrons in the bay was an imposing spectacle, and Admiral Togo, with his staff-officers, visited the sacred shrines of the Imperial ancestors, at Yamada, which is near Toba harbour. Hundreds of thousands of the people had assembled from far and near. Admiral Togo was the recipient of the greatest honours that his admiring countrymen could pay, both there and afterwards at Tokio, where they gathered absolutely to the number of a quarter of a million to bid him welcome on his safe return to his home.
On the 29th of October he visited the beautiful Cemetery at Aoyama, in the Capital, to take part in an impressive Shinto Ceremony in honour of the departed naval heroes of the war, the spot chosen being close to that where lies Captain Hirosé, the officer who lost his own life while trying to succour a subordinate in the second attempt to block Port Arthur. The central figure of the gathering was Admiral Togo, who was escorted by a detachment of his sailors, unarmed. After the religious rites had been solemnly performed, he moved to the altar, and standing alone while all the officers and men present came to the salute, he read an address to the spirits of the dead. It ran somewhat as follows:—
The clouds over land and sea have dispersed, children welcome us and their parents await us at the gates. Looking back we recall the heat and cold of the times when we fought side by side with you against our powerful foe. The result could not then be foreseen. The bravery you showed brought us splendid victories in all our combats. Now that the contest is over, we who are at home feel it deeply that our rejoicings cannot be shared by you. Yet your deaths have made this day possible. Your fidelity and bravery shall remain with our navy for ever, and inspirit it to protect perpetually this, the Imperial Land. I have prepared this ceremony to your manes, as worthy of all honour, and I take leave to say to you: Be at peace,—Accept our offerings.
There was no sound but that of the Admiral’s voice, and in profound silence all those present made their obeisances before the Altar of Memory.
It may be useful here to give some idea of the character of the training that the Japanese Naval Officer undergoes.
Most Japanese youths intended for the sea begin their naval training at the Etajima College, close to the arsenal of Kure, near Hiroshima, in the “Inland Sea,” which separates the main island from Shikoku and Kiushiu. The entrance to this college is by competitive examination, and students come from all parts of the country, though not a few of the successful ones are prepared at a special school in Tokio,—the Higher Naval College. The Etajima establishment is open to every male subject between the ages of fifteen and twenty, but marriage is a bar, likewise bankruptcy or previous subjection to any serious punishment. Everything is done at Government expense. Failure to pass the physical examination disqualifies the youth for the educational tests, which cover a wide field. There are three foreign languages which are optional as studies—viz. French, German, and Russian, but English is compulsory. The course lasts three years, and a cadet who is once entered must not change his mind, but must continue his studies unless disqualified in some recognisable way. Sea duties are taught aboard one of the several tenders attached to Etajima. The daily programme is:—
5.30 A.M. Rise, sweep room, make bed, arrange clothes, wash and dress. 6.10 ” Inspection by officer on duty. 6.30 ” Breakfast. 7.45 ” Second inspection by the captain. 8. 0-12. 0 noon. Lessons. 12. 5- 1. 0 P.M. Dinner. 2.15- 3.30 ” Special studies—_e.g._ fencing, wrestling, bayonet drill, rowing, sailing, hygiene, history, law, etc. 3.30- 5.30 ” Recreation. 5.30 ” Supper. 6.30- 9.30 ” Preparation. 10 ” Bed.
Though Etajima is an out-of-the-way spot, and there is nothing on the island but the college and its grounds, there are three training ships and five launches at the disposal of the institution, so that life is not by any means dull or uneventful.
After midshipmen quit the college they continue their work at sea, and the sister ships _Matsushima_, _Itsukushima_, and _Hashidate_, all of which were prominent in the war with China of 1894-5, and are each 4200 tons, are employed for this purpose. At the end of two months from joining the captain examines a sub-lieutenant in ships’ stations, regulations, etc., and subjects are set for essays, for which rewards are given.
From the practical training given at Etajima it is possible to select officers who go to Tokio for further theoretical training at the Naval Academy. There the courses are four in number, the first,—of two years—being intended to equip the lieutenants with a knowledge of strategy—naval and military,—tactics—naval and military,—fortification, torpedoes, shipbuilding, navigation, and the higher education of the general course. The officers are sent out to take part in manœuvres or visit forts and naval stations. The next year is devoted to special studies of gunnery, torpedoes, and navigation, and then the officers pass to a three months’ practical course at the gunnery or torpedo schools. Side by side with these there are the practical courses for officers and men at Yokosuka. In all that she has done Japan has closely followed the example of Britain, and in other branches than that referred to here, which is of course the executive of the navy, the same care is taken that the training shall be of a thorough kind, in faithful adherence to the principles on which the instruction first derived from Admiral Douglas and his staff, in 1873, was based.
In his own country Admiral Togo Heihachi is esteemed above everything for his absolute sincerity and singleness of purpose, his overwhelming sense of duty which prompts him to make complete sacrifice of personal considerations, and his observance of strict courtesy towards all men. His services entitled him to a rest, and he has been given the post of Chief of the Naval Staff. In his farewell address to the officers and men of the Combined Fleet which he had commanded he emphasised the need of incessant training, pointing to the example of the British navy, and concluded thus:—
“Providence will confer honour on those who work hard in the study of their duties, and thus virtually win the victory before fighting, whilst denying honour to those who are satisfied with a temporary success only, and seek personal pleasures in time of peace instead of devoting their leisure to useful research. An ancient adage warns us:
“Katte, kabuto no O wo shimero!”
(If victorious, tighten your helmet-cords!)
In other words, “Never relax your efforts,—on the contrary, be prepared to exert yourselves still more!”
XXII
BARON EICHI SHIBUSAWA
In the making of a nation its commerce must be fostered and facilities given for the legitimate expansion of all branches of trade, since it is in proportion to the prosperity of its industries and resultant wealth that its political influence will in the main be appreciated. Baron Shibusawa’s career has been essentially that of a business man, for although he occupied at one time a prominent position as an official of the Finance Department, and ranked next to Count Inouye, circumstances ordained that his energies should be applied to tasks more or less directly associated with commerce and the financial progress of his country. If it may be said that the Bank of Japan (Nippon Ginko) owes its existence to Count Matsukata, the First National Bank (Dai-ichi Ginko) was established by the efforts of Baron Shibusawa. Eichi Shibusawa was brought up in the metropolitan province of Musashi, having been born in the village of Chi-arai-jima, in the county of Hanzawa, about forty-five miles from the capital, in 1840. The village is one of many in that region whereof the population is occupied partly in sericulture and substantially in agriculture, millions of cocoons being annually produced in the cottages of the husbandmen, and a great variety of crops gathered from the fields, including some indigo. The Shibusawa family was concerned with both these industries, and had been so for generations. Saitama district, indeed, which comprises in great part what was formerly the province of Musashi, was in the days of the Shogunate, like the neighbouring districts to the west and north, devoted to the rearing of the silkworm, and for the reason that good paddy land is scarce thereabouts a large percentage of the inhabitants still regard sericulture as their most profitable occupation. The industry dates in Japan from the fourth year of the Emperor Chuai’s reign, corresponding to A.D. 195, when a Chinese prince named Koman went over to Japan and was naturalised there, at the same time introducing the Chinese species of silkworm, which from that period was largely cultivated in the Japanese empire. In 283 A.D., while the Emperor Ojin sat on the throne (he was deified as Hachiman, the god of war) a number of Chinamen settled in Japan and taught silk-weaving, the Court itself taking great pains to encourage the industry, by causing mulberry-trees to be planted, and rearing the worms. The taxes were then paid to some degree in silk fabrics. At a later date silk raising and weaving had grown to be the principal productive industry of the country, and was almost universal, though some regions were especially famous for the quality of the output, among them that which is to-day known as Saitama Ken. During the “age of wars” which lasted from the middle of the tenth century to the beginning of the seventeenth, the work could only be carried on in secluded and out-of-the-way places comparatively free from the ravages of fire and sword.
Under the Tokugawa regime the prosperity of sericulture revived, for the feudal chiefs were anxious to see their people engaged in settled occupations, and recognised the value of this industry in particular.
Throughout that region in which Baron Shibusawa spent his boyhood the silkworm is an object of the keenest interest to the people, for everything hinges upon its preservation in a good state of health, and at certain stages of the worm’s existence it is regarded, even at the inns where travellers have to put up for the night when on the road, as a creature whose interests it is necessary to study far more carefully than those of a guest. The “Kaiko-sama” must on no account be disturbed. Shibusawa Eichi received the rudiments of education at his home, and was a close student of history. He read the Chinese classics with a scholar residing in an adjoining village, and helped his father in the manufacture and sale of indigo. By the time he was nineteen years old the cry of Jo-I (Out with the barbarians) which then was being raised in Yedo, little more than a long day’s tramp away from him, had penetrated to the remote village in which he dwelt, and by degrees the whole region grew to be in an uproar. Shibusawa soon betook himself to the capital, to see for himself what it all meant. There he continued his studies under the famous Gyo-son Kai-ho, a classical scholar of repute, and he was a pupil of the no less celebrated fencing master, Chiba Shusaku. From Yedo he travelled to the then seat of learning, Kioto, where he made many friends and finally was received into the Hitotsubashi clan, one of the branches of the Tokugawa family, and from which the last dynasty of Shoguns sprang. The Hitotsubashi branch was that into which the present Prince Tokugawa Keiki, “the last of the Shoguns,” was adopted,—though really a scion of the Mito house—and whose name he bore in the days immediately antecedent to the Restoration of Imperial Rule. The head of the Hitotsubashi house when Shibusawa owned allegiance to it was a very distinguished nobleman, who was instrumental in founding a modernised military system for the Tokugawas and did good service in connection with its finances. Soon afterwards Prince Keiki was called upon to succeed Iyemochi as Shogun at Yedo, and removed thither from Kioto, taking with him Shibusawa Eichi, who became an officer of the Shogunate Government or “Bakufu.” In 1867, the prince Mimbu-taiyu, a younger brother of the Shogun, was sent to France to study Western sciences and institutions, and in his suite was Shibusawa, at that time twenty-seven years of age. The opportunity was one of which he availed himself to the uttermost, and he diligently acquired all the information possible on matters that it had been his main ambition to know more about, passing no inconsiderable portion of his time in England. His stay in Europe lasted until the close of 1868, and he reached home only to find his former chief, the Shogun Tokugawa Keiki, taking up his residence in retirement at Shidzuoka, in Suruga province, 100 miles from the capital. The Restoration had been effected a few months previously.
Shibusawa received the appointment of Chief treasurer of the Shidzuoka household, under the prince Kamenosuké, who had been installed as chief of the clan, and who is now the President of the House of Peers. In this post Shibusawa found ample employment in rearranging the finances of the Tokugawa family, but he presently relinquished it on being made tax controller in the department of Finance under the newly formed Imperial Government at Tokio. In the same service he was next promoted to be Assistant Vice-minister of Finance, and also Chief Inspector of Trade, and in the performance of his duties in these offices he supervised the establishment of several joint-stock enterprises, the first of their kind undertaken in Japan. The members of these companies were merchants of Kioto and Osaka, and their enterprises extended to shipbuilding, land reclamation, etc.; the joint-stock principle thus early in the history of New Japan having begun to find favour. Soon afterwards Shibusawa was appointed Junior Vice-Minister of Finance to Inouye Bunda, as he then was—the present Count Inouye—and in 1873 both resigned in consequence of their views relative to the apportionments to different departments of the public service in the budget estimates not meeting with the support of the Ministry headed by Prince Sanjo Sanetomi. Count Inouye subsequently resumed his place as Vice-Minister of the department but Shibusawa Eichi retired altogether from the Government service, and applied himself to commercial pursuits.
Prior to the Restoration Japan possessed no institutions exactly corresponding to the modern bank. There was what was termed a “rice bank” which advanced rice to the retainers of the Shogun, and this, it is declared, dated back at least as far as the days of Iyemitsu, in 1724. The plan of operations was for certain business houses in Yedo to receive the grain as it came from the domains under the direct control of the Shogunate, and to distribute it among the Shogun’s officers in remuneration for their services. In this way the houses in question were often called on to advance sums on account of the forthcoming crops, the liabilities of the retainers to be met out of the proceeds of the grain when received from the farmers and sold. Needless to say, the normal condition of many of the samurai was one of indebtedness to the “rice banks.” When, in 1870, the present Marquis Ito was authorised to proceed to the United States to investigate financial affairs in America, especially with respect to the public debt, banking, and the monetary standard, he aroused extraordinary interest by his report on the National Bank Act of the United States, a copy of which he sent to Tokio for perusal. The need of some such system was much felt in the then existing crisis in monetary matters, and though the proposal made at that time could not be adopted in its entirety, the financiers were led to consider the advisability of setting up a bank on those lines in the near future. The reception of the idea was quickened by the cumbersome method in vogue of paying taxes in rice, a plan which not only caused delay, but resulted in loss owing to difficulties attendant on the transport of large quantities of grain from places at a distance. The question arose, should the tax be still paid in rice or in legal currency according to the market price of the commodity? If it were allowable to pay in money, then there ought to be some institution at which rice could be exchanged for ready cash. The necessities of the hour pointed to a bank as the medium which must forthwith be established.