_Military Training of Japanese Children_
After the Japanese-Chinese war, of which I made a most careful and
detailed study, I myself was inspired with a feeling of respect for the
Japanese army and watched its growth with anxiety. Then, in 1900, the
part played by the Japanese troops that coöperated with ours in the
province of Pechili confirmed me in the belief that they were excellent
soldiers. During my short stay in Japan, I was unable to acquaint
myself thoroughly with the country and its military forces, but what I
did learn was enough to convince me that the results attained by the
Japanese in the course of twenty-five or thirty years were astounding.
I saw a beautiful country, with a large and industrious population.
Intense activity prevailed everywhere, and I was impressed by the
people's joy in life, their love of country, and their faith in
their future. In their military school, where I saw a Spartan system
of education, the exercises of the cadets with pikes, rifles, and
broadswords were not approached by anything of the kind that I had
witnessed in Europe,--it was fighting of the fiercest character. At
the end of the struggle there was a hand-to-hand combat, which lasted
until the victors stood triumphant over the bodies of the vanquished
and tore off their masks. In these exercises, which were very severe,
the cadets struck one another fiercely and with wild cries; but the
moment a prearranged signal was given, or the fight came to an end,
the combatants drew themselves up in a line and their faces assumed an
expression of wooden composure.
[Illustration: _Stereograph copyrighted by the H. C. White Co._