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.
[Illustration: MARQUIS OYAMA]
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.
In Japan the law is that all citizens are under the obligation of
military service for a certain term of years, and therefore the necessity
of complying with its provisions is as great as that of the payment of
taxes. In practice the duty is accepted as just as much a matter of
course as any other feature of citizenship. It was adopted at the outset
and no one seriously offers an objection to it. He would be deemed a
most unpatriotic man who did not revel in the thought that he might be
chosen to serve his country, and every man in Japan rejoices to think
that he knows how to handle a weapon and take his share of the task
which may some day be that of the Emperor’s loyal subjects to defend the
island empire against a foe. Mere drilling and parades are not so much
valued as rifle practice, fencing, the bayonet exercise, skirmishing,
and gymnastics. Work begins at 6 A.M. and with little appreciable
interval, never more than five minutes, goes on until the midday meal
is served. Afterwards it is resumed for four hours, then bath, supper,
recreation, and bed betimes. The officers share in all the exercises of
the men, very little being left to non-commissioned officers, sergeants,
and corporals. The officers are always on duty. It is in this way that
complete harmony has been established between all ranks and the dread
of a martinet sergeant is unknown among the men in Japanese barracks.
Promotion from the ranks, however, is not possible as no one is eligible
for a commission who has not entered himself in the first place as a
candidate, and to do so he must be either a graduate of the Cadet school,
or have graduated from a middle school licensed or recognised by the
Government, public or private, or be able to show that his education has
brought him up to the standard needed in order to obtain the certificate
granted on leaving a middle School. And in either of the two latter
cases the candidate must have a letter from the Commanding officer of
the regiment he wishes to join, signifying that officer’s willingness to
accept him eventually as an officer in that regiment.
As soon as he is accepted as a candidate he joins his regiment _as a
private_, spending one year in the ranks as an “officer candidate,” thus
gaining a practical acquaintance with all the duties of a common soldier,
and then he is sent for one year more of study to the Military College
in Tokio. Next he returns to his regiment as an aspirant, to learn the
duties of a subaltern, and at last, when about two years and a half
have elapsed from the time when he first entered as a candidate, he is,
if approved of at a meeting of the officers of the regiment, accepted
and commissioned as a sub-lieutenant. He can choose whichever arm he
prefers, when he goes to the Military College, as there are departments
for infantry, cavalry, field artillery, fortress artillery, Engineers,
and military train. He may select his own regiment, subject to the
consent of the commanding officer of that regiment, and should the number
of candidates exceed the number of vacancies the choice falls on those
who have won most marks, in rotation. Every year on the 1st of December
the batches of candidate officers are distributed to the regiments,
as privates. They receive their uniforms, food, arms, etc., from the
State but no money allowance. They must drill and go through their
exercises just like other men in their company, but they enjoy certain
privileges, for example, they have special rooms in barracks, and mess
with the officers, this association with their superiors in rank being
regarded as part of their education. During the year they may be promoted
to lance-corporal or non-commissioned officer grade, and they receive
lessons in military science from the regimental instructors.
The Military College stands on a wide plateau in Tokio, at Ichigaya,
where there is excellent air, and abundance of space. The students are
divided into three companies each under the command of a captain of
infantry. Each company is in six sections, of twenty-five to thirty
students each, a lieutenant of infantry in charge of each section. The
studies prescribed are the same for all arms—viz. Tactics, Artillery,
Science, Fortification, Topography, Military administration, Field
hygiene and farriery, Foreign languages, Surveying, and Practical
work. For exercise the students have drill (distinct for each arm),
gymnastics, fencing, sabre exercise, riding, and shooting. Study and
exercise together keep the youths at work the whole day, save for
half-an-hour after supper, when they unbend. The school year begins on
the 1st of December, to agree with conscription arrangements, and the
first examination is in April or May, the second in September or October.
At the end of October there are annual manœuvres, and the graduation
ceremony is in November, when the Emperor makes a point of being present.
There is a Military staff college, designed to give further instruction
in the higher branches of military science to junior officers of promise.
Its students are lieutenants and sub-lieutenants of all arms who have
been at least two years with their regiments or battalions, and whose
physical health, intellectual qualifications, morals, diligence, and
general conduct have shown them to be suitable recipients of the higher
training. Here the course is for three years, and for about ten weeks the
students are with regiments different from their own arm, participating
in the annual manœuvres. Graduates receive diplomas, and a badge which
they wear like a medal, and one year after graduation they are eligible
for staff appointments, instructorships, and other more or less coveted
posts. Artillery and Engineer Lieutenants are eligible for the College
of Artillery and Engineering, wherein special instruction is given on
subjects required in these two arms, the course including strategy,
equitation, mathematics, chemistry, drawing, and foreign languages. At
the gunnery school for fortress artillery, and for field artillery,
practical instruction is given for periods of two or three months to
students who comprise captains and lieutenants from each of the field
artillery regiments, or of fortress artillery, or they are lieutenants or
sub-lieutenants who have just graduated from the College. At the cavalry
training school the course lasts eleven months, and includes practical
testing of all sorts of riding material and harness. It may, in fact, be
claimed that the system of military instruction in the army of Japan is
as complete as that of the armies of Europe, but the government still
sends annually some dozens of promising young officers abroad to perfect
themselves in their studies in the Occident.