XII

I had only just despatched the last of the preceding pages of this paper

when the dreadful news came of a new iniquity committed in regard to the

Russian people by those light-minded men who, crazed with power, have

appropriated the right of managing them. Again coarse and servile slaves

of slaves, dressed up in various dazzling attires--varieties of Generals

wishing to distinguish themselves, or to earn the right to add one more

little star, fingle fangle, or scrap of ribbon to their idiotic glaring

get-up, or else from stupidity or carelessness--again these miserable men

have destroyed amid dreadful sufferings thousands of those honorable,

kind, hard-working laborers who feed them. And again this iniquity not

only does not cause those responsible for it to reflect and repent, but

one hears and reads only about its being necessary as speedily as

possible to mutilate and slaughter a greater number of men, and to ruin

still more families, both Russian and Japanese.

More than this, to prepare men for fresh iniquities of this kind, the

perpetrators of these crimes, far from recognizing what is evident to

all--viz. that for the Russians this event, even from their patriotic,

military point of view, was a scandalous defeat--endeavor to assure

credulous people that these unfortunate Russian laboring men--lured into

a trap like cattle into a slaughterhouse, of whom several thousands have

been killed and maimed merely because one General did not understand what

another General had said--have performed an act of heroism because those

who could not run away were killed and those who did run away remained

alive. As to the fact that one of these immoral and cruel men,

distinguished by the titles of Generals, Admirals, drowned a quantity of

peaceful Japanese, this is also described as a great and glorious act of

heroism, which must gladden the hearts of Russians. And in all the papers

are reprinted this awful appeal to murder:--

"Let the two thousand Russian soldiers killed on the Yalu, together with

the maimed _Retvisan_ and her sister ships, with our lost torpedo-boats,

teach our cruisers with what devastation they must break in upon the

shores of base Japan. She has sent her soldiers to shed Russian blood,

and no quarter should be afforded her. Now one cannot--it is sinful--be

sentimental; we must fight; we must direct such heavy blows that the

memory of them shall freeze the treacherous hearts of the Japanese. Now

is the time for the cruisers to go out to sea to reduce to ashes the

towns of Japan, flying as a dreadful calamity along its shores. No more

sentimentality."

The frightful work commenced is continued. Loot, violence, murder,

hypocrisy, theft, and, above all, the most fearful fraud--the distortion

of religious teachings, both Christian and Buddhistic--continue. The

Tsar, the chief responsible person, continues to review the troops, to

thank, reward, and encourage them; he issues an edict for the calling out

of the reserves; his faithful subjects again and again lay down their

property and lives at the feet of him they call, only with their lips,

their adored Monarch. On the other hand, desiring to distinguish

themselves before each other in deeds and not in words only, they tear

away the fathers and the bread-winners from their orphaned families,

preparing them for slaughter. The worse the position of Russia, the more

recklessly do the journalists lie, transforming shameful defeats into

victories, knowing that no one will contradict them; and they quietly

collect money from subscriptions and sales. The more money and labor of

the people is devoted to the war, the more is grabbed by various

authorities and speculators, who know that no one will convict them

because every one is doing the same. The military, trained for murder,

having passed years in a school of inhumanity, coarseness, and idleness,

rejoice--poor men--because, besides an increase of their salary, the

slaughter of superiors opens vacancies for their promotion. Christian

pastors continue to invite men to the greatest of crimes, continue to

commit sacrilege, praying God to help the work of war; and, instead of

condemning, they justify and praise that pastor who, with the cross in

his hands on the very scene of murder, encouraged men to the crime. The

same thing is going on in Japan. The benighted Japanese go in for murder

with yet greater fervor, owing to their victories; the Mikado also

reviews and rewards his troops; various Generals boast of their bravery,

imagining that, having learned to kill, they have acquired enlightenment.

So, too, groan the unfortunate working people torn from useful labor and

from their families. So their journalists also lie and rejoice over their

gains. Also probably--for where murder is elevated into virtue every kind

of vice is bound to flourish--also probably all kinds of commanders and

speculators earn money; and Japanese theologians and religious teachers

no less than the masters in the techniques of armament do not remain

behind the Europeans in the techniques of religious deceit and sacrilege,

but distort the great Buddhistic teaching by not only permitting but

justifying that murder which Buddha forbade. The Buddhistic scientist,

Soyen-Shaku, ruling over eight hundred monasteries, explains that

although Buddha forbade manslaughter he also said he could never be at

peace until all beings are united in the infinitely loving heart of all

things, and that, therefore, in order to bring into harmony that which is

discordant it is necessary to fight and to kill men.[2]

[2] In the article it is said: "This triple world is my own possession.

All the things therein are my own children ... the ten thousand

things in this world are no more than the reflections of my own

self. They come from the one source. They partake of the one body.

Therefore I cannot rest, until every being, even the smallest

possible fragment of existence, is settled down to its proper

appointment.... This is the position taken by the Buddha, and we,

his humble followers, are but to walk in his wake. Why, then, do we

fight at all? Because we do not find this world as it ought to be.

Because there are here so many perverted creatures, so many wayward

thoughts, so many ill-directed hearts, due to ignorant

subjectivity. For this reason Buddhists are never tired of

combating all productions of ignorance, and their fight must be to

the bitter end. They will show no quarter. They will mercilessly

destroy the very root from which arises the misery of this life. To

accomplish this end, they will never be afraid of sacrificing their

lives...." There follow, just as is usual with us, entangled

arguments about self-sacrifice and kindness, about the

transmigration of souls and about much else--all this for the sole

purpose of concealing the simple and clear commandment of Buddha:

not to kill. Further it is said: "The hand that is raised to strike

and the eye that is fixed to take aim do not belong to the

individual, but are the instruments utilized by a principle higher

than transient existence." ("The Open Court," May, 1904. "Buddhist

Views of War," by the Right Rev. Soyen-Shaku.)

It is as if there never had existed the Christian and Buddhistic teaching

about the unity of the human spirit, the brotherhood of men, love,

compassion, the sacredness of human life. Men, both Japanese and

Russians, already enlightened by the truth, yet like wild animals, nay,

worse than wild animals, throw themselves upon each other with the sole

desire to destroy as many lives as possible. Thousands of unfortunates

groan and writhe in cruel sufferings and die in agony in Japanese and

Russian field hospitals, asking themselves in bewilderment why this

fearful thing was done with them, while other thousands are already

rotting in the earth or on the earth, or floating in the sea, in swollen

decomposition. And scores of thousands of wives, fathers, mothers,

children, are bemoaning their bread-winners; uselessly destroyed. Yet all

this is still too little; new and newer victims are being prepared. The

chief concern of the Russian organizers of slaughter is that on the

Russian side the stream of food for cannon--three thousand men per day

doomed to destruction--should not be interrupted for one minute. The

Japanese are preoccupied with the same thing. The locusts are incessantly

being driven down into the river in order that the rows behind may pass

over the bodies.

When will this cease, and the deceived people at last recover themselves

and say: "Well, go you yourselves, you heartless Tsars, Mikados,

Ministers, Bishops, priests, generals, editors, speculators, or however

you may be called, go you yourselves under these shells and bullets, but

we do not wish to go and we will not go. Leave us in peace, to plough,

and sow, and build,--and also to feed you." It would be so natural to say

this now, when amongst us in Russia resounds the weeping and wailing of

hundreds of thousands of mothers, wives, and children, from whom are

being snatched away their bread-earners, the so-called "reserve." These

same men, the majority of the reserve, are able to read; they know what

the Far East is; they know that war is going on, not for anything which

is in the least necessary to Russia, but for some dealings in strange

land, leased lands, as they themselves call them, on which it seemed

advantageous to some corrupt speculators to build railways and so gain

profit; also they know, or might know, that they will be killed like

sheep in a slaughterhouse, since the Japanese possess the latest

improvements in tools of murder, which we do not, as the Russian

authorities who are sending these people to death had not thought in time

of furnishing themselves with the same weapons as the Japanese. Knowing

all this, it would indeed be so natural to say, "Go you, those who have

brought on this work, all you to whom war is necessary, and who justify

it; go you, and face the Japanese bullets and mines, but we will not go,

because we not only do not need to do this, but we cannot understand how

it can be necessary to any one."

But no, they do not say this; they go, and they will continue to go; they

cannot but go as long as they fear that which ruins the body and not that

which ruins both the body and the soul. "Whether we shall be killed,"

they argue, "or maimed in these chinnampos, or whatever they are called,

whither we are driven, we do not know; it yet may happen that we shall

get through safely, and, moreover, with rewards and glory, like those

sailors who are now being feasted all over Russia because the Japanese

bombs and bullets did not hit them, but somebody else; whereas should we

refuse, we should be certainly sent to prison, starved, beaten, exiled to

the province of Yakoutsk, perhaps even killed immediately." So with

despair in their hearts, leaving behind a good rational life, leaving

their wives and their children,--they go.

Yesterday I met a Reservist soldier accompanied by his mother and wife.

All three were riding in a cart; he had had a drop too much; his wife's

face was swollen with tears. He turned to me:--

"Good-by to thee! Lyof Nikolaevitch, off to the Far East."

"Well, art thou going to fight?"

"Well, some one has to fight!"

"No one need fight!"

He reflected for a moment. "But what is one to do; where can one

escape?"

I saw that he had understood me, had understood that the work to which he

was being sent was an evil work.

"Where can one escape?" That is the precise expression of that mental

condition which in the official and journalistic world is translated into

the words--"For the Faith, the Tsar, and the Fatherland." Those who,

abandoning their hungry families, go to suffering, to death, say as they

feel, "Where can one escape?" Whereas those who sit in safety in their

luxurious palaces say that all Russian men are ready to sacrifice their

lives for their adored Monarch, and for the glory and greatness of

Russia.

Yesterday, from a peasant I know, I received two letters, one after the

other. This is the first:--

"Dear Lyof Nikolaevitch,--Well, to-day I have received the official

announcement of my call to the Service; to-morrow I must present myself

at the headquarters. That is all. And after that--to the Far East to meet

the Japanese bullets. About my own and my household's grief I will not

tell you; it is not you who will fail to understand all the horror of my

position and the horrors of war; all this you have long ago painfully

realized, and you understand it all. How I have longed to visit you, to

have a talk with you! I had written to you a long letter in which I

described the torments of my soul; but I had not had time to copy it,

when I received my summons. What is my wife to do now with her four

children? As an old man, of course, you cannot do anything yourself for

my folks, but you might ask some of your friends in their leisure to

visit my orphaned family. I beg you earnestly that if my wife proves

unable to bear the agony of her helplessness with her burden of children

and makes up her mind to go to you for help and counsel, you will receive

and console her. Although she does not know you personally, she believes

in your word, and that means much. I was not able to resist the summons,

but I say beforehand that through me not one Japanese family shall be

orphaned. My God! how dreadful is all this--how distressing and painful

to abandon all by which one lives and in which one is concerned."

The second letter is as follows: "Kindest Lyof Nikolaevitch, Only one day

of actual service has passed, and I have already lived through an

eternity of most desperate torments. From 8 o'clock in the morning till 9

in the evening we have been crowded and knocked about to and fro in the

barrack yard, like a herd of cattle. The comedy of medical examination

was three times repeated, and those who had reported themselves ill did

not receive even ten minutes' attention before they were marked

'Satisfactory.' When we, these two thousand satisfactory individuals,

were driven from the military commander to the barracks, along the road

spread out for almost a verst stood a crowd of relatives, mothers, and

wives with infants in arms; and if you had only heard and seen how they

clasped their fathers, husbands, sons, and hanging round their necks

wailed hopelessly! Generally I behave in a reserved way and can restrain

my feelings, but I could not hold out, and I also wept. [In journalistic

language this same is expressed thus: "The upheaval of patriotic feeling

is immense."] Where is the standard that can measure all this immensity

of woe now spreading itself over almost one-third of the world? And we,

we are now that food for cannon, which in the near future will be offered

as sacrifice to the God of vengeance and horror. I cannot manage to

establish my inner balance. Oh! how I execrate myself for this

double-mindedness which prevents my serving one Master and God."

This man does not yet sufficiently believe that what destroys the body is

not dreadful, but that which destroys both the body and the soul,

therefore he cannot refuse to go; yet while leaving his own family he

promises beforehand that through him not one Japanese family shall be

orphaned; he believes in the chief law of God, the law of all

religions--to act toward others as one wishes others to act toward

oneself. Of such men more or less consciously recognizing this law, there

are in our time, not in the Christian world alone, but in the Buddhistic,

Mahomedan, Confucian, and Brahminic world, not only thousands but

millions.

There exist true heroes, not those who are now being feted because,

having wished to kill others, they were not killed themselves, but true

heroes, who are now confined in prisons and in the province of Yakoutsk

for having categorically refused to enter the ranks of murderers, and who

have preferred martyrdom to this departure from the law of Jesus. There

are also such as he who writes to me, who go, but who will not kill. But

also that majority which goes without thinking, and endeavors not to

think of what it is doing, still in the depth of its soul does now

already feel that it is doing an evil deed by obeying authorities who

tear men from labor and from their families and send them to needless

slaughter of men, repugnant to their soul and their faith; and they go

only because they are so entangled on all sides that--"Where can one

escape?"

Meanwhile those who remain at home not only feel this, but know and

express it. Yesterday in the high road I met some peasants returning from

Toula. One of them was reading a leaflet as he walked by the side of his

cart.