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THE REASON 303
a genuine love for their country, on account of
which they are immensely ambitious ;
they regard
their Emperor as a god, and their officers as his
lieutenants, and willingly give their lives at a
word from them. They are very proud of their
profession, which gives them a right to fight side
by side with the real Samurais, the ancient warrior-
class of Japan, and they would rather die than do
anything that could disgrace them. Their dis-
cipline is inborn, fostered by hundreds of years of
living as an inferior caste under the sway of the
Samurais, and their bravery is derived from, and
supported by, their fatalism, their faith in their
officers, and their reverence for their god-
Emperor. Think of what the intelligent colla-
boration of 100,000 men, all practically of the
same moral and physical qualities, forming an
army of such unique homogeneity, will be able to
accomplish under the guidance of competent
officers, and one ceases to wonder at the Japanese
successes.
Of the officers I cannot speak too highly, they
are the real backbone of the army. Nowhere
else in the world does one find all officers so
devoted to their profession. After passing
through excellent schools which give them a
solid foundation for their work, they spend their
lives in conscientiously striving to attain the
highest efficiency. They are not pleasure-seeking
or frivolous, and do not waste their time in trying to
acquire knowledge which is of no value for their
profession. They are always “ at it,” always
studying, and they know their service to the
smallest details. They treat their men kindly
and share all their hardships. At Port Arthur
they lived with their soldiers in dug-outs or in the
trenches, on the same food and practically in the
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