agance, and that her land
and sea forces would, if they were ever pitted against Europeans,
prove as impotent as Orientals nearly always have proved. I am quite
aware that naval and military experts of various nationalities who had
studied matters on the spot were of a different opinion. They
witnessed the high state of efficiency of both the Japanese Army and
Navy, the patriotic spirit of the officers and men, their enthusiasm
for their work, and that universal feeling of bravery, if it be
bravery, which consists in an absolute contempt of life. Still I
think, even to the experts, the splendid organisation and overwhelming
superiority of Japan in her encounter with China came as somewhat of
a surprise. The complete victory of the Island Nation in that struggle
was, I know, to a certain extent discounted in some quarters by the
stories that were published as to the wretched condition of both the
Chinese Army and Navy, their utter unfitness and unpreparedness for
war, the incompetence and corruption of the officers, and so on. There
were many otherwise well informed persons who felt confident that
though Japan had experienced little or no difficulty in mastering
China, the case would be different when, if ever, she was involved in
war with a European power. I do not think these doubts were prevalent
or indeed present at all, in the minds of the naval and military
authorities. No responsible statesman or official in Japan desired
war. The Japanese are not in any sense a bellicose people. Still, the
statesmen of the country were fully alive to the fact that it might be
necessary to fight for the national existence. They had had experience
in the past of the ambition of Russia to aggrandise herself at the
expense of Japan. They saw, or thought they saw, that Russia had
designs on Korea, and they were determined to frustrate those designs,
and so perhaps obviate in the best manner possible future attempts on
the independence of Japan itself. And hence it came about that serious
efforts were directed to create an Army and Navy strong and efficient.

The creation, or perhaps it would be more correct to say the
reorganisation, of the Army was entrusted, soon after the Revolution
of 1868, to a few European officers, and it has proceeded throughout
on European lines. The task was not so difficult as might have been
expected. In old Japan the terms "soldier" and "Samurai" were
synonymous, and the security of the territory of each