Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (189 page)

40
. Inoue,
Ryojun
, p. 72. The Japanese were not always successful in their attempts to bribe the foreign press. On December 6 during the course of an interview with Cowen, It
ō
Miyoji, the president of the progovernment newspaper
T
ō
ky
ō
nichinichi shimbun
, stated that the Japanese government would pay his expenses and would not charge the
Times
for telegrams, regardless of the length (p. 98). Cowen refused.

41
. Notably Francis Brinkley, the owner of the
Japan Mail
in Yokohama, which published various English-language newspapers. Brinkley not only received a monthly grant from the Japanese government during the Sino-Japanese War but was decorated for his services and given 5,000 yen (Inoue,
Ryojun
, pp. 31–32).

42
. Inoue,
Ryojun
, p. 40.

43
. The
World
, a newspaper owned by Joseph Pulitzer, was at this time known mainly as a scandal sheet, but this did not prevent Creelman’s articles from being believed.

44
. English text is in Inoue,
Ryojun
, p. 55.

45
. Ibid., p. 58.

46
. James Allan, a British writer, described seeing “the bodies of the Japanese soldiers, killed in encounters with the enemy as they closed on the place, were often found minus the head or right hand, sometimes both, besides being ferociously gashed and slashed. Corpses were still hanging on the trees when the fortress fell, and it is not surprising that their former comrades should have been maddened by the sight, though of course the officers are greatly to blame for permitting the fearful retaliation which ensued to be carried to such lengths” (
Under the Dragon Flag
, p. 67).

Inoue states that the heads of three Japanese soldiers who had been taken alive in the fighting near Tu-ch’eng-tzu three days before the battle for Port Arthur were suspended from a willow beside the road. The noses had been cut off, and their ears were missing. A little farther on, two more heads were suspended on wires from the eaves of a house. The Chinese had also decapitated the corpses of Japanese of the Second Army who had fallen at Tu-ch’eng-tzu. The bellies were slit open and filled with stones; the right arms and the testicles were also cut off. The Chinese government had offered rewards for the heads of Japanese soldiers, and one foreign journalist told Creelman that he had seen the money being paid (
Ryojun
, pp. 146–47).

47
. Inoue,
Ryojun
, pp. 82, 85. It was reported in the December 20 issue of
the
Ō
saka mainichi shimbun
that 6,000 to 10,000 Armenians had been killed.

48
. Inoue,
Ryojun
, pp. 153, 157, 176.

49
. Ibid., p. 64. Prisoners did reach Japan, but they were not necessarily captured at Port Arthur.

50
. Inoue,
Ryojun
, p. 186. The decision not to take prisoners was also justified in terms of the amount of food that would be needed to feed them.

51
. Inoue,
Ryojun
, pp. 202–4. Mutsu quotes Dr. T. E. Holland, described as “a leading English authority on international law and a man who had hitherto been unstinting in his praise of Japan’s wartime conduct,” as having said in an article, “At last but thirty-six Chinamen were left alive in the city. They had been spared only to be employed in burying their dead countrymen, and each was protected by a slip of paper fastened in his cap, with the inscription: ‘This man is not to be killed’” (
Kenkenroku
, p. 75).

52
. Inoue,
Ryojun
, pp. 48, 189, 192.

53
. Donald Keene,
Dawn to the West
, 1, p. 100.

54
. Inoue,
Ryojun
, p. 195.

55
. Ibid., p. 86.

56
. A Japanese soldier gives a brief account in a letter written to a friend describing how, after some initial distaste, he quickly acquired the knack of cutting off Chinese heads (Inoue,
Ryojun
, p. 187).

57
. For example, an English-language newspaper in Bombay printed an editorial saying of the Japanese that “their enlightenment was only skin-deep, and with time they have shown their true natures as barbarians” (Inoue,
Ryojun
, p. 102).

58
. Walter Q. Gresham, the secretary of state, expressed his gratitude to the
World
for having printed Creelman’s articles. At first, he had supposed that Creelman must have exaggerated, for it seemed improbable that no representative of the American government would have informed him of so major an event. However, he interpreted Mutsu’s telegram as a confirmation of Creelman’s articles, and he now realized that the atrocities after the fall of Port Arthur were even worse than at first reported (Inoue,
Ryojun
, p. 70).

59
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, pp. 75, 76.

60
. Inoue,
Ryojun
, p. 222.

61
. The
tanch
ō
zuru
was captured at Chin-chou. For mention of the emperor examining war booty, see
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 606. The same work mentions that the emperor examined booty from Ryojun and elsewhere that was placed on display in the garden (p. 610). He also looked at photographs of the battle of the Yellow Sea and at Chinese
nishikie
.

62
. Viscount Horikawa Yasutaka, who about this time was in charge of cataloguing the imperial treasures in the Sh
ō
s
ō
in.

63
. For the anecdote about Horikawa and the camels, see Hinonishi,
Meiji tenn
ō
, p. 27. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 607. Hinonishi mentioned that Chinese prisoners were shown to the emperor but said merely that “he looked on them from above.” This suggests he was curious to see what Chinese looked like but did not wish to get too close.

64
. Inoue,
Ryojun
, pp. 191–92.

65
.
Shinsh
ū
Meiji tenn
ō
gyosh
ū
, 1, p. 252. The second
tanka
originally ended
semi-otoshitaru / totsugeki no koe
. The poems were composed in 1895, probably some months after the fall of Port Arthur.

Chapter 46

1
. Mutsu Munemitsu,
Kenkenroku
, trans. Gordon Mark Berger, p. 128.

2
. Ibid., pp. 128–29. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 600–601.

3
. Shirai Hisaya,
Meiji kokka to Nisshin sens
ō
, p. 145.

4
. The text of the rescript is in
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 601. See also Shirai,
Meiji kokka
, p. 146. Yamagata received the rescript on December 8 and on that day sent a telegram to Prince Taruhito stating that he had been recalled, would turn over command of the First Army to Major General Nozu, and would leave for Japan on December 9 (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 602).

5
. The counterattacks took place on January 17, January 22, February 16, February 21, and February 27 (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 642–43, 645–46, 679, 687, 695).

6
. Shirai,
Meiji kokka
, pp. 146–47.

7
. Reproductions of some of the prints that evoke the cold and snow are in Tamba Tsuneo,
Nishikie ni miru Meiji tenn
ō
to Meiji jidai
, pp. 160–65.

8
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 604.

9
. Ibid., 8, p. 617.

10
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, pp. 152–57. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 658.

11
. Weihaiwei was a much larger military harbor than Port Arthur and was heavily fortified. At the time of the Japanese attack, eight warships and smaller vessels were at anchor (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 637).

12
. For details of the attack, see
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 665–66. Shirai says that a torpedo boat attack had been attempted on January 30, but the temperature was 30 degrees below zero (Celsius) (
Meiji kokka
, pp. 161–62). Waves breaking over the decks of the boats froze, and icicles formed over the mouths of the torpedo-launching tubes making an attack impossible.

13
. Shirai,
Meiji kokka
, p. 162.

14
. The text is in Miyake Setsurei,
D
ō
jidaishi
, 3, p. 44; the translation, in Shumpei Okamoto,
Impressions of the Front
, p. 44.

15
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 684.

16
. Trumbull White,
The War in the East
, p. 641, quoted in Okamoto,
Impressions
, p. 44.

17
. On December 12, while the emperor was playing
kemari
, he was struck by a ball kicked by a chamberlain, who was appalled by what he had done. However, the emperor said with a smile, “The navy has fired a torpedo.” He did not blame the poor chamberlain (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 609).

18
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 653.

19
. Ibid., 8, p. 648.

20
. For example, it was reported that the emperor was obliged by the lack of suitable female attendants to cut his own fingernails and toenails.

21
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 721.

22
. Ibid., 8, p. 717.

23
. Li was in a sedan chair (
kago
) when the assailant fired. The bullet grazed his right cheek under the eye, injuring him only slightly. For details from the Japanese press, see Ishida Bunshir
ō
,
Meiji daijihen kiroku sh
ū
sei
, pp. 225–28.

24
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 730–32. The complete text of the rescript is in Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 174.

25
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 175. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 738–39.

26
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 176.

27
. Ibid., p. 178.

28
. The armistice did not include Taiwan or the Pescadore Islands. The latter islands were occupied by Japanese forces between March 24 and 26 (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 733).

29
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 168.

30
. Ibid., pp. 186–87. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 751–53.

31
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 756.

32
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 199.

33
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 773.

34
. Ibid., 8, p. 774.

35
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 203. The German and French governments sent roughly the same notes. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 776, and Shirai,
Meiji kokka
, p. 183.

36
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 778. See also Shirai,
Meiji kokka
, p. 182.

37
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 211; Shirai,
Meiji kokka
, p. 183.

38
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 780–81. See also Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 207.

39
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 781. See also Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 207.

40
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 780.

41
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 210.

42
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, p. 806.

43
. Ibid., 8, p. 817.

44
. Ibid., 8, p. 822.