Imperial Japanese Navy

“ The mechanical arts and the food [31] of the West, not its social institutions, have made the new Japan an empire.
Now, having decided to adopt Western methods, the Japanese sought [Pg 281] Western instructors. The British being the premier navy, they sought naval instruction from us, and were chiefly supplied with officers of what even then was the “old school.” In one of Major Drury’s books of naval stories [32] there is a British admiral who always read his Bible in his shirt-sleeves, because the sight of his uniform made it difficult for him to realise the existence of a Higher Power! ”

“ If one is explaining anything to a Japanese, he will have seized on the idea and absorbed it while a European is still struggling with the externals of it. Japanese invention has extended to a small quickfirer and a water-tube boiler, but in both cases the invention is merely a change of some existing mechanism. Even so, neither is of great moment; their abilities do not lie in that direction at all. If an entirely new system of naval tactics is ever evolved, it will not be by a Japanese; like their British confrères, they shine better at practical work than in the regions of theory. ”

“ By the system of selection of captains to be admirals the “duffer officer” has little chance of blocking the way of better men. He, however, as a rule is ready to recognise his own shortcomings, and it is not at all uncommon for such officers to exhibit their patriotism by retiring to make room for those who are likely to do better than they. It is only in the Japanese Navy that this happens: and it is in very marked contrast to certain other navies. ”

“ The Japanese, on the other hand, manage to find out nearly everything. They have to a marked degree men eminently qualified for the task. Where other nations employ agents, Japanese naval officers have always been found ready to serve in the most menial capacities. Both at Port Arthur and Vladivostok officers served as coolies, or as “native servants,” being Japanese, Chinese, or Koreans, as it suited their book. ”

“ Every Japanese gives time to thinking of the future, and were any lieutenant suddenly made into an admiral, I fancy that he would acquit himself quite as well as if he had reached his rank by orthodox gradations. He is apt to fail now and again at his present task from this trait, which is in many ways his chief defect, and one that may lead to trouble in war. It is sometimes dangerous to reason before proceeding to obey. A Japanese tends to do this. It is details that they think about. For instance, I once got a Japanese officer to give me his views on the conduct of a naval war. ”

“ As these Samaurai were the ancestors of modern Japanese naval officers, some account of their methods of training may be worthy of study, for to them it is undoubtedly due that Japan exists as one of the great Powers to-day. Otherwise she would assuredly have sunk to the Chinese level of an ultra-high civilisation in which courage has no place, and in which the military profession is lower than the meanest civil calling. ”

“ The Emperor is not expected to take command in person; but often one of the Imperial Princes will act as Commander-in-Chief in the field. There are now only two living Field-Marshals, Marquis Yamagata and Marquis Ōyama. There are various schools for educating and training the officers of the army and the navy.
As Japan is entirely an insular nation, the importance of her navy cannot be over-estimated. Even before the war with China, the Japanese navy had been rapidly growing ”

“ Whether any one man secured really valuable information is doubtful; the benefits were secured rather by the patient sifting of everything at Tokio.
It is said that the Japanese torpedo craft reached the Russian battleships on February 8th by using Russian signals that they had stolen the secret of. Far more probable is it that they had learned them by long and patient observation. [Pg 256]
FINANCE The expenditure upon the Japanese Navy for the years preceding the war with Russia was—
In 1903 the new programme was authorised, to spread over a series of years. ”

“ Such are Japanese naval officers. To sum up, they have little ambition, little thirst for personal glory, but a good deal of thirst for the thunder of battle. The only religion that they wot of is the worship of their fleet; their only heaven, that fleet in action. They cannot originate, but they are peerless at practising the things that they have learnt. And there is only one possible way of beating a Japanese fleet—by sinking it.
In many of these things the trail of Samaurai may be visible. The Samaurai were trained to kill and to be killed ”

“ Of the civil branches, constructors most often get the military title, and in the dockyards are always addressed by the employés as taï-i, houk-cho, or kan-cho, without the word constructor at all. In the British Navy, of course, constructors are almost as entirely civil a profession as Admiralty clerks, and are absolutely unknown to naval officers afloat; but in the Japanese Navy the tie is closer, and every officer knows them. ”

“ Yet, when he put into Portsmouth Harbour to coal, I found him sitting in the wardroom, expatiating to his officers on his good luck in having thus early been favoured with some bad weather experience.
“Duty,” in the sense in which one finds it in the British or Russian navies, is not much of a motive-power to Japanese officers. The religion of war, the interest of their profession, the longing to put theories to a fuller practical test—here lie the springs of their motive-power. To quote one of them, they “like being killed.” I believe they do. ”

“ His primary detail was strategical, and referred to the Press. “I shall [Pg 298] have no correspondents with my fleet when I am an admiral in war,” said he. “If they insist on coming, directly we get out to sea I shall set them all adrift in a boat. If they do their duty to their papers they are a hindrance to me; if they do not they are no good at all.”
Detail number two referred to his fleet. “I shall hoist the signal, ’No ship is to surrender; if beaten, it must sink.‘ If any ship hoists the white flag, the rest of my ships will open fire on it till it sinks.” ”

“ Japanese naval officers, like as they are to European ones in many characteristics, are yet of a more distinct class by themselves than any other body of men in the world. The likeness to European officers is superficial, a first impression; the real Japanese officer is not to be known or understood at a casual glance ”

“ Warrant and chief warrant officers in the Japanese Navy never undertake watch-keeping as in the British Navy. In no cases do they mess with the commissioned officers, as in our destroyers, torpedo boats, and torpedo gunboats, but, even in destroyers, have always their own mess. ”

“ Russian sailors are miserable people who lie in the snow, who have very little money, which they spend in buying cheap fish. They are very dirty. That is all we know of Russian sailors, who are quite like strange people to us. But we have no fear as to the result of a war with the Polar Bear.”
United States, America.
“The Americans have a wonderful navy with wonderful ships. Everything American is more wonderful than anything else in the world, so that we do not know what to believe.”
Themselves.
Of themselves Japanese officers speak little. ”

“ After all, the primary duty of a battleship is to hit the enemy hard, and an extra 6-in. in the broadside is no mean advantage. There are other incidental advantages too—a single 6-in. shell would put all the eight 12-pounders out of action on the upper deck of the Formidable, while, thanks to the casemates acting as screens, the Asahi could only lose four of her 3-in. by a single shell. In the placing of her 3-in. guns she is altogether better off than the Formidable, the sole point in which the British ship is superior being the four guns carried on the main deck forward. ”

“ In the Far East brawls between them and Russian sailors, before the war, were very frequent, and though the Russians are physically much the superior, yet, from [Pg 308] their quickness, the Japanese were more frequently the victors.
When Japanese sailors are in England, some of our missionary societies keep an eye on them—taking them about, and generally trying to help them. One old lady is particularly kindly remembered by the crews of those destroyers that fitted out at the West India Docks. She gave the crew of one of them a good many texts of the usual ornamental sort when they left. ”

“ Save for Russians and Italians, some of the biggest sailors going are Japanese. Beside their own officers they look giants, while actually they average nearly an inch higher than British bluejackets, and in breadth fully equal them. One and all, they are fine men physically, able to hold their own in size with almost any other nation’s bluejackets, except Russians and Italians. They are almost invariably stout and well set up, and they are always smiling; they take to their profession much as their officers do. ”

“ A British bluejacket might have contrived to see the humour of the situation also, [34] but no other Westerner is so blest—for it is a case of blest; the toughest warrior is the one that wins. Japan is not going to collapse in a war while this sort of sentiment can obtain. ”

“ ENTRY OF MEN Bluejackets
By the law of Japan, every male of the age of twenty has to draw lots for the conscription, unless he is already serving. As a matter of fact, however, there are comparatively few conscript sailors in the Imperial Navy, as young Japanese volunteer for service in large numbers. ”

“ The British steamer Kow-shing, owned by the Indo-China Co., left Shang-hai on July 17th, bound to Taku, under charter to carry Chinese troops from that port to Asan, on the coast of Korea. Arriving at Taku on the 20th, arrangements were made to ship the troops, and on the 23rd 1100 came on board, including two generals, a number of other officers of various ranks, and a German ex-army officer named Hanneken, who came as an ordinary passenger. ”

“ She was the first ship in any navy to be fitted with water-tube boilers, which were barely coming into existence in those days. Hers are of the Belleville type.
For protection she depends on a 41⁄4-in. chrome steel armour belt, 200 ft. long, amidships. Forward and aft of this is a protective deck 11⁄2 ins. thick on the slopes. Throughout the entire water-line is a cellulose belt, and she is divided into 84 watertight compartments. The guns have no protection beyond the ordinary shields. They are, however, very well disposed. ”

“ Whatever naval Kriegspiel may or may not be, it takes a Japanese to regard it as a dissipation.
In person, Japanese officers are very short, but the generality of them are far more “physically fit” than popular opinion imagines. The narrow-chested, sloping-shoulder variety is the exception, not the rule. Many are very well proportioned indeed. Height averages about five feet, or an inch or two over. In type of feature there is an immense variety; though black hair, high cheek-bones, and narrow eyes are common to all, general resemblance ends there. Colour varies much. ”

“ Most of the European officers jumped overboard, and the majority were rescued by the Naniwa’s boats. The Chinese on board the sinking ship opened a heavy rifle-fire on everything and everybody. The story that the Japanese fired on the men in the water does not appear to have any foundation in fact. ”

“ Art. VIII. That the landing of the requisite number of the Japanese officers and men, on the Island of Liu-kung-tau, in order to take possession of the forts and materials of war on the island, should commence from 9 o’clock a.m. on the 16th of February, 1895 (22nd of January by Chinese calendar) , but that Admiral Ito reserves to himself the right of sending a certain number of the Japanese men-of-war into the harbour, whenever the necessity occurs at any time after the signing of the present stipulations. ”

“ It is not impossible that their more liberal definition of cowardice would include a man who got unduly excited in action. After Yalu, several men were punished for that.
The general intelligence of Japanese bluejackets is high, they have the national aptitude for “picking things up” with marvellous rapidity—wherein they form a marked contrast to the Russian sailors, who learn very slowly. They—some of them—also forget rapidly; a national defect in Japan.
In many ways they are replicas of their officers. Like their officers, their ideas of dissipation centre round learning something. ”

“ They were told that if they decided to fight, the foreign officers would leave the ship. The generals then gave orders to the troops on deck to kill us if we obeyed the orders of the Japanese or attempted to leave the ship. With gestures they threatened to cut off our heads, to stab or shoot us; and a lot of men were selected to watch us and carry out the order. A signal was then made requesting the Naniwa to send a boat, in order to communicate the state of affairs. ”

“ All are singularly beautiful and realistic reproductions—very different things to the ordinary artificial flower of commerce. With these flowers the greater part of the ship is profusely decorated, numbers of lanterns are hung about, and here and there a “Welcome” is stuck up. In addition, each ship hits on some device of its own; thus the Kasagi went in for a host of Japanese and British naval ensigns, while the Shikishima turned diving-dresses into decorative uses. ”

“ Disputes with foreigners called him on to it; Japan awoke determined to be again a nation. “Let us have intercourse with foreigners, learn their drill and tactics, and ... we shall be able to go abroad and give lands in foreign countries to those who have distinguished themselves in battle,”—this sentiment every Japanese officer has imbibed with his mother’s milk. The introduction of Western social institutions, such as newspapers, railways, telegraphs, the new criminal code, the abolition of torture as a punishment, all these things are side issues. ”