Banzai! by Parabellum

by Ferdinand Heinrich Grautoff

  _Chapter XIII_

  THE REVENGE FOR PORTSMOUTH

  The more one examined the complicated machinery of the Japanese plan ofattack, the more one was forced to admire the cleverness and the energyof the Mongolians in preparing for the war, and the more distinctlythese were recognized, the clearer became the wide gulf between theMongolian's and the white man's point of view concerning all thesematters.

  We might have learned a lesson in 1904, if we had not so carelessly andthoughtlessly looked upon the Russo-Japanese war as a mere episode,instead of regarding it as a war whose roots were firmly embedded in theinner life of a nation that had suddenly come to the surface of a rapidpolitical development. The interference of the European powers in thePeace of Shimonoseki in 1895 robbed Japan of nearly all the fruits ofher victory over China. Japan had been forced to vacate the conqueredprovince of Liaotung on the mainland because she was unable to prevailagainst three European powers, who were for once agreed in maintainingthat all Chinese booty belonged to Europe, for they regarded China as abankrupt estate to be divided among her creditors. When, therefore,after the second Peace of Shimonoseki, Japan was compelled to relinquishall her possessions on the mainland and to console herself for hershattered hopes with a few million taels, every Japanese knew that thelost booty would at some time or other be demanded from Russia at thepoint of the sword. With the millions paid by China as war indemnity,Japan procured a new military armament, built an armored fleet andslowly but surely taught the nation to prepare for the hour of revenge.Remember Shimonoseki! That was the secret shibboleth, the free-mason'ssign, which for nine long years kept the thoughts of the Japanese peoplecontinually centered on one object.

  "One country, one people, one God!" were words once emphaticallypronounced by Kaiser Wilhelm. But with the Japanese such high-soundingwords as these are quite unnecessary. In the heart of all, from theTenno to the lowest rickshaw coolie, there exists a jealous nationalconsciousness, as natural as the beating of the heart itself, whichunites the forces of religion, of the political idea and of intellectualculture into one indivisible element, differing in the individual onlyin intensity and in form of expression. When a citizen of Japan leaveshis native land, he nevertheless remains a Japanese from the crown ofhis head to the soles of his feet, and can no more mix with members ofanother nation than a drop of oil can mix with water: a drop of oilpoured on water will remain on its surface as an alien element, and sodoes a Japanese among another people. While the streams of emigrantspassing over the boundaries of Europe into other countries soon adaptthemselves to new conditions and eventually adopt not only the outwardbut also the inward symbols of their environment, until finally theythink and feel like those round about them, the Japanese remains a Japfor all time. The former sometimes retain a sentimental memory of theirformer home, but the Mongolian is never sentimental or romantic. He issober and sensible, with very little imagination, and his whole energy,all his thoughts and endeavors are directed towards the upholding of thenational, intellectual and religious unity of Japan. His country is hisconscience, his faith, his deity.

  Ordinary nations require hundreds and even thousands of years to inspiretheir people with a national consciousness, but this was not necessaryin Japan, for there patriotism is inborn in the people, among whom anact of treason against the fatherland would be impossible because it islooked upon as spiritual suicide. The inner solidarity of the nationalcharacter, the positive assurance of the fulfillment of all nationalduties, and the absolute silence of the people towards strangers--theseare the weapons with which Japan enters the arena, clothed in a rattlingready-made steel armor, the like of which her opponents have yet tomanufacture. The discretion shown by the Japanese press in all questionsrelating to foreign policy is regarded as the fulfillment of a patrioticduty just as much as the joyous self-sacrifice of the soldier on thefield of battle.

  From the moment that Marquis Ito had returned from Portsmouth (in 1905)empty-handed and the Japanese had been sorely disappointed in theirhopes through President Roosevelt's instrumentality in bringing aboutpeace, every Japanese knew whose turn would come next. The Japanesepeople were at first exceedingly angry at the way in which they had beendeprived of their expected indemnity, but the government only allowedthem to let off steam enough to prevent the boilers from bursting. Hereand there, where it could do no harm, they let the excited mob have itsway, but very soon both government and press began their new work ofturning the people's patriotic passions away from the past to preparefor the future control of the Pacific. When in return for theprohibition of Chinese immigration to the United States, China boycottedour goods, and the ensuing panic in Wall Street forced the governmentin Washington to grant large concessions, Japan did not attempt to makeuse of this sharp weapon, for one of their most extensive industries,namely the silk industry, depended upon the export to the United States.Japan continued to place orders in America and treated the Americanimporters with special politeness, even when she saw that the beginningof the boycott gave the gentlemen in Washington a terrible scare,prompting them to collect funds to relieve the famine in China and evenrenouncing all claim to the war indemnity of 1901 to smooth mattersover. But Japan apparently took no notice of all this and continued tobe deferential and polite, even when the growing heaps of unsold goodsin the warehouses at Shanghai made the Americans ready to sacrifice someof their national pride. Since Japan wished to take the enemy bysurprise, she had to be very careful not to arouse suspicionsbeforehand.

  "Never speak of it, but think of it always," was the watchword given outby the little Jewish lawyer in the president's chair of France, when thelonging for revenge filled the soul of every Frenchman during the slowretreat of the German army after its victorious campaign; "never speakof it, but think of it always," that was the watchword of the Japanesepeople also, although never expressed in words. It was nine years beforethe bill of exchange issued at Shimonoseki was presented on thatFebruary night in the roads of Port Arthur; for nine years the Japanesehad kept silence and thought about it, had drilled and armed theirsoldiers, built ships and instructed their crews. The world had seen allthis going on, but had no idea of the real reason for these warlikepreparations on a tremendous scale. It was not Japan who had deceivedthe world, for everything went on quite openly, it being impossible tohide an army of over a million men under a bushel basket; but the worldhad deceived itself. When ships are built and cannon cast in other partsof the world, everyone knows for whom they are intended, and shouldanyone be ignorant, he will soon be enlightened by the after-dinnerspeeches of diplomats or indiscreet newspaper articles. The military andnaval plans of the old world are common property, and this politicalindiscretion is characteristic of America as well as of Europe. Instriking contrast thereto are the cool calculation, the silentobservation and the perfect harmony of the peoples of Asia and Africa,all of whom, without exception, are inspired by a deep and undyinghatred of the white race.

  You may live for years among disciples of Mohammed, know all in yourenvironment, penetrate into their thoughts and feelings, and still beutterly incapable of judging when the little spark that occasionallyglows in their eyes in moments of great enthusiasm, will suddenlydevelop into an immense flame, when a force will make its appearance ofthe existence of which you have never dreamed, and which will, without asign of warning, devastate and destroy all around it. But when this doeshappen and the corpses of the slain encumber the streets, when thequiet, peaceful, apparently indolent Moslem who for years has workedfaithfully for you, is transformed in a few hours into a fanatical hero,whom thousands follow like so many sheep, then, at the sight of theburning ruins you will be forced to admit that the white man willforever be excluded from the thoughts and the national sentiment of thefollowers of Islam.

  You walk across a sandy plain in the heat of the midday sun and youreturn the same way the next morning after a rainy night--what hashappened? The ground which yesterday looked so parched and barren is nowcovered with millions of tiny blades. Where
has this sudden life comefrom? It was there all the time. There is always latent life beneath thesurface, but it is invisible. And as soon as a fertilizing rain comes,it springs up, and everyone perceives what has been slumbering beneaththe crust.

  In the dense jungles from which the sacred Nile receives its waters,there stands a tent and before it a saddled horse. From the tent stepsforth a man with large glowing eyes, dressed all in white, who isgreeted by his followers with fanatical cries of Allah, Allah! He mountshis steed, the camels rise, and the long caravan swings slowly out ofsight and disappears in the bush. Once more dead silence reigns in theAfrican jungle. Whither are they going? You don't know; you see only arider dressed in a white burnoose, only a few dozen men hailing aprophet, but in the very same moment in which you see only a sheikriding off, millions know that the Caliph, the Blessed of Allah, hasstarted on his journey through the lands whose inhabitants he intends tolead either to victory or to destruction. In the same moment millions ofhearts from Mogador to Cape Guardafui, from Tripoli to the burning saltdeserts of Kalahari, rejoice in the thought that the hour of deliverancehas come for the peoples of Islam. A victorious feeling of buoyant hopearises in the hearts of the Faithful simply because a plain Arabiansheik has started on the road pointed out by Allah. How they happen toknow it and all at the same time, will forever remain a mystery to thewhite man, as much of a mystery as the secret inner life of the yellowraces of Asia.

  "Never speak of it, but think of it always," had been the watchword, andeverything that had transpired, even the apparently inconsistent andsenseless things, had been ruled by it. The world could not be deceivedabout the things that were plainly visible; all the Japanese had to dowas to make sure that the world would deceive itself as it had doneduring the preparations for Port Arthur. A perfectly equipped army couldbe seen by all on the fields of Nippon, Hokkaido and Kiushiu, and thefleet was surely not hidden from view. It was the world's own fault thatit could not interpret what it saw, that it imagined the little yellowmonkey would never dare attack the clumsy polar-bear. Because thediplomatic quill-drivers would only see what fitted into their schemes,because they were capable only of moving in a circle about their ownideas, they could not understand the thoughts of others, and the fewwarning voices died away unheeded. It was not Japan's fault that theroads at Port Arthur roused the world out of its slumber. What businesshad the world to be asleep?

  "Never speak of it, but think of it always"--the adversary must be putto sleep again, he must be lulled into security and his thoughtsdirected towards the points where there was nothing to be seen, where nopreparations were in progress. He must be kept in the dark about thetrue nature of the preparations, and on the other hand put on as manyfalse scents as possible, so that he might not get the faintest idea ofthe real plan.

  This is the reason why all those things were done, why the quarrel overthe admission of Japanese children to the public schools of SanFrancisco was cooked up, why so much national anger was exhibited, whythe Japanese press took up the quarrel like a hungry dog pouncing upon abone, why so much noise was made about it at public meetings that onewould have thought the fate of Japan hung on the result. And then, assoon as Washington began to back down, the dogs were whipped back totheir kennels and the "national anger" died out as soon as Japan had"saved her face." The Americans were allowed to doze off again, fullypersuaded that the school question was settled once and for all and thatthere was nothing further to fear in that direction. Then, too, Japanapparently yielded in the vexed question of Japanese immigration to theUnited States, but instead of sending the immigrants to San Franciscoand Seattle, as she had done hitherto, they were simply dispatchedacross the Mexican frontier, where it was impossible to exercise controlover such things, for no one could be expected to patrol the sandydeserts of Arizona and New Mexico merely to watch whether a few Japsslipped across the border now and then. It was therefore impossible tokeep track of the number of Japanese who entered the country in thisway, more especially as the official emigration figures issued at Tokiowere purposely inaccurate, so as to confuse the statistics still more.

  "Never speak of it, but think of it always!" That is why a Japanesephotographer was sent to San Diego to photograph the walls of FortRosecrans. He was to get himself arrested. But of course we had to letthe fellow go when he proved that better and more accurate photos thanhe had taken could be purchased in almost any store in San Diego. Theobject of this game was the same as that practiced in Manila, where wewere induced to arrest a spy who was ostentatiously taking photographs.Both of these little maneuvers were intended to persuade us that Japanwas densely ignorant with regard to these forts which as a matter offact would play no role at all in her plan of attack; America was to beled to believe that Japan's system of espionage was in its infancy,while in reality the government at Tokio was in possession of the exactdiagram of every fort, was thoroughly familiar with every beam of ourwarships--thanks to the Japanese stewards who had been employed by theNavy Department up to a few years ago--knew the peculiarities of everyone of our commanders and their hobbies in maneuvers, and finally wasinformed down to the smallest detail of our plans of mobilization, andof the location of our war headquarters and of our armories andammunition depots.

  For the same reason the Japanese press, and the English press in EasternAsia which was inspired by Japan, continually drew attention to thePhilippines, as though that archipelago were to be the first point ofattack. For this reason, too, the English-Chinese press published at thebeginning of the year the well-known plans for Japan's offensive navalattack and the transport of two of her army corps to the Philippines.And the ruse proved successful. Just as Russia had been taken completelyby surprise because she would persist in her theory that Japan wouldbegin by marching upon Manchuria, so now the idea that Japan would firsttry to capture the Philippines and Hawaii had become an American and aninternational dogma. The world had allowed itself to be deceived asecond time, and, convinced that the first blow would be struck atManila and Hawaii, they spent their time in figuring out how soon theAmerican fleet would be able to arrive on the scene of action in orderto save the situation in the Far East.

  "Never speak of it, but think of it always!" While Japan wasdisseminating these false notions as to the probable course of a war,the actual preparations for it were being conducted in an entirelydifferent place, and the adversary was induced to concentrate hisstrength at a point where there was no intention of making an attack.The Japanese were overjoyed to observe the strengthening of thePhilippine garrison when the insurrection inspired by Japanese agentsbroke out at Mindanao as well as the concentration of the cruisersquadron off that island, for Manila, the naval base, was thus leftunprotected. With the same malignant joy they noticed how the UnitedStates stationed half of its fleet off the Pacific coast and, relying onher mobile means of defense, provided insufficient garrisons for thecoast-defenses, on the supposition that there would be plenty of time toput the garrisons on a war-footing after the outbreak of hostilities.

  Japan's next move came in March and April, when she quietly withdrew allthe regular troops from the Manchurian garrisons and replaced them withreserve regiments fully able to repulse for a time any attack on thepart of Russia. The meaning of this move was not revealed until weekslater, when it became known that the transport ships from Dalny andGensan, which were supposed to have returned to Japan, were really ontheir way to San Francisco and Seattle with the second detachment of theinvading army.

  After the destruction of the Philippine squadron, the Japanese reducedtheir blockade of the Bay of Manila to a few old cruisers and armedmerchant-steamers, at the same time isolating the American garrisons inthe archipelago, whose fate was soon decided. The blockading ships couldnot of course venture near the heavy guns of the Corregidor batteries,but that was not their task. They had merely to see that Manila had nointercourse with the outside world, and this they did most efficiently.The Japanese ships had at first feared an attack by the two littlesubmarines _Shark_ an
d _Porpoise_ stationed at Cavite; they learned fromtheir spies on land, however, that the government shipyards at Cavitehad tried in vain to render the little boats seaworthy: they returnedfrom each diving-trial with defective gasoline-engines. And when, weekslater, they at last reached Corregidor, the four Japanese submarinesquickly put an end to them. The strongly fortified city of Manila hadthus become a naval base without a fleet and was accordingly overpoweredfrom the land side.

  As the far too weak garrison of scarcely more than ten thousand men wasinsufficient to defend the extensive line of forts and barricades, theunfinished works at Olongapo on Subig Bay were blown up with dynamiteand vacated, then the railways were abandoned, and finally only Manilaand Cavite were retained. But the repeated attacks of the natives underthe leadership of Japanese officers soon depleted the little garrison,which was entirely cut off from outside assistance and dependentabsolutely on the supplies left in Manila itself. The only article ofwhich they had more than enough was coal; but you can't bake bread withcoal, and so finally, on August twenty-fourth, Manila capitulated.Twenty-eight hundred starving soldiers surrendered their arms while thebalance lay either in the hospitals or on the field of battle. Thus thePhilippines became a Japanese possession with the loss of a single man,Lieutenant Shirawa. All the rest had been accomplished by the Filipinosand by the climate that was so conducive to the propagation ofmosquitoes and scorpions.

  Hawaii's fate had been decided even more quickly than that of thePhilippines. The sixty thousand Japanese inhabitants of the archipelagowere more than enough to put an end to American rule. The half-finishedworks at Pearl Harbor fell at the first assault, while the threedestroyers and the little gunboat were surprised by the enemy. Guam, andPago-Pago on Tutuila, were also captured, quite incidentally. About themiddle of May, a Japanese transport fleet returning from San Franciscoappeared at Honolulu and took forty thousand inhabitants to Seattle,where they formed the reserve corps of the Northern Japanese Army.

  * * * * *

  Japan's rising imperialism, the feeling that the sovereignty of thePacific rightly belonged to the leading power in yellow Asia had, longbefore the storms of war swept across the plains of Manchuria, come intoconflict with the imperialistic policy of the United States, althoughinvisibly at first. Prior to that time the Asiatic races had looked uponthe dominion of the white man as a kind of fate, as an irrevocableuniversal law, but the fall of Port Arthur had shattered this idol onceand for all. And after the days of Mukden and Tsushima had destroyed thebelief in the invincibility of the European arms, the Japanese agentsfound fertile soil everywhere for their seeds of secret politicalagitation. In India, in Siam, and in China also, the people began toprick their ears when it was quite openly declared that after thedestruction of the czar's fleet the Pacific and the lands bordering onit could belong only to the Mongolians. The discovery was made that thewhite man was not invincible. And beside England, only the United Statesremained to be considered--the United States who were still hard at workon their Philippine inheritance and could not make up their mind toestablish their loudly heralded imperialistic policy on a firm footingby providing the necessary armaments.

  Then came the Peace of Portsmouth. Absolutely convinced that his countrywould have to bear the brunt of the next Asiatic thunder-storm, TheodoreRoosevelt gained one of the most momentous victories in the history ofthe world when he removed the payment of a war indemnity from theconditions of peace. And he did this not because he had any particularlove for the Russians, but because he wished to prevent thestrengthening of Japan's financial position until after the completionof the Panama Canal. America did exactly what Germany, Russia and Francehad done at the Peace of Shimonoseki, and we had to be prepared forsimilar results. But how long did it take the American people, who hadhelped to celebrate the victories of Oyama, Nogi and Togo, to recognizethat a day of vengeance for Portsmouth was bound to come. In those dayswe regarded the Manchurian campaign merely as a spectacle and applaudedthe victors. We had no idea that it was only the prelude of the greatdrama of the struggle for the sovereignty of the Pacific. We wantedimperialism, but took no steps to establish it on a firm basis, and itis foolish to dream of imperial dominion when one is afraid to lay thesword in the scales. We might bluff the enemy for the time being bysending our fleet to the Pacific; but we could not keep him deceivedlong as to the weakness of our equipment on land and at sea, especiallyon land.

  The wholesale immigration of Mongolians to our Pacific States and to thewestern shores of South America was clearly understood across the sea.But we looked quietly on while the Japanese overran Chili, Peru andBolivia, all the harbors on the western coast of South America; andwhile the yellow man penetrated there unhindered and the decisive eventsof the future were in process of preparation, we continued to lookanxiously eastward from the platform of the Monroe Doctrine and to keepa sharp lookout on the modest remnants of the European colonial dominionin the Caribbean Sea, as if danger could threaten us from that corner.We seemed to think that the Monroe Doctrine had an eastern exposureonly, and when we were occasionally reminded that it embraced the entirecontinent, we allowed our thoughts to be distracted by the London presswith its talk of the "German danger" in South America, just as thoughany European state would think for a moment of seizing three Brazilianprovinces overnight, as it were.

  We have always tumbled through history as though we were deaf and dumb,regarding those who warned us in time against the Japanese danger asbackward people whose intellects were too weak to grasp the victoriousmarch of Japanese culture. Any one who would not acknowledge theundeniable advance of Japan to be the greatest event of the presentgeneration was stamped by us an enemy of civilization. We recognizedonly two categories of people--Japanophobes and Japanophiles. It neverentered our heads that we might recognize the weighty significance ofJapan's sudden development into a great political power, but at the sametime warn our people most urgently against regarding this developmentmerely as a phase of feuilletonistic culture. Right here lies the basisfor all our political mistakes of the last few years. The revenge forPortsmouth came as such a terrible surprise, because, misled by commonopinion, we believed the enemy to be breaking down under the weight ofhis armor and therefore incapable of conducting a new war and, in thisway undervaluing our adversary, we neglected all necessary preparations.No diplomatic conflict, not the slightest disturbance of our relationswith Japan prepared the way for the great surprise. The world was thericher by one experience--that a war need have no prelude on thediplomatic stage provided enough circumstances have led up to it.