UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO 3 1822016070989 mmm\ mi f U VERS TV OF CALIF, L 31822016070989 Central University Library University of California, San Diego Note: This item is subject to recall after two weeks Date Due 1 5 I9S4 JAN 6 1994 Cl 39 (1/91) UCSDLib. 385 Wash'n St. Boston HUMAN BULLETS HUMAN BULLETS A SOLDIER'S STORY OF PORT ARTHUR BY TADAYOSHI SAKURAI LIEUTENANT I. J. A. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY COUNT OKUMA TRANSLATED BY EDITED BY MASUJIRO HONDA ALICE MABEL BACON BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY COPYRIGHT 1907 BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published October iqarj CONTENTS EDITOR'S PREFACE vu INTRODUCTION BY COUNT OKUMA ix AUTHOR'S PREFACE xiii I. MOBILIZATION 3 II. OUR DEPARTURE 14 III. THE VOYAGE 22 IV. A DANGEROUS LANDING 27 V. THE VALUE OF PORT ARTHUR . 37 VI. THE BATTLE OF NANSHAN 42 VII. NANSHAN AFTER THE BATTLE 52 VIII. DIGGING AND SCOUTING 63 IX. THE FIRST CAPTIVES 70 X. OUR FIRST BATTLE AT WAITU-SHAN 77 XI. THE OCCUPATION OF KENZAN 84 XII. COUNTER-ATTACKS ON KENZAN 89 XIII. ON THE DEFENSIVE 100 XIV. LIFE IN CAMP no XV. SOME BRAVE MEN AND THEIR MEMORIAL 118 XVI. THE BATTLE OF TAIPO-SHAN 126 XVII. THE OCCUPATION OF TAIPO-SHAN 137 v XVIII. THE FIELD AFTER THE BATTLE 147 XIX. THE FIRST AID STATION 158 XX. FOLLOWING UP THE VICTORY 166 XXI. THE STORMING OF TAKU-SHAN 174 XXII. SUN FLAG ON TAKU-SHAN 184 XXIII. PROMOTION AND FAREWELLS 194 XXIV. THE BEGINNING OF THE GENERAL ASSAULT 204 XXV. A RAIN OF HUMAN BULLEX.S 214 XXVI. THE FORLORN HOPE 227 XXVII. LIFE our OF DEATH 239 APPENDICES 257 EDITOR'S PREFACE is being said just now about the Japan- MUCHese as a war-loving nation, likely to become aggressors in the struggle for the control of the Pacific. This little book of Lieutenant Sakurai's will, perhaps, help to set us right in regard to the spirit in which the Japanese soldier fights. The story was told originally, not for a foreign audience, but to give to his own countrymen a true picture of the lives and deaths, the joys and sorrows, of the men who took Port Arthur. Its enthusiastic recep- tion in Japan, where forty thousand copies were sold within the first year, is the justification of translator and editor in offering it to the American public. The tale, so simply told, so vivid, so character- istically Japanese in spirit and in execution, is the work of a man of twenty-five who sees the world with all the glow and courage and enthusiasm of youth. Its honesty speaks in every line and word. If, as seems now possible, the great new lesson set for the Twentieth Century is to be the meeting and mutual comprehension of Eastern and Western vii civilization and ideals, there can be no better text- " book for us Americans than Human Bullets," a revelation of the inmost feelings of a Japanese soldier of remarkable intelligence, spirituality, and power of expression. No better opportunity can be found for the study of Japanese psychology and for the gaining of a sympathetic insight into what the " loyal sons of Japan love to call Yamato-Damashii," the Spirit of Old Japan. A. M. B. INTRODUCTION a retired officer of the Russian RECENTLYarmy and a correspondent of the "Russ" came to call upon me. When war broke out be- tween Russia and Japan he was at Harbin; soon afterward he was summoned to Port Arthur and set out thither. But by that time communication had been cut off by our army, and in consequence he was obliged to return to Vladivostock. Accord- ing to my visitor's story the railway trains from the Russian capital were loaded with decorations and prize money, and the officers and men traveling in the same trains were in the highest of spirits, as if they had been going through a triumphal arch after a victory accomplished. They seemed to be- lieve that the civilized Russian army was to crush into pieces the half-civilized forces of Japan and that the glittering decorations and jingling gold were soon to be theirs. They did not entertain in the least the feeling with which a man enters a tiger's den or knocks at death's door. The Japan- ese fighters, on the contrary, marched bravely to the front, fully prepared to suffer agonies and sacri- ix ' fice their lives for their sire and their country, with the determination of the true old warrior who went to war ready to die, and never expected to come back alive. The Russian army lacked harmony and cooperation between superiors and inferiors. Gen- erals were haughty, and men weary; while officers were rich, soldiers were left hungry. Such rela- tions are something like those between dogs and 1 monkeys. On the other hand, the Japanese army combined the strictest of discipline with the close friendship of comrades, as if they were all parents and sons, or brothers. Viewed from this stand- point, the success or failure of both armies might have been clearly foreseen even before the first battle. My Russian guest spoke thus, and his observations seem to the point. The army of our country is strict in discipline and yet harmonious through its higher and lower ranks. The soldiers vie with each other in offering themselves on the altar of their country, the spirit of self-sacrifice prevails to a marked degree. This is the true characteristic of the race of Yamato. And in the siege of Port Arthur this sublime na- tional spirit showed itself especially vigorous. Materially calculated, the loss and damage to our besieging army was enormous. If, however, the spiritual activity this great struggle entailed is 1 Dogs and monkeys are proverbially unfriendly in Japan, as dogs and cats are with us. X taken into consideration, our gain was also im- mense, it has added one great glory to the history of our race. Even the lowest of soldiers fought in battle-fields with unflinching courage, and faced 1 death as if it were going home, and yet the brav- est were also the tenderest. Many a time they must have shed secret tears, overwhelmed with emotion, while standing in the rainfall of bullets. They re- spected and obeyed the dictates at once of honor and duty in all their service, and shouted Banzai to His Imperial Majesty at the moment of death. Their display of the true spirit of the Japanese Samurai is radically different from the behavior of men who appear on the fighting line with only the prospect of decorations and money before their eyes. Lieutenant Sakurai is the younger brother of my friend Mr. Hikoichiro Sakurai. He had a per- sonal share in the tragedy of Port Arthur and is a brave soldier with no little literary talent. I had read with interest the lieutenant's letters written while at the front, giving an inside view as well as an outside one of the war and describing the deli- cate workings of the human heart at such a time. Later I was very sorry to hear that he had been seriously wounded in the first general assault. He has written out the facts of the siege, with the left 1 "Death is returning home." Quotation from the Chinese classics. xi hand spared him by the enemy's shot. He tells us grand stories and sad stories, portrays the pa- thetic human nature in which fortitude and tears are woven together, and depicts to us the great living drama of Port Arthur, with his sympathetic pen. I must congratulate him on his success. To make clear the true cause of the unbroken series of successes vouchsafed to our Imperial Army, to make known to the public the loyalty and bravery of many a nameless hero, and thus to comfort the spirits of those countless patriots whose bones lie bleaching in the wilderness of Liaotung, is a kind of work for which we must largely depend upon such men as Lieutenant Sakurai, who have fought and who can write. He has blazed the way with marked success in this most interesting field of war literature. SHIGENOBU OKUMA. April, 1906. AUTHOR'S PREFACE Russo-Japanese War! This tremendous THEstruggle is now happily at an end, and the hundreds of thousands of brave and loyal officers and men have come back from the fields with laurels on their heads, and welcomed by a grateful nation. What a triumphant air ! How happy they look! But in their hearts is something behind the joy. At the back of their smiles lie hid the deep sorrow and the often forced-back tears for the mul- titudes of their comrades who, for the cause of their country and of His Majesty, have turned their bodies into the earth of lone Manchuria and can- not share in the delight of the triumphal return. Toward the end of the Sinico- Japanese War, a certain detachment was ordered home, and before sailing paid a final visit to the graves of their dead comrades. One private stepped out of the ranks and stroked the tombstone of his special chum, saying with falling tears : "Dear Kato! I am going back to Japan. We have faced wind and rain together and fought in the hail-storm of bullets together, and you died xiii instead of me, and I am going home in safety. I feel as if I were not doing right. I am very sad to leave you here alone but be happy, dear Kato, Liaotung Peninsula is now ours! Your bones are buried in the Japanese soil.