ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses 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. Every foreign officer who saw the work done by the Japanese Army throughout the various incidents of the Russian War was lost in admiration. In the first instance Japan borrowed from the British government the services of some of its best naval officers to develop the Japanese Navy. Japan had no Navy or no ambitions in the direction of creating one prior to English naval officers being lent to the Japanese Government to assist in the reorganisation of the Navy. In 1858, the naval school had been established at Nagasaki, was transferred to Yeddo, and the Japanese Government determined to obtain the assistance of English naval officers for giving instruction in the school.