THE BRAVERY OF THE JAPS.

Colonist, Volume XLVI, Issue 10958, 24 February 1904, Page 4

THE BRAVERY OF THE JAPS.

Ask a Japanese what is the noblest end ~of life. Prompt and decided comes the answer:—-" To die for the Emperor." He means what he says. In Japan, even more than in our own England^the virtue of self-sacrificing bravery is universal, says "V.C." Remind a tiny Japanese child of its birth and responsibility, and you may inflict the fiercest pain on it without seeing it flinch. Courage and calmness' in the face of danger are national traditions. §A Japanese who violated them by showing cowardice, even of the most excusable kind, would be shunned by all his friends. There is a story of a Japanese boy riding out of the fight """with three 3m»ws sticking itj y.fejs- breast, JEIe

begged his father to pull theiri out, i \ that he might die without pain, i Grim was his father's reply. "It is 1 unworthy of you, my Bon, to ask me I this. If you are not wounded to j death, fight on until you are. Then i seek no relief, excejpt in suicide." This, besides showing the Japanese idea of what is cowardly, illustrates a curious point. The Japanese* regard suicide on defeat as honorable and even as a duty, though we think it honor to live on and face the consequences. But that shows nothing more than the difference between the Oriental acid the Western point of view. Here are a few brave deeds, that will show that the little darkskinned race from the laughter-loving islands of cherry blossom can show a record of courage to compare with that of which every Englishman is proud. At the siege of Pekin a bomb had been set to blow up one of the gates. The fuse wejat out, so that it did not 1 explode. Without a moment's hesitation a Japanese officer dashed up to the gate, lit the bomb with his own hands, and nobly perished in the explosion that demolished the gate. His fellow soldiers were not greatly excited over his bravery. They would, indeed, have been surprised if he had done otherwise than he did. Some years ago a fire broke out in the powder magazine of a Japanese warship. The explosive was heaped | in a huge pile, and already the fire had caught the loose powder scattered before it, and was flashing and flaming its way to the central heap. The destruction of the ship seemed inevitable, Suddenly a young sublieutenant leaped down into the powder room, aud, sweeping aside the blazing powder with his bare hands, stopped the fire, and saved the ship and the lives of those on board. There are thousands of such stories Bhowing the reckless bravery of the Japanese.