in Japan, as Uie only v.ay lo aa^ 



describe the extraordinary statu„ - , - 



prisoner of war in the twentieth century ^ian g 

 I had been cabled to write an article on 

 that subject by a magazine but found, it 

 Unposslble-too much material, too many 

 ^ints of view, too many hl^^f '"^^l P^f^"- 

 dents to be quoted to make the situation 

 "lear Besides, all sorts of people^would 

 not read nor toe trapped into reading 

 serious article about Prisoners of wai% 

 they might be Induced to read it it w< 

 put in lighter form." - 

 - "Were you in Japan during the, war? 

 Saw Some "War Signs. 

 "Nfot at the beginning, but there was 

 more war than I wanted to be liarrowed 

 by between April, 1904, and -1""^, 190o. 1 

 saw the wonderful spirit with which the 

 soldiers went to flght those terrible bat- 

 tles, the fortitude of the sufferers in hos- 

 pitals, and of families bereaved and, most 

 wonderful of all, their generous and Kiml- 

 ly attitude toward the ".u.otw R"^s'^" P"^" 

 -oners detained by the S°vernment at 

 twpntv-eiKht castle towns and pioyinciai 

 clpita'Js ^Many foreign ;-eslf«f « .'^^^i^ 

 .. 4°,e^w?rr-o«^rSorn7th; command to ;l^v«- 

 : i lour enemies,' their , hypersentlnientaUty 

 Ld-extrii-altrulsm..;.r, repeated to ^he 

 .cabinet, .minister the ; comment or an 

 American missionary ' who ^"pposed it 

 was only fair to give' them three meals a 

 day, bu^ drew the line at giving them 

 afternoon tea, with sugar, and at all the 

 pampering attentions of tea, sweets and 

 cigarettes at the railway stations by the 

 iled Cross ladies,' 



" 'Give them to me and I will land 

 thern^ all on one of the Kurlle Islands 

 with^ tents black bread, candle ends and 

 fishing tackle. Let them rustle for the 

 rest' advised another American. 



The minister held up both l?an«s with 

 horror. 'Why should we^ be^unk^nd to^ttie 



sJfferin'K enough tor brave 'men to be 

 |,risone7s at all. I wish you w^'^fu 

 ind see how we treat them. Pei-l f ps you 

 will think we are not kind enough It 

 cannot be pleasant to be a prisoner any- 

 where.' 



' ■ Scenes at the "War Prisons. 



■VThey gave me passes to all the places 

 of detention, 

 and had such 



prohended phase of war that I made no I 

 more visits. It was saddening and very 

 (Jepress'lng to see the, porrow and chagrin.,; 

 9f good and. loyal Russians, the humllia-" 

 tion of honest patriotic men who loved 

 their country and their sovereign, and 

 who could do no more for the cause; 

 who had not committed crimes, yet were 

 deprived of their liberty, or rather , re- 

 strained , like boys in boarding school. 

 And it was exasperating to see, as at 

 Hamadera, below Osaka, aO.OOO soldiers 

 from Port Arthur, idling the days away, 

 feeding and feasting and playing games, 

 tven dancing to pass tihe time, while the 

 poor Japanese tolled in the fields beyond 

 and Japanese women and boys earne< 

 slender wage pushing bread carts dc 

 from Osaka to help feed this army 

 loafers. There was certainly something 

 wrong about that. Then there were all 

 those Russian officers and men whom 

 their companions scorned for deliberately 

 going over to the enemy in each engage- 

 ment glad to surrender and accept the 

 ease 'and idleness of prison life, rather 

 than face any more of bhe hardships and 

 dangers of campaigning. 



"Some of the oftlcers were intelligent, 

 cultivated broad-minded men, capable of 

 accepting 'and appreciating the situation. 

 Others whimpered, lamented, reviled and 

 openly insulted the Jdpanese at every pp. 

 portunlty. Some officers occupied th 



the book 'an insidious attack on the Ku. 



tment.' Who can say tlu 



^nd 1 visited four of them, 



;ults 



.nd lived 



in' studio... 



senllemen; others laid ........^ , 



of civilization, and lived and dressed as 

 untidily as Digger Indians, and when the „ 

 restrictions were lightened, descended to i 

 depths of drunkenness and dissipation 

 that made every Anglo-Saxon ashamed of 

 hiB color and race, I met the wives of 

 two officers, who were residents with 

 their prisoner husbands at one garrison i 

 town. These officers Were engineers who', 

 had been for some years conatructlng 

 forts, docks and public works at i'ort 

 Arthur, Dalny and Vladivostok, and had 

 come over to live In Japan when work 1 

 was suspended durlhg the winters. Theirs 

 was a very queer rand unique sort of 

 prison life to me, • . 



' An Illogical Situation. 

 "It In wrmlly III«kU.'h1. Himiolliliig ouRlit 

 te be dona nboul 11. Tliere -slioiiUl nut 



