JAPAN'S GREAT ARMY.

Taihape Daily Times, 25 September 1918, Page 3

JAPAN'S GREAT ARMY.

BRITISH SYSTEM ADOPTED. 8,000,000 TRAINED troops. The training of the Japanese Army, according to Mr. T. G. Wade, o£ Dunedin, who was A.D.C. to LieutenantGeneral Birdwood on Gallipoli, and has just returned from an eightmonths’ sojourn in Japan, has latelybeen remodelled. Formerly it went on German lines, now it closely follows the British system, as improved by the present war, but is more severe. It was, he stated recently, r. very rigorous training, and the result was a very fine soldiery. So far as fie could ascertain, Japan’s regular army stood at about 1,800,000, but, under the present system of compulsorytraining for definite periods at short intervals, her available force was increased to about 8,000,000 of welltrained troops.' The equipment of the Japanese soldier also followed the British type, and the artillery was of the most up to date models. The preparations for war were on a vast scale. Munition factories and ammunition depots were numerous and large. Other testimony to Japan’s participation in the w<tr was found in the sight of many warships being built in new shipyards. “The impression I got from what I saw,” said Mr. Wade, “was that the Japanese are awaiting something—waiting to lantf a knockout blow, but against whom I could not discover. The Japanese are shrewd —very shrewd. ’ ’