JAPANESE HEROISM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10031, 29 April 1910, Page 4

JAPANESE HEROISM.

The story of the Japanese submarine, which sank the other day, and caused the Joss of all handa, provides a real life incident which once mote gives troth the palm over

fiction. And it illustrates the char- j acteristic of this newly-discovered people which was the main factor in their world startling uprise to naval and military greatness. The imaignation of Victor Hugo never conceived a more terrible posrtiou than that in which the crew of the foundered submarine were placed when the vessel fettled on the bottom with her small supply of oxygen, the j exhaustion of which meant death, stored in her air chambers, and which every breath drawn by every man appreciably depleted. They were then literally buried alive, and it became simply a question of slow ' asphyxiation from which there was no possibility of escape, 'ihe commander of the vessel, hovever, in this awful situation, thought of nothing but his duty as an officer of «-he Mikado. With the fatalistic s f oicism which rendered the Japanese soldiers and sailors m the late war as impassive as the scientific slaying machinery which they were opera- , ting, he sat down to write an account I ol the occurrence, and express sorrow | for the loss of the ship. While every j gasp at the devitalised air was bringing him nearer and nearer to death, he continued to write his official reI port, detailing the efforts made to [ refloat the vessel, and coinmenting on the work done by the buriedalive men as if it was a part of their ordinary duty. Finally he apologised for being unable to proceed further, as asphyxiation gripped his lungs and slowly squeezed the life out of him. Discipline can do much, and fanatic- j ism more, hf overcoming the human fear of death, but it must have a certain kind of character to work upon, and there is, perhaps, no race, Eastern or Western, which, in this respect, compares with the Japanese. And when fired by an intense allabsorbing patriotism, while possessing the most up-to date scientific skill, it makes of them the fighting men whose deeds by land and sea have set all the world wondering. Japan ha 3 only just appeared in the international arena, but that hidtory will have some marvellous tales to tell of her exploits there is a fore- | gone conclusion.