A JAPANESE EXECUTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1335, 24 March 1883, Page 2

A JAPANESE EXECUTION.

• The punishment of the rebels who recently attacked the foreign Legation at Leon has been a subject of the most 'intense-excitement througout Japan. ;A •French,paper has- secured the most authentic account of the ceremony—for it fully deserves such a,name. :,The seene was the Bokwakan,' or Government House, in the interior .of- which the Commandev-iu;Chief-.<of the Corean army seated 'himself'in |full uniform at about 5-o'clock in the morning, In the back-ground were ,Corean foot soldiers, and brieach.sidea detachment of-Japanese regular soldiers. Lv the /House; itself, the Commandant was surrounded by officers of the Corean with bows and arrows; As the time for the great event- drew ■near, .the bands, composed of drums of air sizesj and gongs, began to send forth a tremendous and discordant sound, Then two salvos' of musketry ■were fired byjthe troops.■ Two standard bearers appeared in tho one open space/and; after waving their .yellow 'banners^,with' the, .national l .arms upon them, retired, leaving the ground 'dear. Next came the chiefexecutioner,, withhisassistants, and iast:the,two .?#*?, , an ; iye ! d i pinioned and sitting ■%',' open-sedan chairs. The jailers.j 'dfa^e'd;them; by the hair before 1 the j cpmmano'ant, ;and, after; they!; had ineffectually mercy, ! they 'were'touched on the head with the fatal | face's were : sprinkled .with ; w'a^r ; .'arid the. ground Spread with' a white powder, and then finally the signal of attack was given. The executioner rush upon their victim with diawn swoids, of \vhich, however, the edges had been caiefully blunted for the occasion, Only at the thirteenth stroke heads severed from the bodies, and, 1 after being shown to ,jihe commandant, castr'Juito4he*ditch ■destinedfor a burial place. <a .