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Admieal TogoBY

Arthur Lloyd, ma.

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THE KIHKODO PUBLISHING Co,TOKYO, JAPAN.

1906.

All rights reserved.

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PREFACE.For the imperfections of the present volume

I can only plead that I hope it may prove to bea first edition, and that further studies and thepublication of more detailed information mayenable me at some future time to complete, or atleast to elaborate, the biography of a great manin whom the whole world is interested.

The modest and retiring life which AdmiralTogo has hitherto lived has made it difficult forthe biographer to collect many picturesque incidentsrelating to his early years. But modesty is oneof the greatest of virtues, and that he has alwaysexhibited this virtue in so conspicuous a mannerseems to be one of the elements which make thegreatness of his character.

Arthur Lloyd.Tokyo. August, 1905.

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CONTENTS.Preface.

Chapter I. page.The Beginning of Japan's Naval History ... I

Chapter II.Satsuma n

Chapter III.Togo's Birth and Early Education 1 8

Chapter IV.The Civil War at the Time of the Restoration 28

Chapter V.Togo in England 38

Chapter VI. >/Quiet progress 51

Chapter VII.The War with China 59

Chapter VIII.The War with China (continued) 7?

Chapter IX.The Retrocession of the Liautung and the

Post Bellum Expansion 78

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( M )

Chapter X.The Beginning of the War with Russia 92Chapter XL

Dark Days 105Chapter XII.

The Russian Armada 118Chapter XIII.

The Fight 128Chapter XIV.C/An Expert's Criticisms 149

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THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL TOGO.CHAPTER : L

The Beginnings of Japan's Naval History.If we were writing an account of the naval

history of Great Britain, we should probably chooseas our starting-point the history of the SpanishArmada and its signal overthrow in the sixteenthcentury.

This choice of a starting point would notimply that there is to be found no sea-fighting inEnglish records of an earlier date. An island-kingdom like England must always have beenboth vulnerable and defensible along her coast-lines and harbours, and Englishmen have allthrough their history been fighters on the sea. Butthe Spanish Armada first demonstrated to English-men the prime importance of a standing fleet asa permanent wall of defence, and the creation ofthe British Navy was the logical outcome of thedefence hastily organized against the fleets ofSpain, in spite of the fact that the civil troubles,which, in England, followed so soon after the

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destruction of the Armada, interposed some yearsbetween the recognition of the need and the crea-tion of the* Navy.

Japan, a sea-girt land, had a warning of possibledagger from an invasion by sea many years beforeEngland received hers, and though the civil troubleswhich supervened in Japan were of far longer du-ration than those in England, and though Japan hadto wait in consequence much longer than did Eng-land, before she became a naval Power, yet thelogical birthday of the Japanese Navy was so verymuch like the birthday of the British naval Powerthat I cannot help commencing my book with it.The British Navy was practically born when theLord High Admiral of Queen Elizabeth was com-manded to equip a fleet as best he could to repelthe threatened invasion of the Spaniards. The Japa-nese Navy may also be said to have been bornwhen Hojo Tokimune the Regent, in 1275, tookhis measures for repelling the Mongolian invasion.

Kublai Khan, the great Mongolian leader ofthe Middle Ages, had succeeded in overthrowingthe Sung Dynasty in China and making himselfmaster of the whole of the Celestial Empire. Hehad further reduced to submission the entire penin-sula of Korea, and having reached the extremelimits of the Asiatic mainland, began to cast

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covetous eyes towards the beautiful and happilysituated islands which form a defensive barrier forthe eastern shores of that Continent.

Koppitsuretsu (to give him his Japanese name,Kublai Khan being the name by which Europeansknow him better through the writings of thefamous Venetian, Marco Polo), Koppitsuretsudoubtless thought that Japan would be an easyprey for his armies. There was every reason tomake him think so.

Never was a country more extraordinarilygoverned, or misgoverned, than Japan in thethirteenth century. A series of long intrigues with-in the court brought about a succession of abdica-tions, forced or voluntary, which frequently left theoccupant of the throne a mere shadow of Imperialdignity. The actual functions of the executivewere in the hands of a Shogun, who was supposedto act in all things as the Emperor's representa-tive ; but similar intrigues in the entourage of theShogun reduced this high functionary to a mere" puppet " in the hands of his retainers, one ofwhom, residing at Kamakura, acted as his repre-sentative, with the title of " Regent." Westernreaders will scarce believe me when I say that, inthe Hojo family, a custom arose of having nominal" regents" as well, but they will not be astonished

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5

Kublai Khan was too great a potentate, andhad been too openly defied, to sit down tamelyunder the insults of the Japanese. He collectedan army in Korea which he embarked on boarda fleet of 450 Korean war junks, seized the islandsof Iki and Tsushima, which have played so great arole in the present war against Russia, and landedon the coasts of Kyushu, where he was, however,repulsed by the Japanese, after desperate fighting.This was in 1275: three years later Kublai Khansent another ambassador, and yet another, to Japan,urging the Island Empire to submit and send himtribute ; but Tokimune beheaded them both.

The result was that Kublai Khan, deeply in-sulted, vowed a tremendous vengeance against theinsolent islanders, and prepared armies and fleetsfar greater than those he had sent before. It wasa critical moment for Japan. * The people weremoved with a mixture of anger and apprehension ;Nichiren preached and wrote, exhorting, reproving,and urging much-needed social reforms ; the Em-peror went in state to the Temples at Ise to prayto his ancestress, Amaterasu, goddess of the sun,for help against the enemies of the country ; Toki-mune talked little but collected an army andwent forth to battle. The Mongols had landedand were encamped near Takashima, where Toki-

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mune attacked them, and, after desperate fighting,drove them back to their ships. Then came aninterposition of the Divine Providence which hasso frequently manifested itself in the affairs ofJapan. Scarcely had the Mongol troops foundrefuge on board their ships when a terrible stormarose and destroyed their whole fleet. (A.D. 1281).Many readers have seen the obvious parallelbetween the Mongol Invasion of Japan and theSpanish Armada. Many have also seen the obvioussimilarity between the Mongolian Invasion and theRussian Expedition from the Baltic. This is notthe case to discuss these similarities. What I wishto say here is that as the Spanish Armada hadits logical outcome in the creation of a standingNavy, so the logical outcome of the Mongol In-vasion was the Navy of Japan to-day.

In each country, a threatened invasion de-monstrated the absolute importance of a Navy asa first line of defence. In England, where theinternal troubles were fortunately of short dura-tion, little more than fifty years elapsed before thefleets of the Commonwealth were busy defendingthe interests of England against the navies ofFrance and the Dutch Republic. In Japan wherethe evils of state and society were far more deep-seated, and where the civil dissensions, followed

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by the iron repression of all activity by the Toku-gawas, lasted for well-nigh six hundred years, thelogical outcome of that lesson was corresponding-ly long in being realized.

But assuredly the lesson was given in Japanas well as in England. If Providence interposedin the two cases to work signal deliverance, it wasnot to encourage either nation to a blind trust inProvidence in the future. God helps those thathelp themselves, and the obvious lesson whichboth nations were meant to learn, and have learned,is that island-empires need floating-walls to pro-tect them.

For the practical realization of the JapaneseNavy we must jump over a period of six hundredyears from the Mongol Invasion to the middle ofthe nineteenth century when the day was rapidlycoming for Japan to come out of her seclusion toplay a part in the world worthy of her dignityand providential mission. We call it her provi-dential mission, because if the hand of Providencewas clearly to be seen in the wonderful deliverancefrom the Mongols, the thoughtful student may alsosee the traces of the same hand in the seclusionfrom the world which followed the establishment ofthe Tokugawas, (a seclusion the maintenance ofwhich was little less than marvellous) and the

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timely emergence of the nation, as of a peopleborn in a day, to bring a new element of life andvigour into a civilization which was beginning tosuffer from senility and decay.

The nineteenth century made it impossible tomaintain any longer the seclusion of Japan. Thetrade of Europe was expanding, the civilization ofAmerica had emerged on the Pacific coast, Aust-ralia had been discovered, steam was revolution-izing navigation. From all sides ships came pastthe coasts of Japan, some desirous of traffic, somefor water and help, some to restore castaway Ja-panese fisherman. Intercourse became unavoidable,and many of the patriotic Japanese feared thatintercourse would mean the loss of national inde-pendence.

Amongst those who felt much anxiety on thissubject was Prince Shimazu, lord of Satsuma, oneof the most powerful of Japanese Princes, and onewhose territories, situated in the extreme Southand West of Japan proper, gave him much causefor anxiety on this subject. Satsuma was byno means the only Baron who felt anxiety on thispoint. The lords of Mito and Tosa, nay, eventhe Shogunal Cabinet itself were much exercisedabout it, and at last in the year 1847, a ter muchdeliberation and debate, a resolution was come to

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by the Shogunate, not only to undertake the workof Naval Organization itself, but to allow the greatterritorial nobles, who ruled as kings within theirown dominions, to raise squadrons for the defenceof the seaboard of Japan. The Prince of Satsumawas one of the first of the Daimy6s to avail him-self of this permission. The Satsuma fleet wassoon one of the most powerful of the local fleets.We shall find the Prince petitioning the CentralGovernment in 1853 for permission to build notmerely small vessels for coast-detence, but largeships capable of keeping the sea and pursuing aretreating enemy. We shall find him later on sending up to the North a Fleet capable of engagingthe Shogunal Navy under Enomoto, which wasmaking its last stand at Hakodate. We shall alsosee the Satsuma Fleet emerging victoriouo fromthese engagements and so becoming, in the newera which dawned upon Japan after the war o theRestoration, the nucleus of the present ImperialNavy of Japan Admiral Togo's first sea-servicewas in the Satsuma Navy : his subsequent careerhas been with the Imperial Navy from its verycommencement This history of his life is therefore very much a history of the Imperial Navy ofJapan, with which he has been so long and soconstantly identified. But, before writing it, it will

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IObe well to devote one more preliminary chapterto the consideration of the Satsuma Daimyate whichhas furnished so many of the best men to theservices of the Japanese Empire.

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Madem Tetsuko Togo.

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12

Tokugawa supremacy, and, living as they did in avery remote corner of the Empire, had alwayscontrived to have a tolerably free hand in themanagement of their own affairs.

The Satsuma samurai were always noted fortheir poverty. Their numbers were far greater,proportionately to other daimyates, in Satsumathan elsewhere, and the provision of rice, whichit was the custom for all daimyos to give for thesupport of their retainers, was constantly, in Satsu-ma, insufficient for the support of the whole bodyof samurai. The samurai ot this province, there-fore, came in time to be distinguished from thoseof other provinces by their industry and thrift.They were obliged to work as farmers to eke outtheir allowances, they were obliged also to exer-cise the most rigid economy in the managementof their households. They became, therefore, asturdy race not unlike the English yeomen of themiddle ages, frugal, active, and independent, andwhilst the samurai of other, more wealthy, dai-myate were all succumbing more or less to theenervating influences 01 ease and freedom frompecuniary cares, the Satsuma men, like the Spar-tans in Greece, stood out conspicuously amongtheir compatriots for simplicity, hardihood andpractical common sense.

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3The country round Kagoshima, the capital of

Satsuma, is admirable training ground for soldiers,and the Satsuma samurai were constantly, even intimes of peace, kept at work with military man-oeuvres and exercises of various kinds. Hencethe Satsuma armies had always been vigorousand hard to beat, though the same might be saidof the local armies maintained by many of theJapanese princes. East or West, North or South,the Japanese has always shown himself to be anexcellent fighter. ?

But Satsuma, owing to its geographical posi-tion and political circumstances, had one advan-tage over all other daimyates. It had a long anddangerous seacoast, a deep, protected, bay whosecalm waters afforded excellent opportunities fornautical training, and its Prince was one of theoverlords of Loochoo, a position which necessitatedmaritime journeys such as fell to the lot of thesubjects of no other daimyate.

Thus, even in the Tokugawa days, when allcommerce by sea was forbidden, the Satsumapeople were a sea-faring folk.The spirit which animated the Satsuma samu-rai may be seen from the following account whichis given of the training of the young Kagoshimaretainers.

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14Every village in the province had its own

Gochu or village association of young men, andevery young samurai was enrolled a member assoon as he reached the age of 14 or 15. Theobject of the Gochu was to encourage bravery,and the power of endurance, and its members wereconstantly being tested by their seniors and as-sociates with a view to ascertaining their quali-fications in this respect.

If a young man, on being tested, showedsigns of fear? he received a warning from thesenior members. If, on his next trial, he didbetter, he was forgiven and nothing more wassaid. If he " funked " again, however, then woebetide him. He was cut off from the society ofyoung men, and no sentence of excommunicationcould possibly be worse than such exclusion.

Every member of a Gochu had to study foreight hours a day, four morning hours being devotedto " books," and four in the afternoon to practicalexercises. On the 1st, 6th, 1 ith, 16th 21st, and 26thof every month they practised writing, the 5th,10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, and 30th were given to thereading of books on military subjects, the remain-ing days were in like manner devoted to subjectslikely to be of practical use in the training of awarrior caste. They had not many subjects and

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19boyhood a small shrine sacred to the memory ofthe first ancestress of the family.

. The future Admiral's father, Togo Kichizae-mon, had a great reputation for probity andjustice. He held the responsible office of KoriBugyo or District Magistratean office not unlikethe honourable post of Justice of the Peace whichis the pride of many a country gentleman inEngland,and discharged his difficult duties sowell, that, at the request of his fellow-townsmen,he continued to hold it for thirteen consecutiveyears, though the usual period of tenure is onlyfor three. His character was very much like thatof his illustrious sonsimple, straight- forward,somewhat taciturn, but kind and sincere. He wasnot a diplomat, but there was something statesman-like about his straight-forward simplicity.

His mother, Masu-ko, is said to have been afine-looking refined lady, the very type of womanthat Kaibara Ekiken, the author of the celebratedOnna-daigaku (" Great Learning for Women "),would have delighted to describe. She was frugaland orderly, an excellent house-keeper, and more-over, a splendid disciplinarian. She trained herchildren as a Spartan mother would have done,and was a convinced believer in the old sayingabout the devil and the idle hands. She constantly

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20kept her children busy with their studies andmilitary exercises, and allowed them very littleleisure in which to get into mischief. She hadfour sons, of whom Heihachiro was the third.The Admiral's three brothers all took part in therebellion of the elder Saigo, and perished at thebattle of Shiroyama. Fortunately for Heihachirohe was studying in England at the time, and outof reach of temptation.

In due course of time, Heihachiro, like theother lads of Kagoshima, entered a Gochu. TheGochti into which it was his good fortune to enterwas one with an exceedingly good record. Theelder Saigo, the flower of Japanese chivalry, hadonce been in its ranks : and one of Togo's boycompanions and contemporaries was Kuroki, des-tined like himself to win distinction in war withthe Russians. One of Saigo's younger brotherswas Togo's teacher of Chinese, and read the Con-fucian Analects with him. It was Togo's habitto rise early, before sunrise, and to stand at histeacher's gate till six o'clock, when he was per-mitted to enter and receive a lesson of two hours'duration. From eight o'clock till noon he wasbusy reviewing the lessons he had learned withhis teacher, and the afternoon was spent, some-times in study and sometimes in fencing and

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21

wrestling with Kuroki and other companions bythe riverside.As a boy, he was always noted for his quiet

peaceable disposition. He very seldom concernedhimself in the quarrels which took place betweenthe different Gochu in the city, and rarely had anyquarrels of his own on hand. Yet he always con-trived to hold his own amongst his comrades, whodeferred to him as boys do to one in whom they seea capacity for leadership, even though he takes nostep to assert himself, or to lord it over his comrades.

In 1863, at the age of seventeen, Togo en-tered the Satsuma Navy, as a cadet. It has beensaid that the real cause of the establishment ofthat Navy was fear of Russia, whose aggressionswere even then known and dreaded by JapaneseStatesmen.^ We have also heard it maintainedthat when, shortly after the Imperial Restoration,the elder Saigd was led astray into rebelliouspaths, his moving reason was not a dissatisfactionat the comparatively small amount of recognitiongiven to Satsuma in the Imperial Councils, but adesire to see a more resolute policy against Russiaadopted by Japan, together with a resolution toget the power into his own hands, so as the betterto prosecute a line of policy which he felt to beof vital importance to his country.

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33Be that as it may, the first foreign enemy

to be encountered by Japanese armies was notRussia, but England. The discontent with whichpatriotic Japanese saw the sacred soil of theircountry defiled by foreign feet, together with thegrowing lawlessness of the times, made it im-possible for the authorities, national or consular,to avoid all disturbances between Japanese andforeigners. Outrages against the barbarians wereof frequent"" occurrence : attacks were made uponthe British Legation in Yedo, ships passing throughthe Straits of Shimonoseki were fired on by thefortresses of the Prince of Choshu, and one inci-dent in particular occurred, which brought Satsu-ma, individually, into trouble with the Englishauthorities. A troop of Satsuma retainers who wereaccompanying the uncle of their Prince on his wayto Yedo, on the 14th of September 1862, attackeda party of foreigners riding peaceably along thehigh road near Kanagawa, and murdered one ofthem, an Englishman named Richardson. TheBritish authorities promptly demanded satisfactionfrom the Shogunate, but, whilst getting an indemni-ty from the Yedo Government, were referredfor full satisfaction to the Prince of Satsuma, asthe feudal lord of the men who had made theattack, and as being, therefore, a responsible party

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24did much damage without leading to any verytangible results. The weather was boisterous andstormy so that the British could not have landeda party of men even if they had had the force re-quisite for the operation. They burned the threeSatsuma vessels and reduced a large portion ofthe town to ashes, but without silencing the forts.On the other hand, they suffered severely them-selves : one of their ships went ashore and onlygot off with the loss of her anchor, which wasafterwards restored by the Japanese ; and therewere many losses both of officers and men. Thenext morning they sailed out of the bay, to avoida threatening typhoon, leaving behind them anindecisive record. They had reduced the city toashes and destroyed a part of the fleet of Satsuma;but the forts were never silenced, and they sailedaway without having got their demands. Theindemnity was paid in September 1863, but theSatsuma authorities never surrendered the personsof Richardson's murderers.

The bombardment of Kagoshima was TogoHeihachiro's baptism of fire, and Japanese writerstell us, with great pride, how the future Admiral,stripped to the skin, was working at the guns in oneof the batteries on that eventful day.

It is worthy of note that on this day the

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25Japanese fired the first shot, without waiting forany formal declaration of hostilities. We remem-ber as we write down the fact that it was Togoas Captain of the Naniwa, who sunk the Kaoshengin the war with China, and Togo who, as Admiral,ordered the discharge of the first torpedo againstthe Russian vessels at Port Arthur. In neithercase had hostilities been declared when the firstshot was fired. Can it have been Togo whoapplied the fuse to the first gun fired at Kagoshima ?

The Satsuma Navy covered itself with gloryin this action. It had held its own in a fairfight with a British Squadron, and had lost no-thing except the three steamers which had beentaken by surprise, and placed as it were hors decombat before the action commenced. But thebombardment had the effect of arousing the wholenation to the need of naval armaments. TheShogunate, Satsuma, Choshu, and perhaps one ortwo more daimyates had hitherto been the onlyones that paid any attention to coast defence, butnow the whole nation was roused to action. Eventhe Emperor * bestirred himself and bade his

* I have seen a poem by Komei Tenno, the father of the presentEmperor, which runs somewhat like this :" Perish my body in the cold clear depthOf some dark well, but let no foreign foot

Pollute that water with its presence here."

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26subjects " sweep the Ktirofune (black ships) offthe sea." Many small navies made their appea-rance in different provinces, but none could com-pete with the Navy of Satsuma which had been inaction with foreigners, and, had passed safely throughthe ordeal. The Choshu ships did not come outso well in their conflict with the foreign vessels atShimonoseki. But then Choshu's glory has alwaysbeen great in the army.

The next few years were uneventful years inthe history of the Satsuma Navy : years of pre-paration for great events generally are. Nothingmuch is known of our hero during this period,except that he continued to serve with diligencein his profession, and that he gained a reputationas an excellent officer, silent and unobtrusive, butquick in decision and decisive in action. It wasevident that the Revolution which was to put theMikado in his proper position, and place the menof the South on the top of those of the North,was coming on at a rapid pace, and Togo mustoften have heard, and perhaps sung, the verses inwhich San-yo Rai describes the Satsuma Bushi.

1. Short are our skirts down to the knees:and short our sleevesjust to the elbow.

2. At our hips are our swords that can cutthrough iron I

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3. If horse touch them or man touch them,they will kill him at once.

4. The youth of eighteen enters the Society ofthe strong Youths:

5. If a visitor comes from the North, with whatshall we entertain him?

6. Bullets and powder shall be the tables anddishes ;

7. And if, perchance, the visitor should notrelish them,

8. The sword over his head shall give aclosing dish.** Kororao wa kan ni itari, sode wan ni itaru :

Yokan no shusui tetsu tatsubeshi;Hito furureba, hito wo kiri, uma furureba uma wo kiru.Juhachi majiwari wo musubu, kenji no sha :Hokkaku yoku kitaraba, nani wo motte ka mukuin ?Dangwan shoyaku kore zenshu :Kaku moshi shoku-en sezumba,Yoshi hoto wo inotte kare ga kobe ni kuwaen.

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28

CHAPTER IV.The Civil War at the Time of the

Restoration. 1 867- 1 869.We next find Togo at Kyoto in the year1867. Satsuma and Choshu men had made goodtheir claim to be the protectors of the Imperialperson, and driving out from Kyoto the rival Toku-gawa clans, and the men of Hikone and Aizu, hadoccupied that city in force. The Shogunate Gov-ernment, general known as the Bakufu, had beenabolished, and an Imperial Government at Kyotoproclaimed in its stead.

The Tokugawa party were thoroughly discon-tented. Riots broke out in Yedo which the Sho-gunal police were unable to quell. The Satsuma-yashiki at Mita was burnt to the ground, and theSatsuma adherents in the stronghold of the Toku-gavvas escaped with difficulty to Shinagawa, wherethey were taken on board a small vessel, theKoshd Maru. One of the Shogunate war-ships, theKwaiten Marti, commanded by Enomoto Kamajiro,went in pursuit, and after a desperate fight, in whichthe crew of the Koshd plugged the shot-holes inthe hull with their own clothes, succeeded in doingher so much damage that the Satsuma men were

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29obliged to abandon her, and only managed to jointheir own men at Kyoto with great difficulty.When the Shogun heard of the troubles inYedo and the burning of the Satsuma-yashiki, heat once petitioned the Emperor for permission tochastise the men of Satsuma, and then, withoutwaiting for a permission which he had very littlechance of getting, marched from Osaka, where hewas staying in the Great Castle of the Tokugawas,with all his forces for Kyoto. But the men of the'* Four Loyal Clans," Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa andHigo, marched out to meet him, a battle wasfought at Fushimi (28 January 1868), and theShogun, defeated and a fugitive, appeared at Hyogo,where he was taken on board an American manof-war, which afterwards transferred him to theKaiyo Maru, one of his own vessels. This ship,of which Enomoto was made Captain, conveyedthe Shogun to Yedo. ;When the Kaiyo Maru had been coming downfrom Shinagawa to Osaka and Hyogo, to look afterthe interests of the Shogun, she had met twoSatsuma transports carrying troops from Kago-shima for garrison duty in Kyoto, and had firedon them as they left that port. This was be-fore the battle of Fushimi. The transports at oncereturned to port and gave information. A protest

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30followed, but the Shogunal authorities justified theaction of the Kaiyo Maru in firing on the trans-ports. Satsuma and Yedo were practically at war,they said, and there had already been some fight-ing off Shinagawa.The Satsuma men were obliged, therefore, totake measures of self-defence. They had no shipsof war with them, but the Kasuga Maru was lyingoff Kobe, out of commission, it is true, but stillavailable for convoy service, if she could be fittedout.

This was done with all speed : the ship washastily prepared for sea, and manned from thetroops brought up by the transports. The Satsu-ma garrison in Kyoto was able to furnish theofficers. Akatsuka Genroku was appointed Cap-tain, Ito Sukemaro (the elder brother of the Admiral)vice-captain, and Togo Heihachiro one of thejunior lieutenants.As soon as the ship was fitted out she wasbrought round to Osaka. The Shogun's ship wasnot to be seen, so the transports started on theirjourney to Kagoshima, with the Kasuga Maru toconvoy them. Presently, off the coast of Awa, theKaiyo Maru was seen coming through the clearingmist, close to them : and the Kasuga Maru, inspite of her imperfect equipment and scratch crew,

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3iat once engaged her. The fight lasted for sometime, without any very serious loss on either side,then, suddenly, the Kaiyd Maru sheered off andreturned to port, and the Kasuga Maru hastened onto look after her transports, which had nowreached a place of comparative safety.

This engagement took place on the 3d dayof the 1st month (old style) of the year 1868.Togo distinguished himself by his activity in help-ing to get the crew together and the ship readyfor action, as also by his coolness under fire. Hissuperiors saw him to be a steady man on whomthey might rely,and these are the men whosucceed in making a name for themselves. Theaction was not a very great one, but it gave theSatsuma men an opportunity of proving theirmetal, and in the action Togo did his duty.

The Civil War had now broken out, and theTokugawa party found one of its staunchestsupporters in Enomoto, whom we have alreadyseen as Captain of the Kaiyd, but who will nowappear as the Admiral in command of the Shogu-nal Fleets.

The victory at Fushimi was only the first ofa series of successful actions, which- graduallybrought the whole island under the rule of theEmperor and his forces, and during the summer of

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321863, the Shogun was ordered to deliver to theEmperor the Castle of Yedo, and all his forcesmilitary and naval. To this order the Shoguncomplied as far as he could, but his retainerswere far more active in his support than he washimself, and Admiral Enomoto, on receiving theorder to surrender his ships, quietly sailed out ofShinagawa Bay, with 1 1 ships, at early dawn onAug. 22 1868, and took himself north to Hako-date, where some of the northern daimyos werestill under arms for the lost cause of the Shogunate.A landing was made at Hakodate, the loyalistdaimyo of Matsumae was defeated at Esashi, atemporary Government was established, and mea-sures taken for a prolonged resistance. Enomoto'sfleet was a factor of prime importance. He hadeleven ships in all : his opponent had only fouror five ; and, with Hakodate as his base of opera-tions, he might be a terrible thorn in the side ofthe newly restored Imperial Government.

The Imperial Government at once took actionto crush the Hakodate scheme. A force of 6500troops was hastily despatched north, together witha squadron under the command of Akatsuka, whomwe have already seen as Captain of the KasngaMaru. Togo was still serving on board the Kasn-ga, which was now in better trim than it had

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33been for the hastily planned engagement off thecoast of Awa, and the Loyalist Fleet was streng-thened by the addition of a new iron-clad warvessel, the Stonewall Jackson, recently purchasedfrom the American Government by the Shogun'sGovernment, and waiting in Yokohama to bedelivered. Since giving the order, the Shdgun'sGovernment had collapsed, and there being appa-rently no other person authorized to take delivery,the American Minister at last consented to haveit transferred to the Imperial Government.

The Squadron, thus strengthened, left Shina-gawa on March the 9th, and on the 24th Marchwas at Kuwagasaki, a point not far from Hako-date. Here a fight took place, on April 29. TheShogunal Flagship, Kwaiten, with two other vessels,attempted a surprise attack on the Loyalists whichwas nearly successful. Most of the LoyalistCaptains were ashore at the time when the attackwas made, but the fog caused the Shogunal vesselsto part company, and the Kwaiten alone arrivedat the place of destination. Here she found theStonewall Jackson, now known as the Musashiylying at anchor, and expecting nothing less thanan attack from the Shdgun's forces. The Musashi,was an iron-clad, but that considration did notprevent the Kwaiten from proceeding to the attack,

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34and she manoeuvred so skilfully that presently thetwo ships were lying alongside of one another,and the rebels, leaping on board the Musashi,tried to capture her by assault. The attemptfailed, however, and the Kwaiten had considerabledifficulty in extricating herself from the dangerousposition into which her daring had placed her.Meanwhile her two consorts, the Banryu andTakao, which had lost her in the fog, seeing thatthe attack had failed, did their best to return toHakodate. In this the Banryu succeeded, but theTakao, pursued by the Kasuga (Togo's ship) ranaground near Omotomura and was fired by herown crew.

The engagement at Kumagasaki did much torestore the balance between the two fleets. TheImperialists had, it is true, lost over ioo men whilethe Rebel loss was only 17 killed and 34 wounded;but they had lost one of their best ships, the Takao,and as the Kwaiyo, which we have already seenin action off Awa, had been lost during a gale,the Shogunal Fleet was now not much strongerthan the Loyalist, and had no vessel that couldwithstand the iron-clad Musashi.

The remnants of Enomoto's Fleet were soonafter this completely disposed of. In May 1869the Imperialist ships were engaged in the task of

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36seeing further resistance to be hopeless, followedher example.

Thus was quenched the last spark of resis-tance to the Imperial forces in Japan. Enomotosurrendered on the 27th of June and the pacifica-tion of the country was complete. It is true thatwe shall again find rebels in arms against theconstituted authorities, but Saigo's rebellion was adfferent thing altogether. He was not fighting,as was Enomoto, for the maintenance of a politicalsystem which had been established for many years.We can feel and admire the loyalty whichprompted these men to hold fast to the Shogunatefrom which their families had in the past, receivedso many proofs of kindness and consideration.This feeling was shared by the Imperialist partyitself and the generosity with which the Emperortreated the faithful adherents of the lost cause hasdone much to heal the wounds of the civil strife.

And what are we to say of Togo's share inthese events?We see in him the patient painstaking officer,diligent in the performance of his duty, absolutelydevoid of all thoughts of self, and happy in thetriumph of his Master's cause.We can say no more than that. His ship, theKasuga, did good service in the pursuit of the

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37Takao, and the attack on the Banryu. His ownpersonal interest in the fight is shown by hisinvoluntary exclamation (" the coward ") .when hesaw the Teibo retreating from her position to avoidthe explosion of the Chdyo during the battle atHakodate. He was for a long time chaffed byhis messmates for having " scolded a man-of-war".There are no picturesque incidents in this partof Togo's life : nothing to strike the imaginationof the reader, such as we find in the Life ofNelson. His was the life of the quiet conscientiousofficer, a life not without its effect on thoseamongst whom it was lived. Togo had alreadyattracted the attention of his superiors and this isproved by his being presently selected as apromising officer, whom it would be well to sendto England for further training.

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38

CHAPTER. V.

Togo in England.When the Hakodate fleet under Enomoto had

been destroyed the Loyalist troops returned intriumph to Yokohama, and what had now becomethe capital city of Tokyo, and it was at Yoko-hama that the Kasuga was paid off.

Togo's employment was now for a while atan end. The Satsuma Navy had ceased to existwith the restoration of the Imperial Power, whichbrought all military and naval forces under thecontrol of the newly-formed central government,and the Imperial Navy had not yet been founded.

Still his heart remained in the naval profession,and the expriences of the Hakodate campaignhaving been quite long enough to let him knowthe imperfections of Japanese seamanship, his ownincluded, he made application through the leadingmen of his clan to be sent to England for purposesof study. He had many rivals to fear, for therewas then a desire in every young samurai to visitforeign countries and learn something that mightbe of use to his country and himself, and the

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39responsible officers were over-run with applicantswishing to be sent abroad. His first applicationswere unsuccessful, but when his fellow-clansmanOkubo, was Minister for Home Affairs, Togomade application once more, and after some delayfound that he had been chosen.

We can well imagine the anxiety with whichhe awaited the verdict of the authorities. TheJapanese say that one evening a band of Satsumayoung men and others, whom the generosity oftheir ex-lords was keeping in Tokyo as students,unable any longer to restrain their eager curiosity,went to a fortune-teller to learn their future destiny.The fortune-teller, anxious to please, prophesiedsmooth things, and told the first three or four thatthey were going to be greatly distinguished, sothat everything went off pleasantly until No. 5, astudent named Matsuyama, presented himself, muchthe worse for liquor. Matsuyama was not pleasedwith the fortune he received, and a noisy alterca-tion ensued during which the others, who had notyet been examined, picked up the fees they hadalready paid, and walked out in disgust. ThusTogo was prevented from hearing about his futurevictories in the seas around Japan.

However, the permission came at last, andTogo, who had been utilizing the precious moments

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40in learning English at Yokohama, from missio-naries and from the soldiers belonging to theLegation guard, received his marching orders inMarch 1871.He and his companions must have presenteda strange appearance as they left Yokohama forEurope. There were no tailors, then, for Japanesewho wished to be dressed as foreigners, and thefuture Nelson of Japan started in a second-handcostume which must effectually have obliterated allsigns of a destined greatness. He must during hisvoyage have been continually treated with a good-natured contempt due entirely to his clothes, andyet surely no one ever deserved less to be treatedwith disdain than did he.

Togo was a fine specimen of the Bushido inwhich he had been trained. We have seen already,in our account of the Gochu or Associations ofyoung men in Satsuma, how the youthful samuraiof that province were taught to endure pain andto look fear in the face without flinching. But helearned other virtues as well. The short swordin his

girdle was a perpetual reminder to him thatdeath was at all times preferable to dishonour, thatthe remedy for disgrace was in his own hands.The proverb bushi ni nigon nashi, ("the bushi hasno second word") reminded him of the cardinal

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41virtue of truthfulness, consistency, faithfulness topromise. Fair play and loyalty were ingrained inthe bushi's character, and the civil war which hadjust come to an end was an admirable specimenof those chivalrous qualities in action. Each sidehad treated the upholders of the other side withthe utmost respect and consideration. The Satsumaretainer, loyally supporting his feudal lord, wasquite ready to accord all honour to the Tokugawasamurai, who was only doing his duty by hislawful master. Both parties were united in theirreverence for the Sovereign, and their only thoughtwas how to deliver him from the mistaken councilof the men that formed his entourage. TheSovereign, on his part, recognized the good feelingsthat animated both parties of his subjects, andwhen the fortune of war decided that the victoryshould belong to the Satsuma men, the vanquishedwere treated with the utmost generosity. Theliving were pardoned, and admitted to the Im-perial presence and councils, the dead werehonoured with those posthumous rewards of rankand position which mean so much in the Japaneseworld : even Saigo, who died in arms against hisSovereign, was pardoned posthumously, and res-tored to his former dignities. The one exception^o this universal clemency has been the unfortunate

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In London, he met several of his compatriots,Satsuma and Choshu clansmen, such as Kawase,Kawakita, and others who were studying like him-self. Kikuchi Dairoku, now a Baron, and for sometime a Minister of Education, was then either inLondon, or in Cambridge, and a few others fromother parts of Japan were there to form a body-round which all the Japanese students in Englandmight from time to time rally. Togo did not wantfor companions in London, but circumstances even-tually led him to Plymouth, to the training-ship" Worcester," which seemed to offer him the great-est facilities for obtaining a practical mastery of thedetails of his profession. The reports sent homeabout him were so good that in 1 872 the Govern-ment decided to grant him the rank and treatmentof a 2nd Lieutenant in the Imperial Navy, whichhad been reconstructed since his departure forEngland, and when his course of training on boardthe Worcester was finished, in 1876, he was or-dered to remain in England to watch the con-struction of the new Japanese ship Hiyei, whichwas finished in January 1878, and reached Japanin the following May.

The Strand magazine for April 1905 containsan article on Admiral Togo " as a youth " inEngland, written by the Rev. A.S. Capel M.A. to

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44 .whose care T5go was for some time committed.The writer of this book knew Mr. Capel very wellby sight in Cambridge and must have been inresidence as an undergraduate of Peterhouse justabout the same time, .though he never saw Togo,nor even heard of his existence.

Mr. Capel tells us that Togo was put underhis care for a few months in Cambridge duringthe interval between his arrival in England and hisjoining the Worcester training ship.He knew very little English, and his progress,partly from illness, and partly perhaps from anatural incapacity for mere language study, wasvery slow. In mathematies however he mademuch progress, and soon learned enough Englishto discuss the problems of that science.

Mr. Capel next speaks of his excellent man-ners, and tells us how it became his practice torecommend to his other pupils the study of Easternmanners as being so much better than the Westernmanners which Togo and his brother-Japanese hadcome to England to learn.

His natural modesty is shown indirectly.When Togo was a student in Mr. Capel's househe was already the hero of two or three navalfights, and what would have delighted the childrenof the house more than an account of the stirring

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45incidents of the bombardment ofKagoshima? Yet,fond though he was of gossiping with children, heseems to have resisted all temptation to boasting,and Mr. Capel writes as though he did not knowthat Togo had already gone through a couple ofcampaigns.

Togo's kindness to animals and fondness forchildren are early traits which are still to be foundin the grown man, only with more scope for theirexercise, and we are also told of the wonderfulpower of enduring physical pain which he showedunder the operations made necessary by a longand troublesome affection of his eye. It was thisaffection which caused Mr. Capel to have the ladremoved from Cambridge to Portsmouth, and thenceto Plymouth where he joined the Worcester forspecial nautical training, and yet from the verybeginning he had stated his intention of becominga " sailor on dry land ", by which he was supposedto mean a shore appointment at the JapaneseAdmiralty.

Mr. Capel incidentally also mentions the youngman's fondness for attending Church, the singingof the psalms aud hymns having a fascination forhim, and the use of the English Prayer-bookenabling him to follow with a certain amount ofintelligence the worship that was going on. I

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46remember to have read some months ago in aNew York paper (I am almost sure that it wasthe Freeman s Journal) a statement that the Admiralhad, during his stay in England, been baptized aRoman Catholic. I have never been able to verifythe statement, and I do not think that it is true.The editor of that sheet published this statementwhen the " yellow peril " folly was at its height,and it was evidently a great comfort to him tothink that, if the navies of Christian Russia weredoomed to fall before the pagan Japanese, at leastthe hand that directed the blow was that of aCatholic Christian. It was not much of a comfort,and the little there was in it rested, I fear, on nosolid basis of fact. And yet no one can haveread the dispatches in which he announced hisvictories to his Sovereign without being impressedwith their deeply religious tone. All wise men,says Lord Beaconsfield, in one of his novels, arereligious : all wise men belong to the same religion,but they never say what their religion is.

Whilst Togo was thus laying the foundation ofhis future greatness in England, great events werehappening in Japan. The elder Saigo, the beau-ideal of a Japanese samurai, and the darling of theSatsuma clan, had put himself at the head of a re-bellion, which, though nominally directed against

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47the counsellors who surrounded the Sovereign, andnot against the Sovereign himself, would neverthe-less, had it been successful, have ended in the un-doing of the whole work of the restoration.

It was due mainly to the Satsuma men thatthe Emperor had got back to his own. They,with their colleagues of Choshu, Hizen, and Tosa,had overthrown the Shogunate and restored thepersonal rule of the Sovereign. The statesmen whodirected that movement saw that the personal ruleof the Sovereign was incompatible with the exis-tence of the quasi-independent princedoms which,during the Feudal times, had covered the wholeland. Japan, they insisted, must be unified, andin order that the unification might be accompli-shed, the minor principalities must go, and a strongcentral government be established. The greatbarons, to their endless honour, consented to be- mediatized ' and to become the nobility of anunited Empire instead of the ruling Princes of adivided land.

But further measures were necessary. If Japanwas to become a great nation in the modern senseof the term, it was necessary that she should havea strong army, resting not on the loyalty of themilitary clans but on the patriotic service of thewhole people, and it was also of the utmost im-

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48portance that she should have a period of peaceduring which to effect the necessary changes.

It was proposed therefore to abolish the spe-cial privileges of the samurai class by adoptinguniversal conscription, and to take conciliatorymeasures in the matter of certain difficulties whichhad occurred in Korea.We, looking back, with the experience offorty years behind us, now know how wise thesemeasures were. Conscription has made samurai ofthe whole nation, and the present year has seenthe sons of farmers and merchants rivalling the deedsof the ancient bushi. The breathing space thatJapan needed for her reconstruction has been usedto the full, and no fear of foreign aggressiondisturbs the nation.

But in 1875 or 1876 these results were notso evident. Men of a less penetrating gaze onlysaw that the samurai class, the backbone of thenation's military power, was being threatened withextinction, at the very moment, too, when foreignPowers were knocking more loudly than ever atthe gates of Japan. It was not unnatural that theJapanese samurai, especially those of Satsuma,whose merits had been so great in the troubleswhich Japan had just passed through, should lifta cry of alarm. Neither was it altogether strange

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49that the rumour of a plot against Saigo's life shouldsend the military students of Kagoshima to armsand at last force Saigo himself to put himself attheir head. It was a most regrettable occurrence,but a natural one, and one which the Japanesehave done well to condone. Certainly no actcould have demonstrated more clearly the magna-nimous generosity of the Ruler than that whichrestored Saigd posthumously to his former honoursand allowed his monument to speak to his fellow-countrymen of a life which, if at times a mistakenone, was always noble.Had Togo been in Japan, he would in allpobabilily have 'gone out' with Saigo. Saigo wasa Kagoshima man, a former member of the samegochu to which Togo afterwards belonged. Asan older man, and of leading influence in thecouncils both of the clan and the nation, he hadmany opportunities of helping his younger clans-men. His influence had frequently been exercisedon behalf of members of the Togo family, andwhen the Kagoshima men rose and placed Saigoat their head in their rebellion, Togo's threebrothers all thought it their duty to supporthim. The three brothers lost their lives in therebellion : Lieutenant Togo, living peaceably inEngland, was saved from the necessity of making

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50a difficult decision, and was thus spared to renderinvaluable service to his country in the hour ofher need.

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5i

CHAPTER VLQuiet Progress.

Lieutenant Togo returned to Japan on boardthe Hiei, on May 2, 1878, and on the 3d of Julyfollowing was promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieute-nant {cku-i). On the 18th of August, he wastransferred to the Fusd, and on the 1 8th Decemberreceived another step, being promoted a full Lieute-nant {tai-i). The rapidity of his promotion maybe taken as some indication of the esteem in whichhe was held by his superiors.

In May 1879, just one year after his returnto Japan, he was moved back to the Hiyei, andin 'December of the same year received the rankof Lieutenant-Commander. In 1880 (January) ncwent to the Jlngei as Vice-Captain, and receivedthe junior 6th grade of Court rank, and in Decem-ber 1 88 1 became Vice-Captain of the Amagi.

Whilst on board the Amagi, he had occasionto see a little service in Korea. On July 25,1882, he was at Bakwan (Shimonoseki) with hisship when a disturbance broke out at Seoul whichsummoned him to Korea. A disturbance had

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52broken out in the Korean Capital, and a mobinvading the Royal Palace had threatened the lifeof the Queen. That unfortunate lady (she wasmurdered some years later) had taken refuge inthe Japanese Legation, but the mob had pursuedher with violence, and, in the attack on the Le-gation which ensued, seven Japanese were killed.Mr. (now Baron) Hanabusa, who was at that timeMinister, at length managed, with some of hissubordinates, to escape on board a foreign ship atChemulpo, which took him to Nagasaki, where hewas able to inform his government of what hadoccurred.

The Amagi was at once ordered to Korea,and a landing party, of whom Togo was one,marched up to the capital, and, with the goodoffices of the foreign Powers, succeeded in convin-cing the Korean King of the wrong he had donein permitting a foreign Legation to be attacked.The Amagi then returned to Bakwan, andTogo, whose services were recognized by a presentfrom the Government, remained with her until the24th of February 1883, when he was ordered tocome up to Tokyo on board the Nisshin. Arrivingat the Capital, he found that he had been appoin-ted Commander of the Teibo> a ship which he didnot long retain, as, in May 1884, he was sent back

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to the Amagiy as commander, and ordered to cruisealong the Chinese and Korean coasts to observethe operations of the Franco-Chinese war whichwas then in progress. It was recognized that he,especially, was the man to whom such an oppor-tunity would be profitable. At the conclusion ofthat war, he returned to Tokyo, when he made aspecial report in person to His Majesty, and washonoured by a banquet. The significance of thisis very clear. The quiet, patient, and yet deter-mined officer was making his way up in the ranksof his service.

From June 1885 to May 1886, he had shorebillets, partly at the Shipping Bureau of the NavalDepartment in Tokyo (Shusenkyoku) and partly atthe Onohama Dockyard. He was then placed ascommander on board the Yamato, but transferredin November to the Asama, a post which heldfor some time concurrently with the Superinten-dency of the Yokosuka Arsenal (Heiki Bu Cho).In July 1887 he was at Yokosuka as President ofthe Court Martial which tried the case of thestranding of the Kongo. In 1889 we find himappointed to the Hiyei, promoted full captain, andadvanced in Court rank. In 1890 he was for ashort time Chief of Staff at the Kure NavalStation. In 1891 he was appointed to the Naniwa,

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54the armoured cruiser which was destined to bringhis name for the first time before the worldoutside the naval circles of Japan. In this shiphe cruised around the coasts of China and Korea(1892), visited the Hawaiian archipelago to carefor Japanese interests (1893), and cruised offHokkaido and Vladivostok (1894). In that yearhe had a break for two months on shore asDirector of the Kure Naval Station, but in Junehe was back again on the Naniwa, and in Chinesewaters, waiting for his opportunities of service inthe imminent war with China.

None but a Japanese, or one of those favouredforeigners who have been privileged to see theJapanese Navy from within for a long course ofyears, can form an idea of the strenuous charac-ter of the period which we have been consideringin this chapter.Togo's life, with its continuous changes, andits rapid succession of duties and responsibilitieswas no more strenuous than that of any of thehundreds of able and ambitious officers who wereat this time engaged in the creation of the JapaneseNavy as a first-class fighting force.

The material they had to work with was intruth of the very best, nevertheless, the task wasa Herculean one. The authorities had to turn the

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55hardy and daring fisher population of the sea-boardof Japan into an effective force of blue-jackets,capable of understanding and handling the complexmachinery of a modern battle-ship, and worthy ofa place side by side with the jack-tars of Britain,America or Germany. In order to do this, a bodyof able officers was absolutely needed, and thoughthe samurai were ready at hand with traditions ofmilitary valour, the samurai themselves needed tobe shown how much more than mere valour wasnecessary for the evolution of a naval officer. Thesamurai, especially in the days of confusion andlaxity which preceded the fall of the Shogunate,had fallen into lawless ways and needed to feel theforce of a strict discipline. Instructors could beprocured, but education was not so easy. Therewas a temptation to political activity in days whenyoung Japan was looking forward with feverishanxiety to the gift of constitutional government,which was to give to every intelligent student achance of political distinction, and it was ratherhard for the samurai, whose influence had been sogreat during the birth-throes of the Restoration,to turn a deaf ear to the allurements of partypolitics. There was also another danger. Inter-course with foreign nations had revealed to theJapanese the immense wealth of England and

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56America, and the gospel of materialism had comein, along with other gospels, to break down theold ideals of mediaeval Japan. It was absolutely-necessary to keep the Japanese naval officers freefrom the materialistic notions of the West, and tomake them feel so inspired with the dignity of theirnoble profession that they should value the com-parative poverty which their uniform implied abovethe more tangible comforts of wealth and ease.There was yet another task. Satsuma men hadbeen the creators of the Navy, and their influencehas always been very great in the force. But menof other clans were now chosen to fight side byside with these intrepid and hot-headed men fromthe South. It wanted an infinity of tact, patience,perseverance and good sense to eradicate the clanfeeling from the force, to merge all local interestsin the higher interests of the Empire, and tomake all, officers and men alike, feel that none ofthem would be left out in the cold, but that, pro-vided a man were a good officer, it did not muchmatter where he hailed from. The success whichattended these efforts was largely due to thepatient, self-denying efforts, of that band of de-voted officers whom Togo so well represents, andwhen we think of the glories of the JapaneseNavy in the twentieth century we must not forget

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17the patient labours of the latter part of the nine-teenth.

Japan is, and perhaps always will be, a com-paratively poor country, and her poverty hinderedher naval expansion for years. It costs muchmoney to buy and equip vessels of war, andJapanese Parliaments in the early days were notalways eager to vote supplies for a fleet, theutility of which was not then as clear to the manin the street as it is now. The authorities wereconsequently obliged to go slowly in the work oforganization. It was doubtless irritating to haveto do so, but it was good that it was so. Thesmaller ships were as much as the inexperiencedcrews of those early days were competent tomanage effectively, and by reason of this verytardiness of development the Japanese Navy wasprobably saved from many of the disasters whichother navies have met with even in days of peace.When Togo was appointed Captain of the Nanizva,that vessel was one of the finest ships of theJapanese Navy. Launched at Elswick in 1885 andcompleted the following year, she is 300 ft inlength, with 36 ft of beam, and a draught of \%yft. Her displacement is 3700 tons, her indicatedhorsepower, 7235. , Her deck armour is 3 in. forgun positions. She carries 2 ten-inch and 6 six-

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53inch guns, steams 18.72 knots with a coal capa-city of 800 tons, and has a complement of 350men. If we compare these dimensions with thoseof the monster battle-ships which now fly theFlag of the Empire, they are as nothing. But in1893 they meant a great deal.

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59

CHAPTER VII.

The War with China.Korea had for a long series of years affordeda bone for contention between China and Japan.

The friendly overtures, made by the ImperialGovernment to Korea in 1 868, had been rejectedby the Government of that country, which inclinedstrongly towards the stagnant decay of the CelestialEmpire, from whose rulers it received constantencouragement, a Japanese man-of-war was evenfired upon by the Koreans in the early days ofMeiji, and we have already had occasion to referto the attack made by the anti-reform and anti-foreign parties in the Korean Capital on theJapanese Legation at Seoul, and Mr. Hanabusa'snarrow escape from imminent peril.Two years later another peril threatened thepeace. The Korean reformers under Kim-Ok-Kyun formed a conspiracy to murder their poli-tical rivals of the conservative, or Chinese,party during a banquet, to get possession of thePerson of the King and, to establish a progressiveGovernment. In this attempt they seem to have

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6oconfidently, though without official authority, rec-koned on Japanese support; for Japan, they thought,would naturally be well disposed towards any at-tempt at progress or enlightenment; thus, whentheir plot had been, in part at least, successfullycarried out, they appealed to the Japanese Le-gation Guard to protect the Royal Palace andPerson. This brought the Japanese into collisionwith the Chinese troops, who were called in to aidby the anti-reform party, and, a regular fightensuing, the Japanese and reformers were drivenout of the Royal Palace, the Japanese Legationwas again attacked and burnt, and the Legationstaff and escort obliged to take refuge at Chemulpo.

The Diplomacy of the foreign Powers nowintervened to save the situation. Korea apolo-gized to Japan, and agreed to pay an indemnityfor the destruction of the Japanese Legation, andboth Japan and China promised by the Treaty ofTientsin, in April 1885, to withdraw their troopsfrom Seoul. A second portion of the same treatyprovided that if at any future time the interestsof one party required, or seemed to require, thepresence of its troops in Seoul, the other partyshould be notified of the fact, and be entitled tosend an equal force for the protection of its owninterests.

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6iThe Treaty of Tientsin worked fairly well for

several years. The Governments of the threecountries were outwardly at peace, and the surfaceof affairs was smooth; but there was much un-official intriguing going on, and it was just as im-possible for the Korean Reform party not to lookto Japan for sympathy as it was for the Conser-vatives to refrain from covert appeals to Chinesefellow-feeling. The methods resorted to by bothparties were reprehensible at times, but we mustremember that misgovernment always leads todeeds of violence, and the misgovernment in Koreahad been long a bye-word and reproach.The Korean reformer Kim-Ok-Kyun had beenobliged to leave his country after the events of1884. He spent the years of his exile mostly inJapan, in retirement and semi-concealment; but inMarch 1894 he was at Shanghai, staying in aboarding-house under an assumed name, and wasthere assassinated by a Korean named Hung. TheChinese authorities arrested Hung, but, instead ofpunishing him themselves, sent him along withthe body of his victim to Seoul. At Seoul, how-ever, he received no punishment: he was on thecontrary loaded with honours by the Korean King,whilst Kim-Ok-Kyun's body was quartered andexposed to view in public places in the city.

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62Everything looked as though the murder of

Kim-Ok-Kyun had been done by the order of theKorean Government with the approbation of China,and the indignation of the Japanese, who lookedupon Kim-Ok-Kyun as being under their pro-tection, knew no bounds.

The Conservatives in Korea now felt them-selves in a position to take more decided steps ofa reactionary nature, and for this purpose allowedthe Tonghaks in the south of the peninsula asomewhat free hand. The Tonghaks, originally areligious organization, had developed strong poli-tical tendencies of an anti-foreign nature. In thespring of 1894, they rose in arms and proclaimeda policy of expulsion which was directed mainlyagainst the Japanese, as being practically the onlyforeign nationality largely represented in the Pe-ninsula. "*The Korean Government, professing not tofind itself in a position to quell this insurrection,applied to China for help. On the 7th of June1894, the Chinese Minister in Tokyo informed theJapanese Government, in accordance with the pro-visions of the Treaty of Tientsin, that China in-tended sending troops to Korea " for the sake ofhelping a tributary state " in the hour of need.Japan refused to recognize the definition of Korea's

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63tributary status, and prepared to provide for helown interests. Negotiations were at once com-menced, with a view to providing a smooth wayout of the difficulties : the Japanese Governmentcame forward with reasonable propositions, which,if adopted, might have brought prosperity and con-tentement to the much-distracted Hermit Kingdom,and at the same time made it clear that she wouldnot offer advice without being prepared to back itwith something more substantial. By the end ofJune, there were in and around Seoul some six orseven thousand Japanese troops whose presenceeffectively caused a collapse of the Tonghak re-bellion. The Chinese had a squadron in Koreanwaters, as had also the Japanese, and a force atAsan ; but the force remained stationary andinactive, and its commander contented himselfwith exhortations to the Tonghaks to return toobedience, and pompous proclamations about thesolicitude of China for the welfare of a tributarystate.

On previous occasions, diplomacy had alwaysfound a way out of the oft.-recurring difficultiesbetween Japan and her neighbours, and this timealso efforts at mediation were not lacking. ButJapan was determined not to be trifled with. Koreawas a buffer state between herself and a Power

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64which her statesmen had long had reason to dread.Korea, well governed, might be a real protection :Korea, governed according to Chinese notions cor-rupted to suit Korean tastes, could only fall intohostile hands. The hour had come for Japan to.secure for good her ascendancy in Korea, by show-ing how weak a reed China was to lean upon diplomatic attempts failed, and Japan sent her ulti-matum on July 19th 1894.On the 23d of July, Admiral Ito, acting underorders from the General Quarters, left Sasebo withthe main portion of his Fleet, the Flying Squadronunder Rear-Admiral Tsuboi, consisting of the Yo-shino, Akitsushitna, and Naniwa, being sent aheadto reconnoitre. These vessels, early on the 25th,fell in with the small Chinese cruiser Tsi-yuen, andthe gun-boat Kuang-yi, with which they had afight, the end of which was that the gun-boat wasrun ashore in a sinking condition whilst the Tsi-yuen, escaped only by pretending to surrender, andmaking off later whilst the attention of the Japanesewas engaged elsewhere. The Japanese had beendrawn off in pursuit of the Chinese despatch-boatTsao-kiang, (which was captured without resistance),and the British steamer Kaosheng, under charter tothe Chinese Government as a transport, which wassunk by the Naniwa, for refusing to obey orders.

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66During the first interview the master of the Kao-sheng hadadmitted to that officer that he was not in a position to diso-bey the orders of the Naniwa, and that he was quite willingto carry out the Naniwa!s orders, but that the Chinese officerson board refused to allow him to do so. He had then askedthem to be allowed to land with his own crew, but the Chin-ese had threatened that, if he attempted to leave the ship orto carry out the orders of the Naniwa, they would kill everyEuropean on board. They had also put soldiers armed towatch over the master and mates, and to prevent the engineersfrom entering the engine room, and when the boat was on itsway the second time from the Naniwa they tried to preventthe captain from communicating with it. When LieutenantHitomi came on board again, the Captain told him that theChinese officers would not allow him to obey the orders of theNaniwa, and that they asked to return to Taku on the groundthat they had not received notice before starting of the declara-tion of war. Lieutenant Hitomi felt that this was a veryserious matter, as the ship was full of arms and war-material,and returned to his ship to report it.It was the hearty desire of the Captain of the Naniwa to savethe Kao-sheng and the lives of the Chinese troops on board,and several communications passed to and fro between theships, but the Chinese soldiery only became more violent intheir behaviour to the Captain, and at last the Naniwa sig-nalled to the Kao-sheng's crew to leave her at once. This theChinese general would not permit, and so they asked theNaniwa to send a boat to fetch them away. This requestcould not be granted, for matters were now very critical, andit was quit? uncertain what course the Chinese troops mighttake it into their heads to adopt, so the captain of the Naniwasignalled to the Kao-sheng's crew to come in their own boat, acourse which the Chinese again refused to allow them to follow.

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67The Captain of the Naniiva now recognized that the Captainwas helpless against the menaces of his Chinese passengers, sohe ordered the crew to leave the ship, hoisted a red flag atthe masthead, and whistled several times as a sign of imminentdanger: whereupon the captain and crew of the Kao-shengjumped overboard one after the other.The Naniwa now launched a torpedo, which missed, but followedit up with a shell, which made a hole in the boiler and raiseda great cloud of steam and smoke. At this everyone that couldswim jumped overboard to swim to land, while those whocould not swim remained on board, firing sometimes at theNaniwa and sometimes at the crew who were swimming to-wards the Japanese ship. This happened at i.io p.m, fiveminutes later the Kao-sheng began to sink by the stern, andat 1.46 p.m. it sunk in deep water, 2 nautical miles to thesouth of Shopaioul Island. When she had sunk, the Naniwa *sboats managed to rescue the captain and first mate (both Eng-lish) and a pilot (a Manila man) ; but the crew were eitherdrowned or shot by the Chinese troops. Most of the Chinesewere drowned, only some 160 or 170 men succeeding in reach-ing Shopaioul Island, where thery were afterwards rescued bythe German man-of-war litis, and taken to Chefoo on AugustI. Among their number was a German officer, von Hannecken,who had been for many years in the Chinese Service.]

The following account of the sinking of theKozvsh :ng (an alternative form of spelling Kao-sheng), taken from Prof. Takahashi's " InternationalLaw during the China-Japan War " may serve toset before the reader the legal aspect of Togo'saction in sinking the ship.

"It was about 6 a.m. on the 25th July 1894,

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68that the first division of the Japanese Squadronsaw two Chinese men-of-war near the island ofPhung-do (or Round Island) in Korean waters.At 7.5 the fleets approached each other within3000 metres and began to open fire. It was thusthe curtain rose on the first scene of the granddrama of war in the Far East. The encounterraged fiercely for about an hour and a half. Oneof the Chinese ships, being severely damaged, wentashore, while the other fled to Chelung Bay, tofind her way back to China. While the Japanesefleet was chasing the enemy two other steamershad appeared in the offing. They were now near,and it was soon seen that one of them was theTsao-kiang, the Chinese gunboat, and the other wasthe Kowshing which had left Taku on the 23d., andjust now arrived on the scene to play the mostregrettable part in the matter.

At 8.30 a.m. the Japanese fleet saw the Kow-shing passing on the starboard in the distance.At 9.15, the Naniwa, one of the Japanese fleet,drew near the British ship, signalled her to stopand fired two blank cartridges. Next she orderedher to anchor by the signal L.P. Prize officers weresoon sent to her, and it was discovered that shecarried nothing but enemy's troops. Thereupon theNaniwa ordered the Kowshing to follow her, and

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9this the captain of the transport consented to do.Soon after this the captain again signalled theNaniwa, requesting that a boat should be sent.When that request was complied with, the captainstated that although he was personally willing toobey the orders of the Naniwa, the Chinese officerson board would not allow him to do so, demand-ing that he should steer in the direction of Takuwhence they had come. He therefore begged per-mission to take this course. Meanwhile the Chin-ese soldiers on board the Kowshing were clamour-ing violently and angrily threatening the captainand officers with their rifles. In this way, theChinese soldiers prevented the Kowshing from fol-lowing the Japanese ship, over-ruling the will ofthe captain. So the Naniwa signalled the Britishcaptain to leave his ship. He replied again bysignal, requesting that a boat sholud be sent, butthe answer was that the captain and his officersshould proceed at once to the Naniwa in theirown boats. The captain signalled in reply that hewas not allowed to come. By this time the tumultamong the Chinese soldiers had assumed seriousdimensions. Under these circumstances, there wasno help for it but to hoist the red flag at theforemast of the Naniwa, in token that firing wasabout to commence, while signals were once more

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7made urging the captain to leave the Kowshingwith all speed. No less than four hours had beenspent in fruitless signals and negotiations, as it wasthe desire of the Japanese to make the Chinesesurrender without bloodshed, and then guide theKowshing to a place of safety. The Chinese how-ever were unable to understand the generosity ofthe Japanese, and menaced their commander refus-ing point blank to obey the instructions of theNaniwa. There was nothing for it but to sink theKowshing, and so in another moment a shell wasfired at her with fatal precision. The ship began atonce to settle down, and soon disappeared beneaththe waves."

In his official report Togo makes one state-ment which does not appear in the above-quotedpassage from Prof. Takahashi's book. "It seemedto me," he said, that she (the Kowshing) wasawaiting the arrival of the Chinese fleet," so thatit was indeed " dangerous to hesitate any longer."

Professors Westlake and Holland, both au-thorities on International Law, at once came for-ward to defend the action of the Naniwa. Theygrounded their defence on the following conside-rations :I. That the ship, though British owned and flying

the British flag, was actually engaged in bel-

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7*Hgerent operations as a transport in the serviceof China.

2. That the practice of commencing war withoutformal declaration is one which has found itsway for centuries past into the practice ofnations: that China was a belligerent, and theKowshing, as a hired vessel in their service,must take the risks of belligerency.

3. That the Japanese were clearly within theirrights in preventing the Kowshing with Chinesetroops on board from reaching her destinationin Korea, that they had done their best totake her uninjured to Japan, and that the re-fusal of the Chinese commanding officer toallow the Captain of the Kowshing to obeythe orders of the Naniwa was a sufficientjustification

for Captain Togo's action.It may perhaps be noted here that the Masterof the Kowshing, Captain Galsworthy, had beentrained with Togo on board the " Worcester."

In dealing with the Kaosheng, Togo had hisfirst opportunity of putting into practice the lessonsof naval warfare which he had learned in England.Fortiter in re, he had allowed no considerations ofmercy to interfere with what lie saw to be his plainduty to his country under the trying circumstances.Suaviter in modo, he had exerted himself, though

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9'vainly, to save the survivors from the catastrophe,and many of the foreign sailors on board these shipsexpressed themselves grateful for the treatment hegave them. The European and Chinese prisonersfrom the Kaosheng, and Tsao Kiang, were sent toNagasaki, where they were well treated, the Euro-pean prisoners being shortly set at liberty.But for a time there was great excitement,especially in England, and Togo was afraid thathis Government might not be able to support himin face of the storm of hostile criticism. Through-out it all, Togo preserved his outward coolnessof demeanour, but in his heart there was muchanxiety. " If," said he, " my action should provefatal to the Imperial Policy, and bring my countryinto difficulties, I will at once commit harakiri"Such was the resolution which he came to in thestillness of a quiet hour of meditation on theNaniwa Bridge. It was fortunate for his countrythat no such drastic measures were necessary forthe preservation of his honour.

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73

CHAPTER VIII.The War with China, (continued)

Togo continued on the-Nanhva until the con-clusion of the war with China.

In the battle of the Yalu which broke thenaval strength of China, the Naniwa was thefourth vessel in Admiral Ito's line, being the lastvessel in the van line, and followed at a littledistance by the six ships of the main Squadron.The other ships in the van were the Yoshino,Takachiho and Akitsushima, the main Squadronconsisted of the Matsuskima, Chiyoda, Itsukushima yHashidate, Hiyei and Fuso, with the gun-boat Akagiand the converted liner Saikyo-maru in the rear ofthe Fleet and outside the line of battle. Eight ofthese were protected cruisers of the newest type,all of high speed, with steel-belt protection, andmost of them provided with quickfiring guns.The Chinese Fleet consisted of the followingvessels. On the right, the Yang-wei, Chao-Yung,Ching-Yuen; in the centre, the Lai-Yuen, Chen-Yuen, Ting-Yuen , and King- Yuen; on the left, theChi-Yuen, Kwang-Chia, and Tsi-Yuen. Out of theline stood the Ping- Yuen and Kwang-Ping, four

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74torpedo-boats, and two small gun-boats. The Chi-nese were superior in weight, the Chen- Yuen andTing-Yuen being battle-ships of 7,430 tons each,whilst the largest of the Japanese ships was notmore than 4,277 tons; but they had no quickfiringguns and the dishonesty of responsible officialshad provided them with very defective ammunitionand, in particular, with many shells which wouldnot explode.

It was Ito's plan to lead his vessels round theright wing of the Chinese Fleet, and then, turningback, to pass through the enemy's line and engagetheir ships one by one. His manoeuvre wasabsolutely successful. When it was accomplishedall that were left in action of the Chinese ships,were the two battle-ships Chin-Yuen and Ting-Yuen, their armoured portions unscathed but theirunamoured parts riddled with Japanese shot, theLai-Yuen which was on fire, the Ching-Yuen, andthe Ping- Yuen. Of the other boats, the Hwang-ping and the torpedo boats had taken refuge in themouth of the Yalu, the King- Yuen and Chi- Yuenhad been sunk, the Tsi-Yuen was steaming forPort Arthur, and the Kwang^chia had run ashore.Before sunset the two battle ships were still un-subdued, and were answering though slowly to thefire from the Japanese ships. Admiral ltd had no

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7$torpedo-boats, and no means of resisting a nightattack from the torpedo-boats of the Chinese. Hisammunition was also beginning to run low, so thathe deemed it to be the wisest course to call off hisships and allow the crippled Chinese Squadron togain the friendly shelter of Port Arthur.

The Naniwa went through the thick of thefight. The Chinese fought with great determination,and though the Japanese lost no vessel, yet fourof their ships, the MatsusJiima, Hiyei, Akagi andSaikyo maru, were so badly injured that they hadto be withdrawn from action. The Naniwa im-mediately preceded the Matsushima, and yet, strangeto say, she escaped with no injuries to herself, andonly one man wounded, as did also the Chiyoda,which followed next after the Matsushima and hadno casualties at all. The Japanese attributed thegood fortune of the Naniwa to the skill with whichher captain manoeuvred her, for she certainly neversought to avoid danger, and her firing on her op-ponents was accurate and deadly.

The battle of the Yalu ended the naval resis-tance of the Chinese, who never again ventured tomeet the Japanese Squadrons in open action. PortArthur fell, and in process of time Weihaiwei alsosurrendered to the Japanese forces, the capitulationof that fortress involving the surrender of all the

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7undestroyed remnants of the Chinese Navy. In allthese operations the Naniwa bore its part, andthough the operations against the Chinese ships inWeihaiwei were mainly conducted by torpedo-boats,yet the four cruisers Matsushima (repaired soonafter the Yalu), Yos/izno, Takachiho and Naniwahad a constant service to render in engaging therbrts which the Chinese had erected at the entranceto the harbour, as also the Chinese battleships andcruisers, which would from time to time come outunder the sheltering fire of the guns on the forts,and seek to create a diversion by engaging theJapanese ships.

Weihaiwei surrendered on February 12th. 1895,and the tragic suicide of its brave defender, Vice-Admiral Ting, followed in a few hours. Togo'sprudent and careful management of his vessel hadbrought the Naniwa to the close of the navaloperations with her fighting capacity unimpaired,and his prudence now met with its reward. Justbefore, or just after the fall of Weihaiwei he wasappointed to the command of the Standing Squa-dron and sent to the Pescadores and Formosa, toassist in the occupation of those Islands. A bri-gade of 4500 men left Sasebo on the 15th. March,on the 23d, the Yoshino and Naniwa had made areconnaissance of the island, and by the 26th the

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77whole archipelago was in Japanese hands. On the30th an armistice was concluded, which practicallyended the operations of the war.

Besides his well-merited promotion as Rear-Admiral, Togo received many marks of his Sover-eign's gratitude. A grant of 500 yen per annumwas given him, and the 4th Class Order of Meritwith the Lesser Cordon of the Rising Sun ; lie hadalso more solid proofs of the esteem in which hewas held in his appointment as member of the Ad-miralty Board, as Chairman of the Board of NavalWorks (Kaiguu Gijutsu Kwaigi)> and as a memberof the Decorations' and Promotion Committee. Itwas evident that his country meant to make a fulluse of his powers.

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7

CHAPTER IX.

The Retrocession of the Liautung andthe Post Bellum Expansion.

The retrocession of the Liautung Peninsulawill be in every one's memory. When Japan, byforce of arms, had conquered China by land andsea, the treaty of peace between the two countriesprovided that the Liautung Peninsula, with itsfortress of Port Arthur, should be ceded to Japanas part of the spoils of war.To this provision Russia objected, and notunnaturally ; for it was a death-blow to hopeswhich many of her statesmen cherished thoughwithout yet avowing them. On the plea that theintegrity of China must be respected, Russia, aidedby France and Germany, protested against thecession of the Peninsula, and Japan, which at thatmoment possessed no battleships except the twobattered vessels she had just taken at Weihaiwei,was not in a position to say them nay. No friendstood by at that moment to see justice done.America was occupied in the settling of her newlyannexed territories and had but slight interests in

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79those remote regions : England, with the bestintentions in the world, had her hands tied withthe coming war in South Africa, and could donothing to aid a country whose future importanceamong the nations was only just begining to be re-cognized. Japan was therefore obliged to yield,with a sense of injustice at her heart, which becameintensely acute when, as a sequel to the protest,Russia and Germany proceeded to dismemberChina themselves by the virtual annexation, undera flimsy veil of leases, of the Liautung Peninsulaand Kiauchow.

From that moment it became the ardentdesire of every Japanese patriot (and who morepatriotic than the officers of the Imperial Navy?)to have revenge for the affront which had beenoffered to the nation, and to recover Port Arthurfor the Flag of the Rising Sun. Japan found her-self, by the unjust action of the Powers, deprivedof all the fruits of her victory. Had she beenallowed to retain the Peninsula, she would havechecked Russian advances in Manchuria and savedthe world the spectacle of a long and bloody war.As it was, she had to stand by, a passive spectator,whilst her insidious foe advanced by rapid andregular steps towards the attainment of an ambi-tion which meant her own ruin. More than that,

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83stations, dockyards, barracks, training-schools, hos-pitals, and stores had to be accumulated or provided.The men who were engaged in the directing ofthis immense undertaking spent laborious days ofdrudgery and patient attention to detail, and if thebiographer finds but little to record during theseyears devoid of incident, he can but point to theseimmense results, and ask, where was the room forpicturesque incidents in the busy life which all thiswork implies?

\)ne fact, recorded by the native historian,points to the thoroughness with which he did hiswork of inspection. He insisted that whenever agun was tested, the trial should be made with realshell, and not with any merely equivalent substitute.It was a costly method of experimenting, but itmade for efficiency, and it was efficiency that hewas aim