IN KOREA WITH MARQUIS ITO
PART I
CHAPTER I
THE INVITATION
IT was in early August of 1906 that I left New Haven for a third visit to Japan. Travelling by the way of the Great Lakes through Duluth and St. Paul, after a stay of two weeks in Seattle, we took the Japanese ship Aki Maru for Yokohama, where we arrived just before the port was closed for the night of September 20. Since this ship was making its first trip after being released from transport service in conveying the Japanese troops home from Manchuria, and was manned by officers who had personal experiences of the war to narrate, the voyage was one of uncommon interest. Captain Yagi had been in command of the transport ship Kinshu Maru when it was sunk by the Russians, off the northeastern coast of Korea. He had then been carried to Vladivostok, and subsequently to Russia, where he remained in prison until the end of the war. Among the various narratives to which I listened with interest were the two following; they are repeated here because they illustrate the code of honor whose spirit so generally pervaded the army and navy of Japan during their contest with their formidable enemy. It is in reliance on the triumph of this code that those who know the nation best are hopeful of its ability to overcome the diffi-
