“Eki Hioki,
“Chargé d’Affaires.”
The “Christian Herald” of New York, having already been aware of the distress in Japan, had begun among its Christian readers a subscription for the purposes of relief, and no sooner did the President’s appeal appear than the American National Red Cross Treasurer, Hon. Charles Hallam Keep, received from Dr. Louis Klopsch, Editor of the “Christian Herald,” a most prompt and generous check for $10,000, already contributed by its readers, to be forwarded to the Japanese Red Cross to be used exclusively for the purchase of food supplies. This amount was immediately cabled by the State Department, through our Embassy at Tokyo. A few days later the “Christian Herald” followed its first donation by another check for $10,000, sent directly to the State Department to be forwarded without delay, as the need was so great, to the Japanese Red Cross for the purchase of food. The readers of the “Christian Herald” may justly feel that by their promptness and generosity they have saved many of their fellowmen from suffering and death by starvation, and this will be sincerely appreciated in Japan.
In these northern provinces many of the people are living upon briquettes made of 75 per cent. straw and 25 per cent. foreign rice, or upon roots, bark of trees, acorns, etc. The Japanese Government, in spite of its immense war debt, has been remitting or postponing taxes and at the same time trying to raise money for the purpose of providing work for the able-bodied so as not to pauperize them, and food and clothes for the children, old people and sick; but without outside aid the herculean task will be too heavy a burden.
Mr. Frederick Palmer, the War Correspondent representing “Collier’s Weekly,” served through the Russo-Japanese war with the soldiers from the famine-stricken districts in the northern provinces of Japan. He knows these people, their sterling qualities and the bitterness of their need, and of them he says:
“From the heart of the famine-district came the second division of the Japanese Army, known as ‘The Division which always attacks.’ It exemplified in its character the fine and simple qualities of the people of the Sendai country, their loyalty, pride, courage, industry, and equability of temper. The second of the divisions to leave Japan for the field, it marched through Korea in midwinter to the Battle of the Yalu, and it was the strong, dependable arm of General Kuroki’s army which never gave ground to the close of the campaign.
“Not until December and January of this year, the third winter since their departure, would transportation arrangements permit the division’s departure from Manchuria, which was a bleak and inhospitable land to these simple country boys who were accustomed to their own beautiful landscape, their clean mats and ornamental gardens. No heroes ever received a sadder welcome home, for they returned to find their mothers and sisters and wives wanting food. The absence of the men who had served their country so well meant the absence of so many able-bodied tillers of the soil. This and a cold and unusually rainy summer made the rice crop the scantiest for generations.
“These proud northern people have not the facility of city people in accepting charity. If you went into their houses you would find that they would deny that they were hungry and possibly offer you their last bowl of rice to show that they needed no help. The home department of the Japanese Government is taking measures of practical relief by offering employment on public works which will increase the acreage for rice growing and otherwise improve the agricultural resources of the region. The opportunity is offered for foreigners to supplement the government aid by private aid which will be sympathetically and practically administered by the Japanese Red Cross Society. If it be the duty of the Red Cross to soften the cruel consequences of war, then it has here a duty as imperative as under the more sensational surroundings of the battle field.”
On February 28th The American National Red Cross transmitted to the State Department $5,000, which immediately cabled this amount, through the United States Embassy at Tokyo, to the Japanese Red Cross to be applied to the famine relief work.
In a second appeal issued by the foreign relief committee of northern Japan, this committee says: