“Well, we are real Japanese soldiers at last!” cried Ben. “I declare, I feel like a cat in a strange garret.”
“I’m going to study up the Japanese tactics,” declared Gilbert, and he went at it with a vigor. Both Gilbert and Ben knew a great deal on the subject already, otherwise they would not have gotten the commissions dealt out to them.
By the middle of the following week they were introduced to the solders who were to serve under them. Much to their surprise the command was made up largely of students from the Japanese schools and universities—bright men who were eager to do all they could for their beloved Japan. Not a few could speak English, so Gilbert and Ben felt at home with them almost from the start.
“This is much better than if we had a lot of the peasantry to deal with,” said Gilbert. “Drilling these chaps will be more fun than work;” and so it proved.
The command was quartered some distance outside of Nagasaki and was drilled twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Major Okopa had much outside work to attend to, and as a consequence much of the task of drilling the soldiers fell upon Gilbert and Ben.
“Let us show them what American officers can do,” said Gilbert, and they worked harder than ever before, until the drill of the battalion was practically perfect. During that time he and Ben picked up a great many Japanese army terms, so that they addressed their men with but little difficulty.
In the meantime the Japanese Government was losing no time in sending troops to Korea, and every ship possible to use for a transport was pressed into the service. The destination of many of the transports was unknown to all but those high in authority, even the most alert of the war correspondents being unable to obtain information.
“Beats all, how the news is kept back,” said one young man, who represented some Pacific Coast papers. “But I am no worse off than a score of other special correspondents.”
“Are you going to the front?” asked Gilbert, who had become interested in the young newspaper man.
“Will if I get the chance.”