CHAPTER XVI.
Rigors of Manchurian Winters—In Winter Quarters—Ear Muffs Won by Yankee Thrift—Hot Baths and Hot Meals—Disease Conquered in Camp—Wonderful Sanitary Record—Civil War Comparisons—The Japanese Scientific—No Detail Overlooked—Wounded Rarely Die.
Rigors of Manchurian Winters
After the Battle of the Sha-ho River the two armies went into winter quarters prepared to face a Manchurian season with thermometer readings of 35 degrees below zero not uncommon and with a snowfall of enormous proportions to contend with. The Russians were better prepared to meet the situation than the Japanese since a large proportion of the Russian army hailed from Siberia or the northern provinces of Asiatic and European Russia and hence were inured to rigorous winters. Some thousands of the Japanese had come from the northern provinces of Japan and they, too, were well experienced in cold. But a large majority of the Japanese troops were from the southern islands of Japan, where rigorous winters are unknown. The Japanese army administration was thus confronted by a very serious problem. The story of the manner in which the problem was met and solved is among the most interesting of the chapters of the history of the war.
In Winter Quarters
Ear Muffs Won by Yankee Thrift
When the positions of the various units of the army had been definitely fixed the whole army began, as a preliminary step, to burrow into the earth. Before mid-November the Japanese camp was no longer stretched over the hills south of the Sha-ho but had vanished from view under the hills. Along the whole front that stretched for nearly sixty miles underground galleries were excavated barely high enough even for a Japanese to stand erect. These were open at one end and at the entrance to each a charcoal burning stove was placed. A fire was kept burning continually in each of these thousands of stoves. The stove pipe, instead of jutting a foot or two into the air was extended along the roof of the dug-out to its end, then passed upward through the eight feet of soil that formed the roof. Fronting the open end long trenches, were dug and over them heavy protective bomb proofs of timber and earth were erected as a protection against the shells which with greater or less activity were hurled into the Japanese lines by the Russians throughout the winter. These underground homes solved much of the question of withstanding cold for in them the men were reasonably comfortable. Special clothing, too, was provided, and in connection with fur ear-muffs with which each man was provided an interesting story is told, one typical of the Yankee-like thrift of the Japanese. Five years before, the plague had been introduced into Japan from the Malay Peninsula. A vigorous fight was made and the disease was finally conquered but in the course of the fight the sanitary officials became convinced that the germs of the disease were being spread by rats. A prize was put upon the heads of the dangerous rodents. Millions were killed by the boys of Japan who delivered the rats, collected the bounty and gave no thought to what became of the carcasses. Nor did anyone, but when the army faced a Manchurian winter those millions of rat furs reappeared as warm ear protectors while a smile went around the world. So completely, in a thousand ingenious ways did the army officials conquer the cold and safeguard the army that throughout the winter it was even possible for every man in the army to have two hot baths a week. The bath in Japan is almost a religious rite, but the trooper bade good-bye to it, as he supposed, when he started for the front. Not so. Circular metal tubes were provided. These were sunk in the ground level with the surface. Ten feet away at the bottom of a trench a stove was placed heating a coil of pipes which went inside, around and around the sides of the tube. The tube served as the tub. It was filled with water and in a few minutes the hot bath was ready. In protected spots all along the lines Nippon could be seen hastily stripping beside the steaming hole in the ground. Then he would vanish until only his head was visible. As well as he could he scrubbed himself. Comrades raised him swiftly from the tube and swathed him in heavy blankets, wrapped in which he vanished over the edge of the trench and so into his underground home, clean and happy.
A NIGHT ATTACK ON A RUSSIAN POSITION.
Hot Baths and Hot Meals