When the men of the first and second Reserve arrived in their garrison, some of them were rejected on account of insufficient health or physique. How sad and crestfallen they looked when thus rejected! “Please, can’t you take me in some way? They gave me such a great send-off when I left the village, they banzaied[10] me over and over again when my train started. I came here determined not to go home again. How can I stand the disgrace of going back to my neighbors as a useless failure? Do please take me with you,” they would entreat. The officers in charge had great difficulty in soothing and comforting these “failures” and persuading them to go home.
“Good luck to you! Your family will be well taken care of. All right, eh?”
“All right, all right! I will bring you a dozen or two of the Russkies’s heads when I come back!”
“My dear Saku, don’t die of an illness; if you die, die on the battle-field. Don’t worry about your brother!”
“I am ready not to tread on the soil of Japan again with this pair of legs.[11] Be happy with me, when you hear that I died in battle.”
“Thank you all for seeing me off so kindly. I will return your kindness by distinguishing myself in the field.”
Words like these sounded at the doorways of the barracks everywhere. The men anxious to serve; the nation to help their families; was this not the secret of our splendid victory?
We were busy night and day until the mobilizing was completed. Some were assigned to field regiments, others were put on the waiting-list, and soon we were ready to start at a moment’s notice.
Those who were left at home to fill up vacancies later on were sorely disappointed, and entreated their officers to allow them to join the fighting regiments at once. Their comrades had to comfort and encourage, cheer and praise these disappointed men, explaining to them that the war with Russia was not likely to come to an end in six months or even in a year; that their turn was sure to come before long; that it was not at all a disgrace to be on the waiting-list, on the contrary that they were to have the honor of dealing the finishing stroke to the enemy.