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CHAPTER IV
PREPARATIONS
F
rom conversations I had with officers ot
General Nogi’s staff, I am convinced that
the General himself was in favour of at-
tempting to take Port Arthur by storm, and that his
feelings were shared by every officer and man in
bis army, but it is likewise beyond doubt that he
had received peremptory orders from Tokyo to do
so. Foreign critics have blamed the Japanese as
well as the Russians for staking so much on the
capture or the retention of Port Arthur, and for
tying down here large forces which might have
been better employed at the main theatre of
operations. I do not intend to discuss this very
difficult and dubious question ;
it is outside the
sphere of my present task. I merely point out
that the Japanese undoubtedly felt sure that they
could take Port Arthur within a very short time
after the capture of Nanshan, and that Nogi’s
army then could be taken north in time to help
crush Kuropatkin before his army had grown too
strong. Now when we have come to fully realize
the strength of the fortress and understand the
hopelessness of the task at such an early stage, it
seems a little absurd that an attempt in this
direction should ever have been made, and we
can but wonder that the generally well-informed
Japanese Intelligence Department had not been
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