Russia is the Christian nation which has been slowest in development. Mentally, she is just out of the Dark Ages, equipped with the mechanical progress of modern times. Japan is the pagan nation which has been foremost in adopting the worldly essentials of a civilization which is Christian in its origin. Russia is a union of nomadic races, but lately ushered into feudalism, which have, in turn, conquered many other races. Japan has had a stable, organized government longer than England, and the Japanese were a free people when the Saxons were the serfs of the Normans. The Czar is a pope; the Mikado divinity itself. If the Jews were still a nation and a descendant of Moses were their king, he would mean to them what the Mikado means to the Japanese. For all the centuries of the nation’s existence the Japanese had known no acquisition of territory. The Russians have lived by this. [Illustration: RECRUITS GOING THROUGH FIRING DRILL WITHOUT RIFLES ] [Illustration: INFANTRY DRILLING IN HEAVY MARCHING ORDER ] [Illustration: SOLDIERS LEARNING HOW TO CARRY WOUNDED COMRADES ] [Illustration: RIFLE PRACTICE ON THE PARADE GROUND ] JAPANESE TROOPS PREPARING FOR WAR These photographs were taken on the parade ground at the Oyama Barracks in Tokio just before the outbreak of the war. Japan had already been practically on a war footing for months, and the busy work of preparation here suggested was typical of the spirit that prevailed throughout the nation and brought Japan’s army to a state of preparedness perhaps never before duplicated in the history of war. [Illustration: LEARNING HOW TO JUMP ] [Illustration: PRACTICING THE SABRE THRUST ] [Illustration: CAVALRY RECRUIT LEARNING TO RIDE WITHOUT STIRRUPS OR BRIDLE ] [Illustration: TRAINING JAPANESE CAVALRYMEN AT THE TOKIO BARRACKS ] The Japanese cavalry was the weakest branch of the service. The Japanese are not natural horsemen, and both the men and their mounts were inferior, in a military sense, to the other branches of the service. The horses were scrubby little beasts with neither speed nor tractability. The trooper whose mount finally succeeded in clearing the bar shown above thought the feat very remarkable [Illustration: CHANGING GUARD AT THE OYAMA BARRACKS IN TOKIO ] [Illustration: SWAPPING STORIES IN THE GUARD HOUSE AT OYAMA BARRACKS ] In spite of his inscrutable manner the Japanese soldier when with a crowd of his comrades becomes almost as loquacious as the typical regular of other countries. In the Oyama Barracks, where this photograph was taken, a large number of troops were quartered ready to be rushed to the front as soon as hostilities were declared [Illustration: CLEANING AND OILING RIFLES IN PREPARATION FOR WAR ] [Illustration: DEPARTURE OF BARON ROSEN, THE RUSSIAN MINISTER, FROM YOKOHAMA ]