From this point the Japanese plan of campaign, if it did not actually miscarry, was at any rate tardy in development. It was not anticipated that Port Arthur would be capable of prolonged defence. Recalling their experience with the Chinese in 1884, the Japanese felt certain that the fortress would be captured in a few weeks, and that General Nogi’s army would move North into line with General Kuroki. Had they foreseen that several months would be spent in difficult and costly siege operations, they would have been content with investing Port Arthur, clearing the peninsula, and joining their forces for an immediate attack on Liao-yang. The task of driving the Russians North was given to the Third Army, with whose advent in the peninsula began the active campaign on land under the direction of Field Marshal Oyama and the Head Quarter Staff. The Liao-tung Peninsula was rapidly cleared, and the Russians were driven back upon their main defences at Liao-yang, leaving Port Arthur to its fate. The men who were responsible for this plan of campaign were the members of the Imperial and Headquarter Staffs. In the Marquis Yamagata, who remained in Tokyo with the Emperor, was vested almost absolute power. He is a man of remarkable character and ability, and is regarded as the creator of the national army out of bands of feudal retainers. With him was associated as Assistant Chief of the Staff, General Nagaoka, whose acquaintance with Europe, and especially with France, made him an able coadjutor. In the Minister for War--General Terauchi, himself a soldier of repute and experience, the Imperial Staff had another invaluable assistant. The direction of operations in the field was vested in Field Marshal the Marquis Oyama--a soldier of wide experience and attractive personality, in whose character is a strange mixture of caution and reckless daring. I have observed in the constitution of every Japanese Staff a remarkable combination of character and experience. It will be found almost invariably that the Commander is a man of mature years, distinguished for caution--a soldier with no European training, and speaking no language save Japanese--and that with him is associated as Chief of the Staff a younger and more active man of more rapid cerebration and greater daring--a soldier who has had experience in Europe. This combination works admirably, the Commander acting as a brake and the Chief of the Staff as a propeller.