Human Bullets: A Soldier's Story of Port ArthurSakurai, Tadayoshi
History
Human Bullets: A Soldier's Story of Port Arthur
Sakurai, Tadayoshi
Lüshun (China) -- History -- Siege, 1904-1905
It is not pleasant to see even a piece of a bloodstained bandage. It is
shocking to see dead bodies piled up in this valley or near that rock,
dyed with dark purple blood, their faces blue, their eyelids swollen,
their hair clotted with blood and dust, their white teeth biting their
lips, the red of their uniforms alone remaining unchanged. I could not
help shuddering at the sight and thinking that I myself might soon
become like that. No one dared to go near and look carefully at those
corpses. We only pointed to them from a distance in horror and disgust.
Everywhere were scattered blood-covered gaiters, pieces of uniform
and underwear, caps, and so on; everywhere were loathsome smells and
ghastly sights. Innumerable powder-boxes and empty cartridges, piled
up near the skirmish-trenches, told us plainly how desperately the
enemy had fired upon the invading army. Wherever we saw the enemy’s
dead left on the field, we could not help sympathizing with them. They
were enemies, but they also fought for their own country. We buried
them carefully, but the defeated heroes of the battle had no names
that we could hand down to posterity. At home their parents, their
wives, and their children must have been anxiously waiting for their
safe return, not knowing, in most cases, when, where, or how their
beloved ones had been killed. Almost all of them had a cross on the
chest, or an ikon in hand. Let us hope that they passed away with
God’s blessing and guidance. The killed and wounded of a defeated
army deserve the greatest pity. Of course they are entitled to equal
and humane treatment by the enemy, according to the International Red
Cross regulations. But defeat we must avoid by all means. Added to the
ignominy of defeat, the wounded must have the sorrow of separating from
their comrades and living or dying among perfect strangers, with whom
they cannot even converse. The case of the killed is still sadder. Some
had cards of identification, so that their numbers would eventually
tell their names. As far as we could, we informed the enemy of those
numbers; but there were many instances where there was no means of
identification. Their names are buried in eternal obscurity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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