Preparing for Death. A superstition holds that the Japanese soldier who dies dirty finds no place among the Shinto shades; so, before going into action, every soldier changes his linen, as this one is doing 241 A map of Port Arthur. Showing the defenses and the direction of the Japanese attack 281 Home. The shack, 800 yards from the firing line, occupied for three months by the fighting General Oshima, Commander of the Ninth Division 290 Plunder. Showing Adjutant Hori, Secretary to General Oshima, standing near plunder taken from the captured Turban Fort 290 In action. Loading a 4.7 gun of the ordinary field artillery during the assault of September 20th 312 The Osacca Babe. Loading the 11-inch coast defense mortar during the general bombardment of October 29th, two miles from Port Arthur 332 Cloud girt among her mountains, Nippon, in wrath as of old, Unleashes her young warrior; Lo, the world’s champion behold! He comes abysmal as chaos, A boy with the smile of a girl, Tumbles his man with a handshake, And spits him up with a twirl. Nourished on rice and a dewdrop, He fans him to sleep with a star, Believing the fathers of Nippon Created things as they are. So up and across the short ocean He sails to the land of can’t, To keep up the name of his fathers And smash down the things that shan’t. Ah! What a freshet of glory When into the noisy fray Against a shaggy old giant Comes this youth asmile and gay! PREFACE THE SIEGE AT A GLANCE The sea attack on Port Arthur began on February 9th, 1904, at noon. The land isolation occurred on May 26th, when the Second Army, under General Oku, took Nanshan Hill. Four grand series of Russian defenses from Nanshan down the peninsula were then taken by the Japanese. The capture of Taikushan on August 9th, of Shokushan two days later, and of Takasakiyama the following day, drove the Russians into their permanent works. The real siege of Port Arthur began, thus, on August 12th, and continued for four months and nineteen days.