Chapter X The Chroniclers of the War
The most interesting stories written by the correspondents who were sent to cover the Russo-Japanese War were probably the ones that never passed the censor, the most extraordinary sights those which the correspondents did not see. There has never been a struggle since the days of the telegraph and the professional correspondent of which the world at large knew so little. During the early months of the war practically all of the correspondents were bottled up in Tokio, and when at last a few of them were released and allowed to follow the army, they were kept far in the rear, and were only permitted to see the fighting at the Yalu from the top of a hill several miles from the firing line.
Marking time in Tokio for months were newspaper men and special writers who were correspondent veterans of many wars, and who were compelled to waste their energies in the description of tea-houses, theatres, and other conventional show places. The unfortunate correspondents were repeatedly told that they were soon to leave for the front, only to learn presently that there was to be more delay, and to see a repetition of the Japanese smile, and hear again the Japanese “I’m so very, very sorry.”
R. L. Dunn, Collier’s special photographer, who was fortunate enough to get into Korea before the rigid censorship of correspondents began, but was subsequently forced to return, thus described some of the distresses of the luckless who were held up in Tokio: “I found more than a hundred war correspondents at Tokio, hustling from morning to night in order to get ready in time, and buying a thousand odd things at war prices, so that their equipments might meet every conceivable emergency. That was in April. Spring changed into summer. Fur-lined sleeping bags and firepots made the days seem hotter than they were. The whole winter outfit had to be exchanged for one suited to summer. On June 1 everything was as it had been at the beginning, except that some correspondents were contemplating the necessity of acquiring a third outfit for the rainy season.”
“Never was parting guest more happy to get away,” wrote Collier’s special correspondent, Frederick Palmer, when he and J. H. Hare, Collier’s special photographer, at last left Tokio with three other Americans—the first to be allowed to go to the front; “never was parting guest more heartily and sincerely sped. With the correspondents of the first contingent actually going, the hopes of the second and the third rose to the dignity of expectations. They gathered at Shimbashi Station with tin horns and gave the chosen few an Anglo-Saxon cheer. For over two months some of us have waited for official passes to join the Japanese army in the field. Now that we have the treasure it is not much to look at—only a slip of paper which would go into the average sized envelope. By rights, it should be on vellum, with marginal decorations of storks standing on one leg and an inscription of summa cum laude for patience in flourishes.”
CORRESPONDENTS OF VARIOUS NATIONALITIES WITH THE RUSSIAN FORCES IN MANCHURIA
CIVILIANS AND MILITARY ATTACHÉS WITH THE RUSSIAN FORCES IN MANCHURIA
THE TARGET-SHOOT GIVEN FOR THE MILITARY ATTACHÉS BY GENERAL KUROKI IN THE WINTER QUARTERS ON THE SHA-HO
MILITARY ATTACHÉS, FIRING AT GENERAL KUROKI’S TARGET-SHOOT WITH CAPTURED RUSSIAN RIFLES
WITH THE WAR CORRESPONDENTS IN KOREA AND MANCHURIA