John Schettler - Devil's Garden

Commander Kawase had picked up the wireless signal from Tatsu Maru , and decided to investigate. He notified his base that he was answering a distress call and following up reports of a large Russian warship in the straits. Yet he was not prepared for what he now saw on the far horizon.

The tiny two stack patrol destroyers had been steaming at twenty knots when they saw the distant ship, and with each passing minute as they closed the range Kawase’s alarm grew with the silhouette he was peering at. It was definitely a warship, yet the ship’s bow was very different, long and sleek as it cut through the sea, unlike the reverse bows on all the ships he had come to know. He could not see any large cannon on that long deck, only a few smaller guns to note. Yet he knew that a ship of that size would fight broadside, and that many guns could be concealed in the shadows along her sides, swiveling out from the hull on casements to take deadly aim at his tiny patrol boats.

Now he could clearly see this was, indeed, a Russian ship! It flew the flag of Saint Andrew on its high main conning tower, where he could see something strange rotating in the fading sunlight. The look of the ship reminded him of the tall battlements of Osaka Castle, the high stone fortress of the south that had broken so many armies on its walls. His instinct was to move in closer, and learn more, but something cautioned him, like the voice of a fallen ancestor whispering a dire warning to him. Be cautious here…He made a decision that would save his life, and those of all the men under his charge that day.

If this was a ship of war, and it certainly looked to be all of that and more, then his four torpedo boats were not about to start the next war here on his command. They would be no match for this monster in any case, and so he wisely decided that his best course was to observe and report. He had come close enough, and gave the order to come about.

He turned to a junior Lieutenant and calmly told him to signal Amori with a report that would confirm the distress call of Tatsu Maru. It had already been seconded by Kanto Maru , when it hurriedly steamed into port at Hakodate with tales of a massive ship in the straits. “Send this,” he said. “Sighted large enemy warship flying the Flag of St. Andrew. Give our position and tell them we are circling in place. Request instructions.”

The message sent, it was his to wait for senior officers to decide his fate that day. Thankfully, there were wiser heads in Amori as well, and he was soon ordered to return to base. It was a decision he was glad to hear, even if he was prepared to face danger and even death if so ordered to defend his homeland. One does not fight a dragon with a knife, he thought. They would need no less than an armored cruiser to confront a ship like the one he was peering at through his field glasses. No… Not even that would do. They would need a battleship…they would need many battleships. It was the most frightening ship he had ever seen in his life.

* * *

“Theyare turning away, Captain.” Rodenko knew Karpov could see that, but he wanted to make certain the Captain knew the ships were no longer closing on them. “I do not think they mean to attack.”

“No, Rodenko, you are correct. I think they merely wanted to get a look at us, and what they saw may have had the desired effect. No doubt they will return to port with tales of a sea monster at large, which would be just what we need at the moment. Fear is a potent weapon, and a contagious disease once it gets rooted in an enemy. I showed them our full silhouette for that very reason.”

“Those look to be small torpedo boats, sir.”

“Indeed. Well they pose us no threat unless they get very close. And these do not seem to have the backbone to do that at the moment. Well enough. I think we will turn south.”

“South, sir? I thought we were heading for Tokyo.”

“There is no Japanese base of note here in the north. Their main naval facilities are mostly in the south at Kure and Sasebo. I had thought to visit Yokohama off Tokyo, but I think we should first settle the matter with the Japanese Navy before I come calling on the Emperor here. As long as they think they have a navy to oppose us they will never listen to any demand I might make at Yokohama. So first things first. We go south, to show our silhouette to these little people and see what they decide to do about it.”

“I understand, sir. Helm, come about, and steady on 185 degrees.” He seconded Karpov’s order, but with a deep feeling of foreboding and regret.

The Captain had the right idea, thought Rodenko. But I think he is wrong about the Japanese. They are bigger men than he may realize.

Theywere once called the Spartans of Japan, a hardy clan of Samurai warriors in the southern province of Satsuma. The decadence that attends to privilege and power in their position had not fallen on them, for Satsuma was not a rich province, and its samurai had to work in the fields like common peasants to eke out a living and provide the rice necessary to sustain them. Rugged and disciplined, they were a rock-like people, constantly training in the arts of war like the formidable Spartans of ancient Greece.

Every village in the province had its own Gochu, an organization of samurai that recruited all the young men by the age of 15. Here they would be instilled with the virtues of bravery, and the necessity of endurance, and the power of will in ensuring the attainment of both. The samurai were constantly being tested by their senior members, forced to confront their fears and overcome in the face of all hardship.

With a long and dangerously exposed coastline, the clan had also taken to the development of maritime skills. When foreign devils first came to Japan in their awesomely ugly ships of iron, the Sagumo took note of the power these new machines represented. And one, in particular, drew some very important conclusions when an enemy fleet first darkened the horizon off the shores of Satsuma.

Born in 1847, he was called Chugoro until coming of age in the youth clans in the spring of 1860 and receiving the adult name of Heihachiro Togo. He joined his Gochu , training and studying each day even as the boys of Sparta were put through trials to forge them into the hardened warriors they became as men. He sang at the Gochu patriotic festivals, recounting the tragic death of the ‘Forty Ronin’ and other heroic stories just as the Greeks celebrated and recounted stories of the Iliad and Odyssey.

A studious and diligent youth, he was well like by his peers, respected, and thought of as possessing a natural quality of leadership without being showy or ostentatious. These same virtues of character, determination, assiduous study, and a quiet disposition that endowed him with a well of calm in battle, would serve him throughout his life. He took up with a favorite schoolmate, Kuroki, who would also take a dramatic role in the defeat of the Great European power of Imperial Russia. The teachers of the Gochu did not realize it at that time, but they were schooling the boys who would become the men to usher Japan into the modern age and lead her onto the world stage with some of the most astounding and decisive military victories ever recorded in history.

Two years later an incident would occur that would set the course of young Heihachiro Togo’s life. In 1862, a notable lord, a relative of the ruling clan lord of Satsuma province, was traveling home through the village of Namamugi when his procession came upon four British foreigners. Thinking themselves as the equal or better of any man in Japan, the foreigners rudely crossed the path of the lord’s procession, failing to dismount or pay him any respect as he passed.