Banzai!

Banzai!, by Ferdinand Heinrich
Grautoff

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Banzai!, by Ferdinand Heinrich
Grautoff This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Banzai!
Author: Ferdinand Heinrich Grautoff
Release Date: October 9, 2006 [EBook #19498]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BANZAI!
***

Produced by Graeme Mackreth and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

BANZAI!
[Illustration: "That's the Japanese Satsuma, Togo's Satsuma!"]

BANZAI!
BY
PARABELLUM
LEIPZIG THEODOR WEICHER, PUBLISHER
NEW YORK THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., SALES AGENTS 33
EAST 17TH STREET (UNION SQUARE)

COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY THEODOR WEICHER
COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. All rights
reserved
ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON
Published, January, 1909
THE TROW PRESS, NEW YORK

CONTENTS
PAGE
FOREWORD vii
INTRODUCTION ix
CHAPTER I.
--IN MANILA 1
II.--ON THE HIGH SEAS 34

III.--HOW IT BEGAN 49
IV.--ECHOES IN NEW YORK 61
V.--FATHER AND SON 69
VI.--A NIGHT IN NEW YORK 77
VII.--THE RED SUN OVER THE GOLDEN GATE 96
VIII.--IN THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH 105
IX.---A FORTY-EIGHT-HOUR BALANCE 121
X.--ADMIRAL PERRY'S FATE 142
XI.--CAPTAIN WINSTANLEY 171
XII.--ARE YOU WINSTANLEY? 185
XIII.--THE REVENGE FOR PORTSMOUTH 192
XIV.--ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WHIRLPOOL 206
XV.--A RAY OF LIGHT 211
XVI.--THROUGH FIRE AND SMOKE 217
XVII.--WHAT HAPPENED AT CORPUS CHRISTI 228
XVIII.--THE BATTLE OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS 243
XIX.--THE ASSAULT ON HILGARD 272
XX.---A FRIEND IN NEED 286
XXI.--DARK SHADOWS 295
XXII.--REMEMBER HILGARD 306

XXIII.--IN THE WHITE HOUSE 312

FOREWORD
Every American familiar with the modern international political
horizon must have experienced a feeling of solid satisfaction at the
news that a formidable American fleet was to be dispatched to the
waters of the Pacific, and the cruise of our warships has been followed
with intense interest by every loyal citizen of our Republic. The reasons
that rendered the long and dramatic voyage of our fleet most opportune
are identical with the motives that actuated the publication of this
translation from the German of a work which exhibits a remarkable
grasp of facts coupled with a marvelously vivid power of description. It
is no secret that our ships were sent to the Pacific to minimize the
danger of a conflict with our great commercial rival in the Far East, if
not to avert it altogether, and Banzai! it seems to me, should perform a
similar mission. The graphic recital, I take it, is not intended to incite a
feeling of animosity between two nations which have every reason to
maintain friendly relations, but rather to call the attention of the
American people to the present woeful lack of preparedness, and at the
same time to assist in developing a spirit of sound patriotism that
prefers silent action to blatant braggadocio. That the Pacific Ocean may
become, in truth, the Peaceful Ocean, and never resound to the clash of
American arms, is the devout wish of one who
believes--implicitly--with Moltke in the old proverb, Si vis pacem, para
bellum--If you wish for Peace, prepare for War.
P.

INTRODUCTION
As usual, it had begun quite harmlessly and inconspicuously. It is not
my business to tell how it all came to pass, how the way was prepared.
That may be left to the spinners of yarns and to those on the trail of the
sources of history. I shall leave it to them to ascertain when the idea

that there must be a conflict, and that the fruit must be plucked before it
had time to ripen, first took root in the minds of the Japanese people.
We Americans realize now that we had been living for years like one
who has a presentiment that something dreadful is hanging over him
which will suddenly descend upon his head, and who carries this
feeling of dread about with him with an uneasy conscience, trying to
drown it in the tumult and restlessness of daily life. We realize the
situation now, because we know where we should have fixed our gaze
and understand the task to the accomplishment of which we should
have bent our energies, but we went about like sleep-walkers and
refused to see what thousands of others knew, what thousands saw in
astonishment and concern at our heedlessness.
We might easily have peeped through the curtain that hid the future
from us, for it had plenty of holes, but we passed them by unnoticed.
And, nevertheless, there were many who did peep through. Some,
while reading their paper, let it fall into their lap and stared into space,
letting their thoughts wander far away to a spot whence