McCaul concluded her inspection with praise: "I had witnessed a treatment of their enemies which would reflect the greatest credit on any nation. The Russians were being treated as guests of the country, not mere prisoners of war. " Seaman also was impressed." In the treatment of her prisoners, [Japan] had not only surpassed all previous records, but had established a new standard of humanity for the nations of the future. " Based on various reports of foreign representatives regarding the treatment of Russian prisoners, the Belgian minister in Tokyo . Baron d'Anethan, summed up the general view of his contemporary observers:
The solicitude of the Japanese for the Russian wounded and prisoners is ... admirable ... The myth of Japanese hatred for the foreigner will vanish like many other myths unfavorable to Japan by the very testimony of her enemies, who will bear witness to the humanitarian feelings of their conquerors. The image of the able Japanese military heroes constructed m the We stern reports contrasted sharply with foreign perceptions of Japan prior to the Russo-Japanese War, when Western media had depicted Japanese military, dressed in ill-fitting uniforms. with contempt and sarcasm. Frequently the very sight of Japanese soldiers "evoked loud laughter among Western observers," who perceived them as feminine and childish. "Europeans think it is very funny that on the march on hot days every Japanese soldier should use a fan, "the Tokyo-based German physician Erwin Baelz wrote. The British writer and poet of imperialism Rudyard Kipling, who had visited Japan in 1889 and 1892, agreed that the delicate fans and tea sets he noticed in an army barracks in Osaka did "not go with one 's notion of a barrack." Although he noted that the Japanese soldier "makes a trim little blue-jacket," he concluded "he does not understand soldiering."
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