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paul_cornelius's review
4.0
For seven months in 1904 and 1905, John Fox traveled to Asia to serve as a war correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War. He wrote a series of articles for Scribner's Magazine that were consolidated into this book. As he admits, Fox was entirely sympathetic to the Japanese and Japan, that country being a place he had desired to visit ever since childhood. He first sailed for Japan and then went to Manchuria to cover the war while all the time under the escort of Japanese troops and guides.
But something happened along the way. First, Fox and the other correspondents with him never managed to see an actual battle. They saw some deserted battlefields and several encampments. As for fighting, however, that always seemed to be just over the horizon. Soon, the correspondents discovered that the Japanese had lied all along about giving them access to the actual battles. They would never be allowed to within more than four miles from the action. As a result, they all packed up and went home.
What to do, then, with all the articles owed Scribner's? Essentially, turn the book into a collection of pieces that more or less served as travel writing. Thus following an opening chapter that is wildly impressionistic in describing the trip from the East Coast of the United States to Japan, Fox launches into several more chapters describing life in Japan, which for Fox mostly consisted of Tokyo-Yokohoma. He never loses his love for what he describes as the natural harmony and charm of Japan. But incidents of being cheated does leave a sour taste in his mouth.
That sour taste became much more bitter in Manchuria. There, the Japanese troops escorted the correspondents right past the main battle for Port Arthur and into the hinterlands. The Battle of Liao Yang, which would become a major Japanese victory, is in full throttle. But the Japanese keep halting, holding, and maneuvering Fox and the others out of the way of danger. The Japanese he describes as paranoid, xenophobic, and fearful of Europeans and Americans. Several times, it seems, their skin color results in the Japanese accusing them of being Russian spies. And along the way, Fox himself becomes much more enamored with the Chinese than the Japanese. He likes their ways and friendliness. He also appreciates their ties to the soil on which generations have worked continuously for thousands of years.
Finally, there is one more thing worth remarking upon. And that is that Fox, who was a novelist as well as a journalist, is an especially literate and skilled writer. The gap is enormous between what he assumes to be his readership and similar such readers following war reporting today. The vocabulary, tone, references, and very cadence of his writing would stump many a contemporary reader used to the American press' contemporary staccato-like sentences filled with a fourth grade vocabulary. It's revealing just how much American letters has degenerated in almost 120 years.
But something happened along the way. First, Fox and the other correspondents with him never managed to see an actual battle. They saw some deserted battlefields and several encampments. As for fighting, however, that always seemed to be just over the horizon. Soon, the correspondents discovered that the Japanese had lied all along about giving them access to the actual battles. They would never be allowed to within more than four miles from the action. As a result, they all packed up and went home.
What to do, then, with all the articles owed Scribner's? Essentially, turn the book into a collection of pieces that more or less served as travel writing. Thus following an opening chapter that is wildly impressionistic in describing the trip from the East Coast of the United States to Japan, Fox launches into several more chapters describing life in Japan, which for Fox mostly consisted of Tokyo-Yokohoma. He never loses his love for what he describes as the natural harmony and charm of Japan. But incidents of being cheated does leave a sour taste in his mouth.
That sour taste became much more bitter in Manchuria. There, the Japanese troops escorted the correspondents right past the main battle for Port Arthur and into the hinterlands. The Battle of Liao Yang, which would become a major Japanese victory, is in full throttle. But the Japanese keep halting, holding, and maneuvering Fox and the others out of the way of danger. The Japanese he describes as paranoid, xenophobic, and fearful of Europeans and Americans. Several times, it seems, their skin color results in the Japanese accusing them of being Russian spies. And along the way, Fox himself becomes much more enamored with the Chinese than the Japanese. He likes their ways and friendliness. He also appreciates their ties to the soil on which generations have worked continuously for thousands of years.
Finally, there is one more thing worth remarking upon. And that is that Fox, who was a novelist as well as a journalist, is an especially literate and skilled writer. The gap is enormous between what he assumes to be his readership and similar such readers following war reporting today. The vocabulary, tone, references, and very cadence of his writing would stump many a contemporary reader used to the American press' contemporary staccato-like sentences filled with a fourth grade vocabulary. It's revealing just how much American letters has degenerated in almost 120 years.
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