Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/144

This page has been validated.
112
JAPAN BY THE JAPANESE

Standing army (active and reserve); Landwehr; Depot; Landsturm.

The Active and Depot forces are conscripted yearly to the required numbers by lot.

Active service soldiers are drawn from the men who have attained the age of twenty; a man can also be conscripted, if he wishes, from the age of seventeen.

The conscription affairs are managed by the Headquarters Staff of the regimental district, and the Commanding Officer of the Headquarters Staff is under the General Officer commanding the Division in that district.

The length of service is changed according to the kind of duty.

Colours, 3 years; Reserve, 4 years and 4 months; Landwehr, 5 years; Depot, 1 year and 4 months; Landsturm, of age seventeen to forty (excluding those for the above), 7 years 4 months.

The pay for soldiers is in the following three grades:

1st class, 18 yen per year; 2nd class, 14 yen 40 sen per year; 3rd class, 10 yen 80 sen per year.

The pensions for soldiers are of five kinds:

  1. Discharged after passing 11 years’ service.
  2. Discharged by receiving wound in battle or while performing duty.
  3. If receiving wound of serious nature while in battle or in performing duty, one can have an additional pension besides the one above described, of the amount of 9 yen 32 sen yearly.
  4. By receiving slight wound in the performance of duty, being discharged from the actual service, one receives a pension for the time being of the amount of 14 yen to 140 yen.
  5. In the case of men who are killed in battle, or while on duty, their wives and orphans receive a pension of 15 yen to 30 yen yearly.

The expense for one soldier for a year on an average is 106 yen.

There is no special plan for the future of the army.

The operations by Japanese troops among the Allied Army during the North China expeditions have already been commented upon publicly, and so it is not necessary for me to deal with them here.

The Administration of the Army.

At the time of the foundation of the Japanese Empire the political institutions of the country were so simple that civil and military affairs were one. All adult males in the realm

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.