Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - X. The Japanese ambulance and hospital service
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122 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
were looked after by skilful doctors, and nursed
by sisters of the Red Cross Society of Japan.
After all their sufferings and hardships, they must
have imagined themselves in Paradise.
At the base hospital the wounded men were
divided into two classes, the slightly wounded,
who needed but a short treatment to enable them
to return to the front, and the more seriously
wounded, who required not only healing of their
wounds, but a long rest and a thorough after-
treatment, before they would be strong enough to
take up again the hard life of a campaigning
soldier. The men in the first of these classes
were kept at the base hospital until they were fit
for duty once more ;
the others were sent back to
Japan on board the hospital ships so soon as the
doctors pronounced them strong enough to stand
the sea voyage. The principle throughout this
campaign was that, where the slightest doubt
existed as to the wounded man’s speedy and com-
plete recovery, he was sent back to Japan—very
often against his own wishes. This was done as
much out of regard for the w’ounded men as from
considerations of the convenience of the hospital
service at the front.
In this war, the Japanese armies had eleven
hospital ships at their service. Two, the Kosai
Maru and the Hakuai Maru, belong to the Red
Cross Society of Japan, and two to the Japanese
Government (the Kobe Maru and the Yokohama
Maru). But as the number of casualties proved
far greater than was expected, the Government
chartered seven other ships and fitted them out
for the purpose. Six of them (Hakuai, Kosai,
Yokohama, Miyoshino, Tarien, Rohilla) plied
between Talien Bay and Japan, carrying the
wounded from the Third Army and also the
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