Under the Dragon Flag: My Experiences in the Chino-Japanese War

This book is a first-hand account of the horror and barbarity inflicted upon the Chinese during the first Sino-Japanese war of 1894. James Allan, the son of a wealthy merchant squanders his inheritence and is forced to become a sailor after his money runs out. After several voyages in which he learns by hard expirience the trade of a sailor, he becomes second mate on a ship that is running guns and ammunition to the Chinese during the war. The ship's captain, a reckless, shrewd steward, barely escapes capture by a Japanese destroyer, and manages to bring his cargo into port, only to be assigned as a troop transport for the Chinese. Having unloaded the Chinese soldiers, the ship is enroute to return the Chinese agent to his home port, when the sounds of gunfire reach the vessel. Taking a boat to land, Allan witnesses from shore the naval battle of the Yalu River during which the Chinese naval forces are soundly beaten. Unable to get through to the port of destination, the ship makes port at Port Arthur, and in an oversight, Allan is left behind. In his efforts to return home, Allan becomes a prisoner on a Japanese warship, barely escapes with his life during a daring escape, and is present in the city when the Japanese attack and mercilessly kill nearly every inhabitant in the town. The book gives a vivid description of the depravity of the Japanese soldiers as they inflicted unimaginable atrocities upon the unarmed Chinese, and revelled in their blood lust. While the description of the massacre is graphic and depicts the absolute worst in human nature, much of the writing is humorous, written with great wit, dripping with a sarcastic humor that is rarely seen in modern literature. If you read this, keep a dictionary on hand, because it contains the occasional vocabulary word that has fallen out of use since its publication in 1898.