An Epic Battle when the Aizus Rose Against the Emperor:
Youthful Band's Fanatic Loyalty: Tribute from Mussolini rox Ova OwN Contesroxonsr Tokyo, Nov. 3.
'The city of Rome will shortly send to Japan a marble commemorative column, from the Roman' Forum, as a tribute to the Byak* kotal, a league of youthful Japanese heroes, the story of whose loyalty unto death to their feudal head, is) one that stirs the depths of Japanese hearts next only perhaps to that of the Fortyseven Ranin. 'The anniver-ary of the death of these youths is annually celebrated here, but this year the celebrations are to be on a far grander scale and a monument will be erected on the Spot' where the lads, all under eighteen years, rather than surrendfr, calmly and stoically slew themselves. The column Rome is sending will be erected by the side of this monument, Special significance attaches to the story this year, in that these:
juts all belonged to the Aizu of which the Matsudairas (the family to which Princess Chichibu belongs) were the feudal heads. The tale goes back to the time when Japan was disrupted by civil war! between those who desired the restoration of the Emperor and there who supported the Tokugawa Shogunate, In 1868, Yoho Matsud-fair, the grandfather of Princess Chichibu, rose in arms against the Imperial troops. The backbone of supporting the Imperial consisted of the Choshu and Satsuma clans and, when Yoho Matsudaira unfurled his battle standard, this was not so much he-cause he opposed the return of the Eniperor to power as it was because the and his clan, like many others, feared that the Choshus and the Satsumas, then, ax now, the two most powerful clans in the country, were scheming to retain power in their own hands, making of the Boy-Emperor Meiji a mere figure head. Clan suspicion and distrust were deeply ingrained in the Japan of those days and it was the fear fof the Aizu clan being reduced to state of vassalage, more than anything else, that really caused to take the field against the Imperial troops.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.