The post - Meiji period (late 19th and early 20th centuries) occupies a special place in the history of Japanese nationalism. It is characterized by the formation of patriotic consciousness of Japanese people at the national level. The modernization of Japan, which began actively after the restoration of the imperial system of government in 1868, and its preparation for equal participation in the struggle with other great powers for the redivision of the world, primarily involved the consolidation of the nation, the formation of a cohesive nation-state from the disparate and conflicting feudal principalities of the shogunate period, which faced new challenges in the struggle for a place in the sun. During this period, the authorities of the new Japan solved for themselves the most difficult ideological task of changing the self-consciousness of both the peasant and the samurai warrior, who in the past was completely devoted only to his landowner-daimyo and was ready to give his life for him, turning them into loyal and obedient warriors and citizens of a single state-nation. led by the Emperor as the father of all Japanese.

The new national patriotic consciousness of the Japanese proved to be extremely popular already in the course of preparing for Japan's participation in the war with tsarist Russia in 1904-1905. In the course of this campaign, it became obvious that the authorities of Imperial Japan managed to replace the individualistic system of values in the minds of the peasant and samurai warrior with a collectivist, nationalistic one in a short historical time, when all the soldiers of the imperial army began to consider themselves defenders of the great Japanese nation.

The reflection of the process of ideological "breaking" and restructuring of the mass consciousness of the Japanese at the beginning of the XX century found its expression, in particular, in the personal diaries of Japanese soldiers who participated in the Russo - Japanese War, in letters that they sent home from the front to their relatives and friends. These diaries and personal letters, in our opinion, are of scientific interest from the point of view of understanding the features of the policy thought out by the authorities to form a new patriotic collectivist worldview of Japanese people who come from the "past, feudal formation", when the concept of "state-nation"did not yet exist in Japan.

Keywords: patriotism, letters from the front, Russo-Japanese War, Japanese nationalism.

According to the plans of the new authorities of post-Meiji Japan, most soldiers involved in interstate wars and conflicts should clearly identify themselves with the nation-state they were defending. Otherwise, it would be difficult for them to go to their deaths and fight for no one knows what, just by performing the following tasks:-

kazs of their commanders. For the soldiers of the imperial army, participation in the Russo-Japanese war was in this sense the first serious psychological test, a kind of ideological training ground for the education of patriotic and nationalist soldiers. Soldiers were first introduced to the concept of "honorable, heroic death in war" — mayo no senshi, with a sense of fulfilled national duty to the Motherland, with an understanding of the willingness to sacrifice for the interests of the state-nation. Japanese samurai, who in their recent past were distinguished by endless loyalty only to the landowner-daimyo, had, in fact, to turn their self-consciousness from the local to the state level and go to war with a foreign state (in this case, with Russia) not so much for the sake of protecting the interests of their daimyo, but in the name of national interests." Japan". The war with Russia, a strong and great power, was thus used by the new post-Meiji Japanese authorities in the interests of consolidating the nation, in order to raise the level of its consciousness from local, county to national, state. Japanese authorities in official appeals to the nation for the first time began to call the Japanesekokumin, i.e. "people of the state, country, fatherland", since before that all Japanese were somehow just "subjects of their suzerain-daimyo" [Arakawa, 2001, pp. 353-354]. This means that during the feudal period, the Japanese, by definition, could not be nationalist patriots on a national scale. The process of converting the local self-consciousness of the Japanese with the national one occurred later, coinciding with Japan's participation in the inter-imperialist wars of the early XX century [Gluck, 1985, p.39].

Analyzing the diaries of soldiers and officers of the Imperial army who participated in the Russo-Japanese War, the complex and ambiguous mechanism of the "maturation" and formation of patriotic beliefs of the Japanese becomes more clear. The Japanese authorities took good care to ensure that this process gradually gained momentum and did not stop, starting from the "road to the front" on the territory of the Japanese Islands and continuing on land and at sea during the fighting.

The organization of a campaign to mobilize Japanese soldiers on the eve of the Russo-Japanese war shows that the country's authorities carefully formed patriotic feelings at an early stage, sparing no expense and considering in detail all the delicate features of this ideological work. At the assembly points, conscripts were given the then popular book "Jinsei no Tabi" ("Journey through Life"), which was designed to psychologically prepare Japanese soldiers for all the hardships of army life, to understand the need for them to fulfill their civil and military duty [Stewart, 1994, p.52-57].

The road to the front consisted of two stages: one passed through the territory of the Japanese Islands, and the other-through hostile land on the Asian continent. This road turned into a kind of time travel for conscripts, which was crucial in the process of forming their national identity. The "Journey to the front" began with an emotional farewell ceremony for mobilized soldiers with their families and friends, when even the most "unpatriotic" Japanese were unwittingly imbued with patriotic thoughts, readiness to "die for the motherland". At these moments, a horizontal bond was formed between recruits already dressed in military uniforms and leaving for foreign lands, on the one hand, and civilians, their relatives and friends, who remained in Japan and inspired soldiers to feats on the fronts, on the other. Contemporaries of these events noted that it was then that a united and cohesive Japanese nation was cemented, which had previously been practically absent in feudal Japan. A major role in this was played by local authorities, who were entrusted by the central government with a difficult ideological mission to create a unique atmosphere of unity between the "front and rear", to form the spirit of national unity, as well as to widely promote and explain the concept of "we and them".

The general mobilization announced in Japan in 1904 was accompanied throughout the country by well-organized and generously funded ceremonies of sending off recruits to the front of the Russo-Japanese war. Using these measures, the authorities hoped to convey to the consciousness of each conscript a sense of belonging to the state-nation, to give them the opportunity to realize the need to fulfill their duty to the motherland. Indeed, many of the recruits felt a surge of a hitherto unfamiliar sense of patriotism. So, soldier Takada Kiichi in his diary recalls the feeling of joy that came to him with the thought that at the front he would be able to take part in the fight against the enemies of Japan. Takada Kiichi was born in 1883 in the village of Rokugo-mura (now Oyama - cho, Shunto-gun), in Shizuoka Prefecture. He graduated from the local school in 1895 and joined the local Oyama Post Office, from where he was drafted into the army in October 1904 as a reservist (Hojuhei) of the 31st Shizuoka Infantry Regiment. In his diary, published in 1963, Takada writes:: "I felt an unfamiliar sense of glory and pride that I could take part in the war with the Russians. I would like to keep honest memories of my participation in the war with Russia for myself when I am an old man" [Takada, 1963, p. 3].

On October 25, 1904, after receiving a summons to report to the assembly point, Takada wrote in his diary about this: "Finally, I will be able to realize my long-standing dream of joining the army, and this circumstance raises my spirits." Takada was not directly involved in the fighting at the front. He was assigned to the home front troops, which provided food delivery to the front. For his diligence, he was awarded the Order of the White Peacock Leaf and was very proud of it. For Takada, the very fact of being a member of the Imperial Japanese Army was an important part of his self-identification process. He wrote about this in a diary that he intended to publish and give to the parents of his future wife (yoshi engumi). For Takada, the expression of his patriotic sentiments was the realization of the desire to be appreciated by his wife's parents for participating in the victorious war of Japan with its enemies in the person of Russia. Takada was filled with patriotic pride as a Japanese, as a member of a strong Japanese nation, while believing that this very circumstance would raise him in the eyes of his wife's family, as well as among his fellow villagers.

However, not all young Japanese conscripts were happy and proud to be conscripted and sent to the front. As can be seen, for example, from the diary of another conscript, Sawada Matashige, he had very contradictory and ambiguous feelings about his participation in the war with Russia. Sawada was born in 1885 in the city of Dzama, Kanagawa Prefecture. Until his conscription in December 1904, at the age of 21, he worked as a schoolteacher. Sawada was called up as a reservist (Hojiuhei) and was sent to the front in March 1905. He was assigned to the 4th squadron of the Imperial Guard Regiment. Sawada's diaries were published posthumously by his family [Sawada, 1990]. In his diary, he wrote: "Despite the warm parting words of our commander and his calls to serve Japan with full dedication, he strictly demanded that we show loyalty to the emperor." Sawada was upset when he was sent to the front on March 20, 1905. He recalled that he and his comrades were sad when they left the barracks, thinking that they would never come back here again. Sawada wrote that he was longing to leave his hometown and that he had to fight in a distant and unknown Manchuria. However, at the same time, in his diary, he emphasized that "he forces himself to think that he is doing this for the sake of his country (kokka) with enthusiasm and submission (akirame yerokobi)." It follows from Sawada's diary that he did not want to die, although he realized that he had to fulfill his military duty to the emperor and the motherland to the end [Sawada, 1990, p. 4].

It should be noted that the soldiers, whose mood was similar to that of Sawada, experienced internal tension due to the fact that, on the one hand, they were aware of their duty to the motherland, the Japanese nation and the emperor, and on the other, they did not want to go on a "journey for death". Being responsible for their own fate, Sawada and his fellow soldiers understood that their homeland required them to sacrifice themselves. Therefore, many soldiers of the Japanese army were "torn" in their feelings between the need to be loyal to the state (chusetsu) and fulfill their military duty, on the one hand, and on the other - to remember their filial duties to their relatives and friends, which meant saving their lives to help their elderly parents. Sawada, according to his diary, did not have a clear and unambiguous solution to this dilemma in life. But it is obvious that many soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army in the Russo-Japanese campaign of 1904-1905 seriously thought about the consequences of their participation in the war, not having a clear answer to the question of what to give preference to [Sawada, 1990, p. 46].

From the personal diary of infantry sergeant Mukaido Hatsuichi, it follows that on the eve of being sent to the front of the Russo-Japanese war, he also had mixed feelings, namely: to fulfill his military duty to the end and, possibly, to die in battle or save himself for his family, relatives and friends. Mukaido was born in the village of Majimura Nima Gunn, in Shimane Prefecture. In June 1904, at the age of 28, he was called up as a reservist (Kobihei) and was appointed commander of the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 5th Division. In his diary, he wrote that he was possessed by "feelings of joy and fear at the same time." The main reason for Mukaido's fear was quite specific - having received a summons to the army, he thought that he might be killed at the front. He writes :" I am already 28 years old, and I have already managed to become a father and a successful businessman. I can't be happy about being called up for military service, as I am well aware of the possible negative consequences of going to war both for my family and for my future career. I feel quite accomplished and therefore I don't want to go to war" [Mukaido, 1979, p.181-183].

Unlike many of his other comrades-in-arms, Mukaido never once wrote in his diary about his duty to the Motherland, or about how he feels that he belongs to a large Japanese nation. As a successful businessman, it was hard for him to imagine himself in a military barracks with its strict discipline and constant drill. He had already participated in the suppression of the Yihetuan Rebellion in China in 1900. However, the thought that he might not return from the war with Russia and die on the battlefield, his idea of death-all this had a very depressing effect on his psyche. The military authorities distributed among the soldiers "soldiers' dreams "(heitai no yurei) on the eve of military battles, in which they dreamed how they became national heroes posthumously. These stories were reproduced by the commanders of military units and formations very reliably and many times, and the soldiers knew them almost by heart. Similarly, the military leadership of the Japanese army also acted during the war in the Pacific, hoping that such stories would help soldiers psychologically adapt more easily to participation in battles [Motoyasu, 2003, pp. 95-97].

In his diary, conscript Tada Kaizo writes that he was very upset when he received a summons to report to the assembly point for sending to the front of the Russo-Japanese war. He regretted that his successful medical career would be cut short, and possibly permanently. He was born in 1883 in Asai village, Imizu County, Toyama Province. In 1900, he entered the Medical College in Tokyo and in April 1902 successfully passed the examinations for the Tokyo Imperial University Faculty of Medicine. He had a confident path to medical practice, which he had dreamed of since childhood. However, in December 1902, Tada was drafted into the army in the second infantry regiment of the Imperial Guard as a paramedic (kangoshu) [Tada, 1979, pp. 321-323].

While passing the medical commission at the recruiting station, Tada accidentally met a fellow student from the medical college, who, however, was assigned to the transport troops. Tada himself was very upset when he found out about this, because he knew that in two months his friend was supposed to receive a doctor's degree. His service in the transport forces completely disqualified him as a medical worker. Tada would later write in her diary: "The two of us were so upset that we cried like children for a long time. After the war in 1906, we were both forced to re-enroll in the medical faculties of universities and again passed the exams for a practicing doctor " [Tada, 1979, p. 15-16]. Tada stressed that he strongly doubted and did not believe in the sincerity of those soldiers who talked a lot about feeling patriotic feelings when going to the front, because many of them, like Tada himself, were forced to break their lives and careers for the sake of achieving unknown goals.

Thus, many soldiers of the Japanese army went to the Russo-Japanese war with mixed feelings: some of them were sincerely filled with pride that they would be able to return from the war as heroes that their relatives and friends would be proud of, while others were afraid of being killed or, in any case, thought that after However, their life and career can change dramatically for the worse.

The Japanese authorities, taking into account the various moods among the soldiers, including those far from patriotic, took measures to correct the situation in advance. A whole series of measures was developed to raise the ideological level of military personnel called up for war. The port of Ujina in the southern part of Hiroshima City, on the shore of Hiroshima Bay, was chosen as the place of gathering and sending soldiers to the front. The port was built in 1889 and at that time was distinguished by the most modern equipment and port infrastructure. The port of Ujina was actively used by the Japanese Ministry of Defense as the most convenient place for transferring military personnel to the continent. The time spent on the way to the gathering point in the port of Ujina was different, depending on the remoteness of the mobilization points in different parts of Japan. A trip to the front for new recruits sometimes took several days, which was well taken into account by the organizers of official ceremonies of sending off to the front. The central authorities from Tokyo gave strict instructions to local officials to create the most favorable conditions for transporting soldiers to the front. It was under these orders that special support groups for soldiers leaving for the front were created on the ground. They operated under the Military Affairs Association (Heijikai).

Such groups were formed in many places on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, including Tokyo. Since the beginning of the Russo-Japanese war, members of the Association helped the wounded and all those injured on the battlefield, who were evacuated from the front to hospitals in Japan [Nogawa, 1997, p. 25-26]. The Association collected funds and donations for the needs of the front from local entrepreneurs and all comers. After the end of the Russo-Japanese war in 1910, an imperial decree established the Association of Reservist Aid (Taikoku zaigo gundzinkai), which was engaged in maintaining patriotic sentiment among the country's population.

The appeal of the government through associations to the civilian population of Japan on the eve and during the Russo-Japanese war with a request for voluntary donations for the needs of the front meant that the state did not really need these funds, but in this way appealed to the patriotic feelings of the nation and asked the Japanese not to stay on the sidelines, on the continent. The authorities were interested in involving the Japanese middle class, especially small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, in maintaining the morale and patriotic spirit of the Imperial Army soldiers. With the collected funds, the authorities organized traditional processions in support of samurai warriors in cities, held various kinds of colorful national holidays - matsuri. The funds voluntarily allocated for the needs of the front were not only used to support the poor.-

families whose relatives have gone to the front, but also to organize funerals and help participants and victims of the war.

Large amounts of voluntary donations were used to organize patriotic campaigns to send soldiers to the front. The task of the authorities was, first of all, to pretend that these campaigns were conducted voluntarily with full enthusiasm and patriotic enthusiasm. In his diary, Sawada Matashige describes in detail the ceremony of sending off soldiers to the front. He recalls how on a snowy January night in 1905, at two o'clock, the unit in which he served was sent to Shinagawa junction in Tokyo. He remembers this event because then the residents of Tokyo, hastily dressed in pajamas with sleepy eyes, came out of their homes into the street, despite the deep night, and cheered the soldiers, chanting "banzai" in unison. The train carrying Sawada left Shinagawa Station at 6.20 am, and girls from the Patriotic Military Affairs Association, Red Cross representatives, and volunteers all gathered on the platform to escort the soldiers to the front. Many called out the names of their sons, trying in vain to find them among the many soldiers. Savada remembered how the mother of a soldier came to the snowy January night, shod in a pair of snow-covered boots. Geta is barefoot and wearing a straw hat, only to find out that her son was sent to the front the day before. Sawada drew attention to the fact that many mourners shouted "banzai", thinking to themselves that they might be seeing soldiers for the last time in their lives [Sawada, 1990, pp. 46-48].

Military doctor Nakahara Toichiro in his diaries recalls how many Japanese across the country, including residents of Tokyo, willingly placed soldiers who went to the front, to stay in their modest homes. Nakahara himself, from January to February 1905, hosted 14 soldiers in Bantyo, a suburb of Tokyo. He prepared food for them, arranged a farewell banquet, and gave each of them a pair of wool socks that his wife had specially knitted for the occasion (Nakahara, 1995: 302-303).

Rereading the diaries of Japanese soldiers who went to the fronts of the Russo-Japanese war during 1904-1905, one can well feel the atmosphere of nationalist and patriotic upsurge in Japanese society. Numerous patriotic organizations scattered throughout the country did everything in their power to ensure that soldiers going to the front were determined to perform their soldier's duty with honor in the name of the motherland. For those who were responsible for organizing the departure of soldiers to the front, the authorities set one task-to idealize patriotism, to translate soldiers ' thoughts about their possible death into a romantic plane [Savada, 1990, pp. 49-51].

According to research by Japanese historian Makihara Norio, the authorities insisted that the crowd of mourners artificially inflame the patriotic atmosphere, repeatedly using shouts of " banzai "(literally translated as"ten thousand years"). This slogan was first used in Japan on the occasion of the proclamation of the first Japanese Imperial Constitution in 1889. The then Minister of Education, Mori Arinori, suggested it, meaning a toast in honor of the emperor's close and eternal union with his subjects. The slogan "banzai" was voiced at a general meeting at Toyama Shoichi Imperial University (Makihara, 1998, pp. 160-166). Back then, the five thousand students lining the emperor's path to the university shouted "banzai". Subsequently, the slogan was actively used during the ceremonies of seeing off soldiers for the Russo-Japanese war and signified the wishes of the people and the state for a long "ten thousand years" of life.

In the send-off ceremony, the slogan lost its original meaning of uniting the emperor and the people. The use of the slogan "bandzai" during the ceremony of sending off to the front meant the unity of soldiers and people who became one in the struggle to defend their homeland against the enemy. Buddhist priest Akegarasu Haya recalled how, while taking part in seeing off soldiers to the front, he repeatedly heard from different sides

shouts of "banzai" and saw the tears of mourners. He looked at the healthy faces of the Japanese soldiers who looked out of the train windows and thought to himself how many of them would not return home (Akegarasu, 1976, p. 287).

The priest's frank thoughts completely coincided with the feelings of the soldiers, who were forced to demonstrate their patriotic moods in public, but in their hearts each of them thought about their possible death in the war. The same thoughts did not leave the civilians who saw them off. Many of them knew that the young soldiers were unlikely to return home from the front alive and well: after all, only in the battles of Mukden, the Japanese army lost 71 thousand people killed, and during the siege of Port Arthur-more than 20 thousand. The total number of wounded was 173.5 thousand people, and 27.2 thousand people died from diseases [History of Japan, 1998, p. 194; Molodyakov..., 2007, p. 26; Urlanis, 1994, p. 133]. Many of the soldiers who saw them off to the front came to pay their last respects to their compatriots and thank the soldiers for going to their deaths so that those who saw them off would remain alive.

Shouts of "banzai", however, for mourners to the front also meant wishing the soldiers a quick victory over the enemy, i.e. over tsarist Russia. The reaction of the young soldiers to these wishes was quite adequate — many of them were convinced that a strong and united Japan would really soon win and they would be able to return home as victorious heroes. The Japanese authorities were so adept at supporting patriotic sentiments in society that the soldiers who went to the front sincerely believed in an early victory in the war with Russia. To a large extent, the soldiers were inspired by the warm attitude of the civilian population towards them, the send-off ceremony itself, and the construction of special colorful arches made of flowers (dairekumon). Even elementary school students took to the streets and bowed low to the soldiers as a sign of respect and recognition of their future service at the front, chanting "banzai" all the time. Many soldiers comforted their parents by telling them that Japan was suffering national grief, but that Japanese people should not cry when sending their sons to the front to defend their homeland. Their parents parted words to them: "Serve well, son, spare no effort to win." At the same time, however, parents always added that their children should take care of themselves and return alive and healthy [Nagoro, 1976, pp. 328-333].

The patriotic enthusiasm of the Japanese soldiers, which reached its peak in the process of sending off, quickly disappeared as they approached the front. Many of them at this time thought to themselves that this was the last conversation they would ever have with their parents, that they had seen their faces and listened to their parting words for the last time. Many soldiers were put out of psychological balance by the fact that they could lose in an instant all the most precious things that they had in their short life. The patriotism of the Japanese soldiers visibly disappeared as they approached the battle sites. Soldier Nakazawa Ititaro, for example, wrote in his diary :" We are leaving our native country to the sound of 'banzai', but many of us have doubts that after the war we will ever be able to return home alive again. We leave our homes, our parents, our brothers and sisters, as if dissolving in a fog, in which only shouts of "banzai" can be heard from all sides" [Kusunoki, 1996, p. 12, 15, 16, 20].

But many Japanese soldiers were confident that they could and should meet the hopes of their relatives and friends to win and return home as heroes. They thought that their relatives and friends would not be ashamed of their behavior in the war, but, on the contrary, would consider them heroes and be proud of them. Many soldiers generally pushed away thoughts of home and the families they had left behind as they approached the front line.

Very interesting may seem, in our opinion, the preserved memories of the English nurse Teresa Eden Richardson, who voluntarily went to Japan to provide medical care to Japanese soldiers in the war with Russia. In her diary, she wrote that she was struck by the outward calmness of Japanese women, when they saw off the people closest to them in the world with tears in their eyes. There were no screams, no tantrums, no moaning. Japanese women were quietly wiping away their tears, using the sleeves of their kimonos, well aware that they might be seeing their loved ones for the last time and might soon be widows and orphans. The Englishwoman especially remembered the inner dignity with which Japanese women accompanied their relatives to the front. They bowed low to them, but never gave any sign that they were upset or very excited. Self-control and restraint of feelings of Japanese women-that's what the English nurse noticed. Richardson knew that this is how Japanese people are raised from childhood and they never show their feelings outwardly, so as not to bring pain to other people [Richardson, 1905, p.116-117]. However, it should be borne in mind that the Japanese authorities during this period strictly controlled the behavior of Japanese people in front of foreigners, forbidding them to express their true feelings and emotions in their presence. Japanese women were supposed to show exclusively the rise of patriotic sentiments, optimism and faith in victory over Russia.

As the Japanese historian Mukaido Hatsuichi accurately noted, the experiences of new recruits who were first mobilized for the war with Russia were different from those of experienced and experienced soldiers of the Japanese army who participated in the campaign in China in 1894-1895. However, they also experienced mixed feelings: on the one hand, patriotism and duty to the Motherland, and on the other - pity and bitterness towards their relatives and friends, whom they left behind and whom they may never see again [Mukaido, 1979, p. 26].

In their memoirs, the soldiers paid most attention to describing the ceremonies of sending off to the front, as the most bright and memorable part of their pre-war life. Many soldiers wrote more about seeing off in their native home, in their native village, about saying goodbye to their parents and relatives, whom they left, perhaps forever. Others wrote in their diaries about seeing off soldiers far from home, in ports where they were taken by rail and from where they were sent by warships to the mainland. The task of the authorities was to organize a long road to the front from the collection points of conscripts to the places of their crossing to the mainland. The official setting was made to ensure that the farewell procedure was one continuous chain of respect for soldiers as heroes. The conscripts reacted sensitively to this outward display of attention to them, and therefore devoted so much space in their diaries to memories of the warmth and sincerity of the Japanese who saw them off. They had to feel and remember that their homeland loves them, appreciates them and will never forget their feat of soldiering, which they still have to perform.

The organization of sending off conscripts was coordinated and directed from one center in Tokyo. It was a thoroughly worked-out activity of civilians united in patriotic associations, who were on duty 24 hours a day at the railway stations, located along the railway tracks along which trains with soldiers leaving for the front went, and went out on the streets of cities through which soldiers passed. Such ceremonies were intended to maintain the illusion of unity between those who remained in Japan and those who went to the front.

Curious figures were given by local historians from Nagano Prefecture. During the initial period of the Russo-Japanese war, residents of Tokura-mura village from Hanishina County gathered 44 times to organize the ceremony of sending off recruits to the front and 59 times to organize their meetings from the front [Nichiro ..., 1912, p. 355]. And every time the villagers brought the soldiers hot tea, rice vodka sake, sweets, goto-

They ate bento breakfasts, lunches, gave them cigarettes, memorabilia, sang war songs for them, and shouted "banzai". These events gathered up to a thousand local residents. Following the instructions of the central authorities, local leaders mobilized residents of their districts throughout the country, thus creating an atmosphere of patriotic enthusiasm. However, this did not mean that the civilians themselves were all patriots. Many simply expressed their human sympathy for the soldiers leaving for the front in the hope that their presence and demonstration of support would be able to cheer them up, at least to a small extent, as they sometimes went to certain death. Those who went to the front highly appreciated the attention paid to them by ordinary Japanese and kept these scenes in their memory for a long time, which, of course, to some extent made it easier for them to endure the hardships and sufferings of front-line life.

The purpose of the authorities ' efforts to raise patriotic sentiments among soldiers during the organization of their departure to the front was to awaken patriotic feelings and encourage them to fully fulfill their soldier's duty to protect the motherland from the enemy, not sparing the enemy and fighting them to the end for victory [Arakawa, 2001, p. 70]. It is important to note that the authorities ' artificial stimulation of patriotism by exerting psychological pressure on the soldiers did not help to awaken feelings of "love for the Motherland" among the relatives and friends of the soldiers who took part in the send-off ceremony. Such ceremonies were rather necessary for the soldiers themselves, as they charged them with additional energy and inspired optimism, so necessary for survival and returning home after the war. To a lesser extent, they formed patriotic feelings among the civilian population. The soldiers reacted sensitively to the exclamations of "banzai" addressed to them. The elevated atmosphere of the wires certainly played a positive role, concentrating the patriotic, nationalistic thoughts of the soldiers-psychologically and geographically - into a single whole.

The result of indoctrination of the mass consciousness of Japanese soldiers before being sent to the front was the formation of their belief that they are "defenders of the whole nation" and therefore should be in a privileged position in relation to "civilian" Japanese. This could not but flatter the pride of the servicemen. Many of them were sincerely grateful to the Emperor for such recognition of their place in the social hierarchy. If at the beginning of the long "road to the front" many recruits thought only about simple everyday problems, about their family, about the interrupted career, then, having consistently passed all the stages of the farewell ceremony, they already felt "part of the state-nation", responsible for the lives of other Japanese people who trusted them to protect their lives.

Properly thought out and clearly implemented by the Japanese authorities, the policy of ideological and psychological processing of the mass consciousness of soldiers in the process of sending them to the front fundamentally changed their system of values and strengthened their national identity. Perhaps for the first time, soldiers began to see themselves as part of a large and unified nation - the Kokumin. And in these conditions, the concept of the state (cocca) also became a great value for soldiers. It is obvious that such a psychological effect would be difficult for the authorities to achieve in a peaceful life. Therefore, they did not miss the opportunity to use the war with Russia to rally the nation, to consolidate it as a "nation-state".

But the most important thing is that the authorities thought out all aspects of the ceremony of sending off to the front so subtly that they did not even have to appeal to the authority of the emperor once again. It was noted in the soldiers ' diaries that no one threw slogans "Long live the Emperor", "Let's give our lives for the Emperor", etc.into the crowd during the send-off ceremony. Soldiers were preparing to give their lives for their homeland, for Japan, for a nation made up of Japanese people like themselves, their relatives and friends. The authorities deliberately belittled the role and significance of the emperor in this regard, while maintaining his exalted status as a symbol of the nation.

Many conscripted soldiers have never traveled outside their hometown or village before. They got this opportunity only when they were called up to the front of the Russo-Japanese war. For many, the road to the front meant not only traveling abroad, but also a long journey through their own country (Harada, 2001; Ericson, 1996). The journey by rail, as already noted, ended at the port of Ujina, where soldiers were transferred to transport military vessels that took them to the mainland. Young Japanese people from the train window, "holding their breath", looked at the new cities, villages, mountains, which previously they could only hear or read about. Mobilization to the front meant for many soldiers of the Imperial army "a free trip to Japan." They carefully recorded their impressions in their diaries. Usually these were long trips from remote towns and villages, from Hokkaido, Tohoku. Each soldier, passing through the territory of Japan, for the first time felt a new sense of the extent of the "space" of his homeland, which he was going to defend.

While waiting to be loaded onto the ships, the military authorities suggested that the soldiers take excursions to the places of" military glory " of Japanese samurai, i.e. visit Shinto temples to once again raise their morale. Popular in the Ujina port area was the Itsukushima Shrine (on Miyajima Island in Hiroshima Bay). This temple was known to the Japanese as a place of pilgrimage for the prominent politician and military leader of the Heian era Taira Kiyomori (1118-1181). The military leadership was interested in influencing the patriotic feelings of soldiers, showing them not only the beauty of castles, but also the greatness of their homeland, national heroes who in the past also spared no effort to protect the country from enemies. The Itsukushima Shinto Shrine represented not only a symbol of traditional and unique Japanese culture, but also a sacred image of Japan itself.

Carefully planned by the Japanese authorities, the multi-day trips of a tourist nature for soldiers sent to the front were based on the idea of showing them their native country and once again reminding them that they, as patriots, are called upon to protect it from the threat of attack from outside. Many of the new recruits were making such a unique journey for the first time. At the same time, the military command expected that the soldiers should be in a patriotic mood, that they should feel a sense of belonging to the fate of the country, which they had to protect from the enemies at all costs, even at the cost of their own lives, since "the enemies were trying to destroy all this." The beauty of Japanese nature, the sophistication of traditional architecture worked as a tool for introducing nationalist ideology into the mass consciousness. For the first time, the soldiers thought that they were "soldiers of the great Japan" and were carrying out a noble mission to protect the motherland.

A long journey through various parts of Japan played a key role in shaping their patriotic consciousness, their self-identification as citizens of this "wonderful and beautiful country", which is called Japan. Soldiers quickly changed their attitude to the country: from simple, inconspicuous residents of backward areas of Japan, they turned into "a monolithic and cohesive community of defenders of the Motherland and all Japanese people." The authorities tried to instill in them the need to fulfill their patriotic military duty to the end, which, unlike civilians, the Motherland entrusted only to them. The soldiers were genuinely proud of this trust and prepared to justify it. And in these feelings they saw themselves as national heroes.

The Japanese authorities pre-arranged for the soldiers of the Imperial Army to have a negative perception of being in hostile territory. They made great efforts to ensure that everything the Japanese saw on the continent contrasted with the blissful impressions that remained with most Japanese military personnel after seeing them off and saying goodbye to them in Japan. If the purpose of organizing a soldier's journey by rail through Japan was primarily to

In addition to increasing their national pride in their beautiful and unique homeland, the Japanese authorities in China and Korea, firstly, sought to help overcome the psychological shock that many soldiers experienced when they crossed the state border of Japan for the first time in their lives, and secondly, to psychologically prepare soldiers for the encounter with an unfamiliar and hostile world. the world. The sea journey from Japan through the Korean Strait to the coasts of Korea and China was for Japanese soldiers a kind of watershed line between their past life, accompanied by a serene and pleasant walk through the expanses of their native Japan, and the nearest "future" in hostile territory, which was dangerous and unfamiliar. Moreover, when Japanese soldiers reached their places of deployment in Manchuria or Korea, for the first time in their lives, they directly met with "foreign and hostile peoples" - Chinese, Koreans, Manchus or Russians. All this worked even more to rally and unite Japanese soldiers and increase their level of patriotic self-awareness.

Japanese soldiers arriving in Port Arthur at the location of the Kwantung detachment were struck by the squalor of local residents ' homes. Involuntarily comparing the cleanliness and neatness of residential buildings in Japan, the soldiers were proud of their country, the organization of life and everyday life at home. Japanese soldiers were struck by the desolate state of Chinese residential buildings, dirt and household waste scattered around them. The Japanese had heard a lot about the carelessness of the Chinese, but what they saw surpassed the most terrible stories. The Chinese children were not only poorly dressed, but they were not washed, not combed, and wore dirty, unwashed clothes. Japanese soldiers unwittingly compared the living conditions and upbringing of children at home, and this comparison was not in favor of the Chinese [Sawada, 1990, p. 50, 53-54]. Kwantung Army soldier Iwai Shichigoro described the Chinese dwellings in his diary as "fetid shacks that even pigs would not be comfortable in." Chinese food, in Iwai's opinion, was simply inedible. According to Iwai's observations, even railways in China were very outdated in terms of the quality of rails and equipment, and they could not be compared with Japanese railways built with the latest technology [Iwai, 1974, pp. 71-74].

The Japanese ' impressions of Korea were equally bleak. Japanese soldiers were surprised not so much by the squalor of the Korean homes, but by the amazing unsanitary conditions in their places of compact residence. Mountains of untidy household waste, human excrement, streams of urine flowing out of the homes of Koreans like rivers-all this strongly affected the psyche of the Japanese. They were once again convinced that they had something to defend in their homeland. Many of them sincerely evaluated life in Japan, comparing the living conditions of ordinary people in Korea and in China.

Once passing through Korean territory, Japanese soldiers also paid attention to the indifferent attitude of Koreans to foreigners - Russians. Under the Russian-Korean Treaty of 1884, the Korean authorities opened to Russia the ports of Incheon (Chemulpo), Wonsan, Busan, as well as the cities of Seoul and Yanghwangjin, where Russian citizens were granted the right to rent or buy land, premises, build houses, warehouses and factories. With a Russian passport, it was possible to move freely throughout Korea without any restrictions. Russian military vessels could freely enter all Korean ports, take surveys and measure the depths. Russian citizens were granted the most-favored-nation treatment. Filled with national pride, the Japanese did not understand why the Koreans did not offer any resistance to the Russians. By correlating Koreans ' indifference to the fate of their country with their own patriotic feelings, Japanese soldiers were once again convinced that independence and sovereignty can and should be maintained.-

but to protect them, even if they are many thousands of kilometers away from the territory of the Japanese Islands [Nagoro, 1976, p. 43, 51, 56-58].

In their diaries, Japanese soldiers referred to the Koreans and Chinese they saw for the first time as doujin, which for the Japanese means undeveloped people, subhuman-mikaihatsu or barbarians (yabanjin) [Nakamura, 2001, p. 100]. It is noteworthy that the Japanese never said about the people of Taiwan that they look at them as a dojin. The Japanese called the Taiwanese more politely - banjin, which meant "noble savages", in contrast to the primitive and uncivilized Chinese or Koreans. The military authorities of the Imperial Army strongly encouraged this perception by soldiers of what they saw in China and Korea. Japanese officers in conversations with soldiers emphasized that Japan, through its policy of expansion to the mainland, fulfills a noble historical mission — through the colonization of Chinese and Korean territories, it intends to lead these backward peoples to the path of civilizational development, i.e., to pull them up to the level of development that Japan itself is at.

However, it should be noted that Japanese soldiers who found themselves on the eve of the Russo-Japanese war in China and Korea did not have a single opinion about who should be called dojin in these countries. The overwhelming majority of Japanese soldiers were of the opinion that the native Chinese were a special nation, different from the Manchus and Koreans, who could safely be classified as barbarian peoples. But for the Japanese, it was more important that both the Chinese and Koreans were "other peoples", different from the Japanese themselves, and represented a "different" Asia. Moreover, she was proud that little Japan had defeated a vast and populous China in the just-ended Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and that the Chinese would never again inspire fear in the Japanese. Other Asian peoples, such as the Manchus or Koreans, with their own culture and traditions were of little importance to the Japanese soldiers, who simply did not consider them independent peoples worthy of any respect and attention. The Japanese soldiers had only one attitude towards them - these peoples need to be colonized and enslaved. And they, the Japanese, are called to fulfill this noble mission in relation to the national minorities of East Asia.

It is significant that explanatory dictionaries of the Japanese language until the early 1930s did not include in their dictionaries the concept of dojin, which had a clearly chauvinistic, ultranationalist meaning [Nakamura, 2001, p.100-101]. In dictionaries, this concept was interpreted as "aborigines, natives" who lived along the perimeter of the borders of the colonies of Japan in East Asia. For the first time in the Japanese language, the concept of dojin was used in relation to the Ainu national minority (Ainu), which was perceived by the indigenous Japanese as a people who lived outside the Japanese Islands proper in Hokkaido, i.e. as an "external" people. But as soon as the Ainu were assimilated into the Japanese nation in 1878, the Japanese themselves stopped calling them Dojin. Today, ainu is sometimes referred to as kyu dojin.e. former aborigines. At the same time, the term dojin preserved in the Japanese lexicon today corresponds to the inhabitants of Micronesia, who became part of the Japanese colonial empire in 1914. The widespread use of these concepts in the language of Japanese soldiers worked to increase their level of patriotic consciousness, since using them in relation to the Chinese and Koreans, the Japanese involuntarily rose in their own eyes and they valued the living conditions in their homeland more.

Japanese soldiers perceived the Russians in China differently. They did not consider them to be dirty subhumans (doujin), but, on the contrary, treated them as equals in terms of civilizational development. The Japanese appreciated the skill and training of Russian soldiers, putting them on a par with the soldiers of European armies. Japanese soldiers had respect for Russian soldiers as a worthy opponent. Judging by the diary entries, Japanese soldiers, for example, highly appreciated the architectural ensembles built by Russian architects in Port Arthur, and

also in the cities of Manchuria. The Japanese were amazed by the scale of the buildings, their imperial grandeur. There were even doubts among Japanese soldiers as to whether the Japanese leaders were doing the right thing by declaring war on Russia, a country whose population is sufficiently developed, has achievements in culture and technical development, and does not need "Japanese leadership" [Shimazu, 2009, p.59-61].

The period of the heyday of the Japanese colonial empire from the end of the 19th century to the country's defeat in World War II was accompanied by the active indoctrination of the state nationalist ideology into the mass consciousness, and the implementation by the authorities of a purposeful policy of patriotic education of the nation. Official propaganda, manipulating the mass consciousness, used a racist approach to divide the world in the eyes of the Japanese into two parts - the Japanese, i.e. civilized, and the "other", uncivilized, backward, and barbaric. This was the foundation of the official imperialist ideology instilled in the Japanese until the country's defeat in 1945. In the context of this ideology, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 was interpreted by official propaganda as a war between two "civilized peoples", and the Japanese command instilled in the soldiers the idea that they were fighting a worthy opponent in the person of the Russian tsarist army, which, however, could be defeated.

Analysis of the contents of the diaries of Japanese soldiers who participated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 allows us to draw a number of conclusions.

First, at the time of the announcement of mobilization for war with Russia in 1904, the majority of soldiers of the Imperial army were not distinguished by a high level of patriotism. Many of them had conflicting feelings about their willingness to perform their civic duty, which gave away their inner tension and lack of desire to go to war. The soldiers were torn between their loyalty to their family and their duty to the Motherland and the Emperor. Many suffered from the fact that they were forced to unexpectedly interrupt their successful career and go to the front in the prime of their working life. Many soldiers for the first time in their lives thought about such fundamental categories as: what is the state (kokka) and nation (kokumin). They began to realize that it is impossible, for example, to be a worthy citizen of Japan, deserving respect from others, and not go to the front to protect the interests of their native state. And in this sense, the soldiers reflected the mentality of the majority of Japanese residents, who believed that, for example, desertion, evading the performance of civil duty is a great sin, unworthy of a Japanese, and if you commit it, you can suffer for the rest of your life.

Secondly, the Japanese authorities, especially at the local level, did much to ensure that the best way to organize the ceremonies of sending soldiers to the front, as the central government attached special importance to this in terms of patriotic education of the nation. These ceremonies always looked natural and very warm. Various patriotic organizations, whose activities were aimed at maintaining the morale of soldiers, were very active. Indeed, during their stay at the front, the soldiers remembered the farewell ceremonies with gratitude and warmth. They were filled with pride that their military exploits would not be forgotten, that their Homeland, in the face of unfamiliar local residents, would remember them with gratitude. The policy of patriotic education of soldiers during these campaigns was designed in such a way that soldiers did not perceive these ceremonies as one-time and official events. Send-offs to the front always began in the native places of soldiers and continued throughout, up to boarding transport ships in the port of Udzin. The purpose of this activity of the authorities was to demonstrate the unity and unity of soldiers and civilians, the consolidated determination of the entire nation to win the war in the name of national interests. All military personnel and civilians felt like a single Japanese nation defending their beloved homeland from the enemy. Assembled from various villages and towns in Japan, the soldiers identified themselves for the first time as a single nation, i.e., as a single nation.

they felt like a united people, ready to perform feats together for the glory of their beloved homeland. This feeling was not known to the Japanese in the feudal period of their history. The effect of uniting soldiers and people into a "nation-state" played a crucial role in motivating ordinary citizens to go to the front and die for the country. The authorities managed to prepare society for the idea of self-sacrifice for the good of the nation.

For Japan, the victory in the war with Russia was the most important stage in the country's transformation into a great power. Japan gained the status of one of the main players on the world stage and created the basis for further imperialist expansion in East Asia and the Pacific. To a large extent, this became possible thanks to the well-thought-out policy of the authorities in matters of patriotic education of the nation. The experience of such education was useful to the Japanese authorities during the preparation of the country for participation in the first and Second World Wars and to a certain extent determined the offensive nature of Japanese foreign policy until the defeat of Japan in 1945.

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