september - october - Fort Sill

WITH A JAPANESE ARTILLERY REGIMENT
The majority of officers are very sociably inclined and enjoy
themselves tremendously on parties. Like most Japanese men they prefer
stag parties which usually include geisha, who add immensely to the
enjoyment of all with their playing, singing, dancing and games. However,
geisha are not indispensable, and whether they are present or not, officers
are more than willing to add to the joy of the occasion by doing whatever
they can to amuse the crowd. Every officer has some stunt, which, with the
aid of a little sake, he is delighted to perform. Generals seem to be
particularly talented and it is a great sight to see one of them burlesquing a
geisha dance, while the other guests, squatting in a circle around the room,
shout their approval and appreciation. The whole-hearted, unrestrained
manner in which all officers, who are otherwise so extremely serious and
punctilious, enter into the spirit and fun of their entertainments, is a
delightful, and for them, very fortunate characteristic.
In Kyoto the field artillery occupied a roughly rectangular area about
500 yards from east to west by 300 yards from north to south. A bare
central parade was faced on the north by three battalion barracks in line,
with wash sheds, regimental kitchen and bath, noncommissioned officers'
club and regimental gun mechanics' shop in rear; on the east by the
administration building and the guard house flanking the main gate; on the
south by a line of three battalion gun sheds with battery stables, regimental
shoeing shop, veterinary hospital and three riding rings in rear; and on the
west by a small gun shed with three riding rings in rear. The officers' club
with a small Shinto shrine for the regiment nearby occupied a small
enclosure in the northeast corner of the regimental area. The dispensary,
clothing storehouse, and clothing and shoe repair shop were in the
southeast corner. Regimental and battalion headquarters and the intendance
officers (Intendence Corps—pay and supply except as relates to arms and
ammunition) were all housed in the administration building.
The central parade, bare except for a lone tree in the centre and a few
trees along the edges, and about 100 × 400 yards in size, was sufficiently
large for the formation of the regiment mounted and for foot and standinggun
drills. Mounted drills were held on a large division drill ground
adjoining the regimental area on the north, while typical Japanese terrain
(wooded hills bordering plains terraced and divided into small rice fields
with occasional narrow roads and numerous irrigation canals) was within
easy reach. Altogether it was a very compact, convenient arrangement with
the sole drawback that a two days' march had to be made to reach the firing
range.
All buildings were of frame construction with slate-colored roofs,
and as they had never been painted, the general grayish tone
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