guise which tempted the worst spirits to lynchings, whippings and similar excesses, until the better class of southerners withdrew, and it became a blot and scourge. After 1872 the organization became little more than a name, although isolated attempts were often made to trade upon the terrors of its reputation.
Kur′distan′. See Koordistan.
Kuroki, General Baron Itel, was born
in 1845 in the city of Kagoshima in the
GEN. KUROKI
southeast of
Kiu-shiu, the southernmost
of the chief
islands of Japan.
Here the hardiest
Japanese are born;
it is the Sparta of
Japan, the birthplace
of Togo and
Oyama. Kuroki
is of pure samurai
(or noble)
descent; the story of
his foreign parentage
is false. As a
boy he entered the
army in a humble
position, but in the
war of 1868, when
he was but 23,
he commanded a
detachment which was in the very thick of
the fighting, and rendered the Mikado great
service against his rebellious subjects. In
1871 he was appointed captain of the imperial
guard. He served with distinction against
the rebel forces in the war of 1877. He was
quick to adapt himself to the suggestions of
the Germans who trained the Japanese army.
In the war against China in 1894 he acted
as commander of the sixth division, ranking
as lieutenant-general. His forces gained
special distinction at the capture of the fort
of Wei-Hai-Wei. When war began against
Russia in 1904, he was appointed
commander-in-chief of the first Japanese army-corps
in the field, and as such led the main
advance across the Yalu and up the line of the
Russian railway towards Harbin. He won
the great victories of the Yalu (near Wiju),
Liao Yang and Mukhden. His generalship
was commonly counted superior to that of
the Russian commander, Kuropatkin, and
received almost universal
commendation.
Kuropatkin, Alexei Nikolayevitch, the
Russian generalissimo during the earlier
part of the war with Japan, was born in
1848. He went to the military school of
the cadet corps in Pskov near St. Petersburg;
then to Pavlovskoe Military College,
graduating and gaining his commission as
sublieutenant at 18. He then hastened to
scenes of conflict in central Asia. Returning,
he spent six years (1868-74) in study
at the Academy of the General Staff in
St. Petersburg. Later he studied in France,
ALEXEI N. KUROPATKIN
where he was awarded
the cross of the
Legion of Honor.
Returning to
Russia, he served in
Tartary and western
China. He
spent 12 years at St.
Petersburg as
professor of military
statistics at the
Academy of the
General Staff. He
was called to the
front and won the
rank of major-general
and the Cross
of St. George at the
siege of the Turcoman
fortress. In 1890 he was appointed
governor of the transcaspian region, and
promoted to the rank of lieutenant-governor.
While there he was influential in establishing
trade-schools. Thence he went to St.
Petersburg as minister of war, where he
remained until 1904. He distinguished
himself by sound though unsuccessful generalship
in the Russio-Japanese War, only to be
superseded by a subordinate and to fall into
unmerited disgrace.
Kuyunjik. See Nineveh.
Kwangtung′, a maritime province of southern China. Area, with the adjoining island of Hainan, 99,970 square miles; estimated population 31,865,250 The capital is Canton (population 1,250,000). Tea is extensively cultivated, while silk culture is one of the chief industries.
