Mountains, rivers, trees — all turned desolate. For ten miles, the wind carries the stench of a fresh battlefield.
兵を用いるは国家の大事、死生の地、存亡の道、察せざるべからず。

Military Strategists
Nogi Maresuke
The Japanese general whose siege of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War became synonymous with both the terrible cost of modern warfare and the samurai ideal of duty unto death (1849-1912). Nogi Maresuke's willingness to sacrifice his own sons alongside his soldiers, and his ritual suicide upon the Meiji Emperor's death, made him Japan's most controversial military hero.
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Nogi Maresuke's Other Quotes
Related Quotes
Without first establishing internal governance, there can be no external campaigns.
-- Ōkubo Toshimichi
War is merely the continuation of politics by other means.
-- Carl von Clausewitz
Having lost my two sons and so many officers and men while gaining victory, I am deeply ashamed before His Majesty.
-- Nogi Maresuke
Either explode in silence, or perish in silence.
-- Lu Xun
You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
-- Leo Tolstoy