ith a Japanese, Nichira, who had served
for many years at the Kudara Court and was thoroughly familiar with
the conditions existing in Korea. Nichira came to Japan, but the
annals indicate that his counsels were directed wholly against
Kudara, which was ostensibly on the friendliest terms with Japan, and
not at all against Shiragi, whose punishment was alone in question.
Besides, instead of advising an appeal to arms, he urged the
necessity of developing Japan's material resources, so that her
neighbours might learn to count her formidable and her people might
acquire ardour in her cause. Whether the wisdom of this advice
appealed to Bidatsu, or whether the disputes consequent upon the
introduction of Buddhism paralyzed his capacity for oversea
enterprise, he made no further attempt to resolve the Korean problem.

In the year 591, the ill-fated Emperor Sushun conceived the idea of
sending a large army to re-establish his country's prestige in the
peninsula, but his own assassination intervened, and for the space of
nine years the subject was not publicly revived. Then, in 600, the
Empress Suiko being on the throne, a unique opportunity presented
itself. War broke out between Shiragi and Mimana. The Yamato Court at
once despatched a force of ten thousand men to Mimana's aid, and
Shiragi, having suffered a signal defeat, made act of abject
submission, restoring to Mimana six of its original provinces and
promising solemnly to abstain from future hostilities. The Japanese
committed the error of crediting Shiragi's sincerity. They withdrew
their forces, but no sooner had their ships passed below the horizon
than Shiragi once more invaded Mimana. It seemed at this juncture as
though the stars in their courses fought against Japan. Something,
indeed, must be ascribed to her own methods of warfare which appear
to have been overmerciful for the age. Thus, with the bitter
experience of Shiragi's treachery fresh in her recollection, she did
not execute a Shiragi spy seized in Tsushima, but merely banished him
to the province of Kozuke. Still, she must be said to have been the
victim of special ill-fortune when an army of twenty-five thousand
men, assembled in Tsukushi for the invasion of Shiragi, was twice
prevented from sailing by unforseeable causes, one being the death of
Prince Kume, its commander-in-chief; the other, the death of the
consort of his successor, Prince Taema.*

*Early Japanese history furnishes several exampl