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 Japanese Officers




The importance of the war is that it was for the first time an Asian power had defeated a Western country.

Russo-Japanese War, 1904–5, imperialistic conflict that grew out of the rival designs of Russia and Japan on Manchuria and Korea. Russian failure to withdraw from Manchuria and Russian penetration into N Korea were countered by Japanese attempts to negotiate a division of the area into spheres of influence. The Russian government, however, was inflexible, and it was willing to risk an armed conflict in the belief that Japan was bound to be defeated and that a Russian victory would head off the growing threat of internal revolution in Russia. Japan broke off negotiations and severed (Feb. 6, 1904) diplomatic relations with Russia. Two days later, without a declaration of war, Japan attacked Port Arthur and bottled up the Russian fleet. A series of quick Japanese victories, which astounded the world, culminated in the fall of Port Arthur (Jan., 1905), the victory of troops under General Oyama at Shenyang (Feb.–Mar., 1905), and the destruction of the Russian fleet under Rozhdestvenski at Tsushima by Admiral Togo's fleet (May, 1905). Through the mediation of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, peace was made in September at Portsmouth, N.H. The disastrous outcome of the war for Russia was one of the immediate causes of the Russian Revolution of 1905. Japan gained the position of a world power, becoming the first non-European and non-American imperialist modern state.

Here are some snippets from the war

 Russian general Linevich rewards a soldier for bravery

Russian troops in Manchuria

Execution of a spy

Russians seen at Port Arthur after the attack

Russian soldiers in 1904

Russian sailors in Port Arthur

The Battle of Tsushima (Sea of Japan Naval Battle or the Battle of Tsushima Strait), the largest naval engagement of the pre-dreadnought battleship era, ends in victory for Admiral Togo and defeat for Admiral Zinovi Petrovich Rozhestvensky, who's fleet had steamed 18,000 nautical miles to the battle. The Russian lose 22 ships out of 38.

The last major land battle of the war (Battle of Mukden) pits Russian forces (276,000) under General Alexei Nikolajevich Kuropatkin and Imperial Japanese Army forces (270,000) of Field-Marshal Prince Oyama Iwao over a front extending more than 90 miles. By the end of the battle, Russian casualties will total 90,000 while Japanese forces will suffer 70,000 casualties.

The 1904-1904 Russo-Japanese War. The defense of Port-Artur. Reserves moving to the third fortress.

United States President Theodore Roosevelt offers to broker peace negotiations between Russia and Japan. Both sides will agree on June 10. (Jukes, LaFeber)

"Both the Japanese army and the Emperor regarded with pride their remarkable military defeat of Russia in 1905; it had brought honor and prestige to the nation and to the Emperor. But it was this victory that, in a historical perspective, really started Japan on the road to war with the United States a decade later. The attack on the Russian Asiatic Fleet at Port Arthur in 1905 was made without warning, a prologue to the attack to be made 36 years later at Pearl Harbor. Emperor Meiji, Hirohito's grandfather, sent his torpedo boats in a surprise attack. The ships they did not sink were bottled up inside the harbor, and two days later Meiji issued his Rescript declaring war on Russia. He accused Russia of threatening Japan's plans for expansion. (Similarily, in Hirohito's Imperial Rescript declaring war on the United States two days after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, he blamed the United States and China for imperiling the existence of the Japanese Empire.)...After nine months of war, both Japan and Russia were looking for peace. President Theodore Roosevelt offered to mediate, and peace terms were arranged. Korea was given to Japan, as was Port Arthur, the Kwantung Peninsula, and all railroad rights in southern Manchuria. Because there were no war reparations to be paid by Russia, which the Japanese people had been expecting - they had put up with many privations to support this war - there were riots in all major industrial Japanese cities. Calm descended after Emperor Meiji assured his people that the benefits to Japan would, in time, be immense. 'This was only the first step in the building of a vast Japanese Empire,' he declared. Lieutenant Douglas MacArthur and his father, Major General Arthur MacArthur, were US Army observers of this war. When they returned by way of Tokyo, both observed that 'the future and very existence of America is irrevocably intertwined with Asia and its island outposts.' General Arthur MacArthur also made the observation that Japan's imperialistic ambitions posed 'the central problem of the Pacific." From 'Hirohito: The War Years' by Paul Manning.

At the Siege of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Japanese forces mobilized coastal defence guns in order to bombard the town. This tactic influenced the usage of heavy artillery in WWI.

Mar 10, 1905 The Battle of Mukden ends with Mukden's occupation.

Three hours before Japan's declaration of war is received by the Russian Government, the Imperial Japanese Navy, in a surprise attack on the Russian Far East Fleet at Port Arthur, Korea, disables seven Russian warships.





Japanese nurses

Japanese soldiers

Japanese soldiers with a wounded Russian. Remember this was 1904 and there were no Geneva Convention

Japanese soldiers

Japanese in Seoul

Japanese officers in Chemulpo

Japanese sailors

The following three are Russian propaganda posters. The reality was very different. Russia was thrashed in the war.