Russo-Japanese War

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Russo-Japanese War
Date February 8, 1904 – September 5, 1905 Location Manchuria, Yellow Sea Result Japanese victory; Treaty of Portsmouth Casus belli Desire for colonies, especially Manchuria and Korean peninsula
Combatants
Russian Empire	Empire of Japan
Commanders
Emperor Nicholas II Aleksey Kuropatkin Stepan Makarov†	Emperor Meiji Oyama Iwao Heihachiro Togo
Strength
500,000 Soldiers	400,000 Soldiers
Casualties
24,844 killed; 146,519 wounded; 59,218 POW; unknown Chinese civilians	47,387 killed; 173,425 wounded； unknown Chinese civilians

Greater Manchuria, Russian (outer) Manchuria is region to upper right in lighter Red; Liaodong Peninsula is the wedge extending into the Yellow Sea

The Russo-Japanese War (February 10, 1904 – September 5, 1905) was a declared war that grew out of the rival imperialist ambitions of the Russian Empire and the Japanese Empire in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of the war were Port Arthur, the Liaodong Peninsula, Mukden (Shenyang), the Yellow Sea and Tsushima Straits, and along the railway line from Port Arthur to Harbin. The Russians were in constant pursuit of a warm water port, for both their navy, as well as maritime trade. The Russian Government had already lost the use of the fortified port of Sebastopol during their war with Britain and France in the Crimean War (1853-1856) fifty years earlier. The recently established Pacific seaport of Vladivostok was the only active Russian port that was reasonably operational during the winter season; but Port Arthur would be operational year round. Japanese negotiations with the Tsar's Government since the end of their 1894 war with China (Sino-Japanese War 1894-1895) up until 1903, had proved futile; the Japanese chose war to maintain the exclusivity of their own interests in Korea.

The resulting campaigns, in which the fledgling Japanese military consistently attained victory over the forces arrayed against them, were unexpected by world observers. These victories, as time transpired, would dramatically transform the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a sober reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage. The embarrassing string of defeats inevitably underlined the dissatisfaction of the Russian populace with the Tsar's seemingly inefficient and autocratic rule. This event was one of many which led to the Russian Revolution of 1905.

[edit] Origins of the war

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, various Western countries were competing for influence, trade, and territory in East Asia while Japan strove to transform itself into a modern power. Great power status at the time depended in part on access to colonies which could provide raw materials. Securing colonies in turn depended on naval power, which required bases for the increasingly large battleships of the era, and a chain of coal stations for warships to restock the fuel for their boilers.

The newly modernised Japanese government regarded Korea, which was geopolitically close to Japan, as an essential bulwark against colonization by the Western powers. The Mongolian army had attempted to invade Japan via the Korean Peninsula in the 13th century. However, Korea was a subordinate of China. The Japanese government initially attempted to separate Korea from China in the late 16th during Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea.

This ignited several conflicts, finally evolving into the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). Japan's subsequent defeat of China led to the Treaty of Shimonoseki (17 April 1895), under which China abandoned its own suzerainty over Korea and ceded Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula, which includes Lüshunkou (Port Arthur), to Japan. However, three Western powers (Russia, the German Empire and the French Third Republic), by the use of the Triple Intervention of 23 April 1895 applied pressure on Japan to relinquish its claim on the Liaodong Peninsula. The Russians later (in 1898) forcefully signed a 25-year lease of the naval base with China and militarily occupied it. Port Arthur was the sole warm-water port available to Russia on the Pacific coast, and was thus of great strategic value. Meanwhile, Japanese forces were trying to take over Korea, which had a protection pact with Russia and China. Russian forces consequently occupied most of Manchuria and the northern parts of Korea.

Ito Hirobumi started to negotiate with Russia. He believed that Japan was too weak to evict Russia militarily, so he proposed giving Russia control over Manchuria in exchange for Japanese control of northern Korea. Instead, Japan and the United Kingdom made an alliance in 1902, the British aiming to restrict naval competition by keeping the Russian Pacific seaports of Vladivostok and Port Arthur from their use; as they had previously done during the Crimean War (1853-1856), in which Britain successfully stopped the Russians from utilizing the fortified seaport of Sevastopol. The alliance with Great Britain meant, in part, that if any nation allied itself with Russia during its war with Japan, then Britain would enter the war on Japan's side. Russia could now receive no help from Germany or France without there being a danger of Great Britain's involvement with the war. With such an alliance, Japan was now free to commence hostilities.

After failing to negotiate a favorable agreement with Russia, Japan sent an ultimatum on 31 December 1903 and severed diplomatic relations on 6 February 1904. Each side issued a declaration of war on 8 February. Three hours before Japan's declaration of war was received by the Russian Government, Japan attacked the Russian Navy at Port Arthur. Under international law, Japan's attack was not exactly a surprise attack, because of the ultimatum. However, it was controversial as the attack occurred before a formal declaration of war.

[edit] War

[edit] Campaign of 1904

Admiral Togo at the age of 58, at the time of the Russo-Japanese War.

Port Arthur, on the Liaodong Peninsula in the south of Manchuria, had been fortified into a major naval base by the Russians. Since it needed to control the sea in order to fight a war on the Asian mainland, Japan's first military objective was to neutralize the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. On the night of 8 February 1904, the Japanese fleet under Admiral Heihachiro Togo opened the war with a surprise torpedo boat attack on the Russian ships at Port Arthur, which badly damaged two battleships. These attacks developed into the Battle of Port Arthur the next morning. A series of indecisive naval engagements followed, in which Admiral Togo was unable to attack the Russian fleet successfully as it was protected by the shore batteries of the harbor, and the Russians had declined to leave the harbor for the open seas, especially after the death of Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov on 13 April.

However, these engagements provided cover for a Japanese landing near Incheon in Korea. From Incheon the Japanese occupied Seoul and then the rest of Korea. By the end of April, the Japanese army under Kuroki Itei was ready to cross the Yalu river into Russian-occupied Manchuria.

In contrast to the Japanese strategy of rapidly gaining ground to control Manchuria, Russian strategy focused on fighting delaying actions to gain time for reinforcements to arrive via the long Trans-Siberian railway. On 1 May 1904, the Battle of the Yalu River became the first major land battle of the war, when Japanese troops stormed a Russian position after an unopposed crossing of the river. Japanese troops proceeded to land at several points on the Manchurian coast, and, in a series of engagements, drove the Russians back towards Port Arthur. These battles, including the Battle of Nanshan on 25 May, were marked by heavy Japanese losses from attacking entrenched Russian positions, but the Russians maintained their focus on defending, and did not counterattack.

After the 8 February attack on Port Arthur, the Japanese attempted to deny the Russians use of the port. During the night of 13-14 February, the Japanese attempted to block the entrance to Port Arthur by sinking several cement-filled steamers in the deep water channel to the port, but they sank too deep to be effective. Another similar attempt to block the harbor entrance during the night of 3-4 May also failed. In March, the charismatic Vice Admiral Makarov had taken command of the First Russian Pacific Squadron with the intention of breaking out of the Port Arthur blockade.

By then, both sides were engaged in a tactical offensive, laying mines in each other's paths. For the first time in naval warfare^{[citation needed]}, mines were being used for offensive purposes; in the past, mines had been used for purely defensive purposes to protect harbors against potential invaders. The Japanese mine-laying tactic of restricting the movement of Russian ships outside Port Arthur proved effective, when on 12 April 1904 two Russian battleships, the flagship Petropavlovsk and the Pobeda, struck Japanese mines off Port Arthur. The Petropavlovsk sank almost immediately, while the Pobeda had to be towed back to Port Arthur for extensive repairs. Admiral Makarov, the single most effective Russian naval strategist of the war, had perished on the battleship Petropavlovsk, effectively muzzling the Russian navy for the rest of the conflict.

The Russians learned quickly, and soon employed the Japanese tactic of offensive minelaying. On 14 May 1904, two Japanese battleships, the Yashima and the Hatsuse, were lured into a recently laid Russian minefield off Port Arthur, each striking at least two mines. The Yashima sank within minutes, taking 450 sailors with her, while the Hatsuse sank under tow a few hours later. On 23 June, a breakout attempt by the Russian squadron, now under the command of Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft failed. By the end of the month, Japanese artillery were firing shells into the harbor.

Russian 500 pound shell bursting near the Japanese siege guns, near Port Arthur

Japan began a long siege of Port Arthur, which had been heavily fortified by the Russians. On 10 August 1904, the Russian fleet, again attempted to break out and proceed to Vladivostok, but upon reaching the open sea were confronted by Admiral Togo's battleship squadron. Known to the Russians as the Battle of August 10, but more commonly referred to as the Battle of the Yellow Sea, battleships from both sides exchanged gunfire. The battle had the elements of a decisive battle, but Admiral Togo knew that another Russian Battleship fleet would soon be sent to the Pacific. The Japanese had only one battleship fleet, and he could not risk it on a bottled-up battleship fleet that was trying to break out of port. In addition, Admiral Togo had already lost two battleships to Russian mines. The Russian and Japanese battleships continued to exchange gunfire, until the Russian flagship, the battleship Tsesarvich, received a direct hit on the bridge, killing the fleet commander, Admiral Vitgeft. At this, the Russian fleet turned around and headed back into Port Arthur. No warships had been sunk by either side. But the Russians were now back in port, and the Japanese navy still had battleships to meet the new Russian fleet when it arrived. Eventually, the Russian warships at Port Arthur would be sunk by the artillery of the besieging army. Attempts to relieve the city by land also failed, and, after the Battle of Liaoyang in late August, the Russians retreated to Mukden (Shenyang). Port Arthur finally fell on 2 January 1905 when the garrison's commanding officer ceded the port to the Japanese without consulting his high command, an indication of desperation on the part of the beleaguered Russian Fort.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Campaign of 1905

The Japanese army was now able to continue northward. To finish the war, Japan needed to crush the Russian army in Manchuria. The Battle of Mukden commenced at the end of February. Japanese forces progressed step by step and tried to encircle General Kuropatkin's headquarters at Mukden. Russian forces resisted, but on 10 March 1905 they ordered a retreat. The Japanese had suffered massive casualties, and were in no condition to pursue. Because the possession of the city itself meant little strategically, the final victory would depend on the navy.

Mikasa was of the latest battleship designs at the time, and was built in British shipyards to Japanese Navy specifications. Mikasa was the Japanese flagship of Admiral Togo at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905, and is preserved as a memorial in Yokosuka, Japan.

Meanwhile, at sea, the Russians were preparing to reinforce their fleet by sending the Baltic Sea fleet, under Admiral Zinovi Petrovich Rozhdestvenski, around the Cape of Good Hope to Asia. On 21 October 1904, while passing by the United Kingdom (an ally of Japan but neutral in this war), they nearly provoked a war in the Dogger Bank incident by firing on British fishing boats that they mistook for torpedo boats.

The 18,000 mile journey meant that Admiral Togo was well aware of the Baltic Fleet's progress, and he made plans to meet it before it could reach Vladivostok. Both Admirals Rozhdestvenski and Togo knew that only three routes existed to reach Vladivostok (the news of Port Arthur's fall had reached Rozhdestvenski while at Madagascar, his new orders were to reach Vladivostok) and both men knew that the Tsushima Strait was the most direct route to Vladivostok. Admiral Togo only had to ensure that Admiral Rozhdestvenski took it. Unfortunately for Admiral Rozhdestvenski, one of his hospital ships in the convoy exposed a light, which was observed by a Japanese scouting vessel. Wireless communication, being used for the first time in a major war [12], was sent to Togo's headquarters, where he immediately prepared his battleships for a sortie. Still receiving naval intelligence from his scouting forces, Admiral Togo was able to position his battleships so that Admiral Rozhdestvenski's battleships would have to 'cross the T'. With the battle lines drawn, they met in the Tsushima Strait between Korea and Japan, on 27 May–28 May 1905. The Japanese fleet, which had originally consisted of six battleships, were down to four due to the two mine losses, but still retained numerous cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats. Admiral Togo's greatest advantage now was good battleship speed, due to clean hull bottoms, and excellent gun crews, who had spent endless hours in gunnery training. [2,4] Admiral Rozhdestvenski's fleet contained four brand new battleships of the Borodino class, and four others that were obsolete by the standards of the day. But an 18,000 mile journey had fouled his ship's bottoms, and his crews were new. With this force, Rozhdestvenski bravely charged his battleships into Togo's 'T', and by the following day, eight Russian battleships, numerous smaller vessels, and over 5,000 men were lost.

[edit] Peace

Although the Russian Army had shaken Russian confidence. Throughout 1905, the Tsar's government was rocked by the Russian Revolution of 1905, which posed a severe threat to the stability of the country. Russia elected to negotiate peace rather than continue the war, so that it could concentrate on internal matters.

An offer of mediation by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (who earned a Nobel Peace Prize for this effort) led to the Treaty of Portsmouth, signed in the U.S. naval facility at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 5 September 1905. Russia ceded the southern half of Sakhalin Island to Japan. It was only regained by the USSR in 1952 under the Treaty of San Francisco following the Second World War. Russia also signed over its 25-year leasehold rights to Port Arthur, including the naval base and the peninsula around it. Russia further agreed to evacuate Manchuria and recognize Korea as part of the Japanese sphere of influence. Japan would annex Korea in 1910, with scant protest from other powers.

This was the first major victory of an Eastern country over a Western one in the modern era, and a harbinger of future events that would lead to decolonization. Japan's prestige rose greatly as it began to be considered a modern Great Power. Concurrently, Russia lost virtually its entire Eastern and Baltic fleets, and slipped in international esteem. This was particularly true in the eyes of Germany; Russia was France's ally, and that loss of prestige would have a significant effect on Germany's future when planning for war with France.^{[citation needed]}

In the absence of Russian competition and with the distraction of European nations during World War I, combined with the Great Depression which was soon to follow, the Japanese military began its efforts to dominate China, which would eventually lead to the Pacific War of World War II.

In Russia, the defeat of 1905 led in the short term to a reform of the Russian military that would allow it to face Germany in World War I. However, the revolts at home following the war had already planted the seeds that presaged the Russian Revolution of 1917.

All above dates are believed to be New-Style (Gregorian, not the Julian used in Tsarist Russia: for conformity, where there are two, use the one that reads 13 days "later" than the other).

A lock of Admiral Nelson's hair was given to the Imperial Japanese Navy from the Royal Navy after the war to commemorate the victory of the 1905 Battle of Tsushima; which was in tune with Britain's victory at Trafalgar in 1805. It is still on display at Kyouiku Sankoukan, a public museum maintained by the Japan Self-Defense Force.

[edit] Assessment of war results

This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page.

Japanese soldiers' corpses in a trench, with Russian soldiers looking on.

Both Russia and Japan had been devastated by the war. Russia had lost two of its three fleets, only her Black Sea Fleet remained, and that had been saved due to Britain's earlier peace accords from a previous war that kept that fleet from leaving the Black Sea. Although Japan's navy had suffered very little in comparison, Japan's army suffered worse than the Russian army. Military and economic exhaustion affected both countries.^{[citation needed]}

Popular discontent in Russia after the war added more fuel to the already simmering Russian Revolution of 1905, an event Nicholas II of Russia had hoped to avoid entirely by taking intransigent negotiating stances prior to coming to the table at all. In ten more years, that discontent would become the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

Although the war had ended in a victory for Japan, widespread discontent had spread through the populace upon the announcement of the treaty terms. Riots erupted in major cities in Japan. Two specific demands were especially lacking that had been expected from such a costly victory, and that was territorial gains and monetary reparations to Japan. The peace accord led to feelings of distrust, as the Japanese had intended to retain all of Sakhalin Island, but they were forced to settle for half of it, after being pressured by the US.^{[citation needed]}

Russia's defeat had been met with shock both in the West and across the Far East, especially affecting the lesser developed countries. That an Eastern country could defeat an established power in a large military conflict was inspiring to various anti-colonial independence movements that existed during that time, such as in India and Southeast Asia.^{[citation needed]}

Japanese historians consider this war to be a turning point for Japan, and a key to understanding the reasons why Japan may have failed militarily and politically later on. The acrimony within Japanese society was felt at every class and level, and it had become the consensus within Japan that they had been treated as the defeated power during the peace conference. As time went on, this feeling grew and added to their growing distrust towards the West.^{[citation needed]}

A final note on the historical consequences of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05: Prior to the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941 by the Empire of Japan. Germany had been struggling desperately with the Soviet Army on the Russian front. Prior to this, Germany, Italy, and Japan had signed an alliance, titled the Tri-Partite Act. What Adolf Hitler needed was a second front, to divide the Soviet Forces. On December 11, 1941, four days after the Pearl Harbor attack, Adolf Hitler declared war upon the United States. Hitler was assisting Japan to fight the United States, and in turn was hoping that Japan would now help Germany, by opening a second front on the Soviet Union's eastern flank. Admiral Yamamoto, the commander of the Pearl Harbor strike, had been a young lieutenant in the Russo-Japanese War. Japan had fought the Russians in the 1904-05 war, then briefly again during the Nomonhan Incident (known in Russia as the Battle of Khalkhin Gol) in 1939.

Although winning the first war, but not the second one, both experiences had been extremely bloody affairs for the Japanese. Senior Japanese officers remembered their battles with Russia, and did not want to repeat it. If conquest could proceed without fighting the Soviet Union, then that was the path they would take. Japan signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, and was released from it after the atom bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945.

[edit] List of battles

• 1904 Battle of Port Arthur, February 8: naval battle Inconclusive
• 1904 Battle of Chemulpo Bay, February 9: naval battle Japanese victory
• 1904 Battle of Yalu River, April 30 to May 1: Japanese victory
• 1904 Battle of Nanshan, May 25 – May 26, Japanese victory
• 1904 Battle of Telissu, June 14 – June 15 , Japanese victory
• 1904 Battle of Motien Pass, July 17, Japanese victory
• 1904 Battle of Ta-shih-chiao, July 24, Japanese victory
• 1904 Battle of Hsimucheng, July 31, Japanese victory
• 1904 Battle of the Yellow Sea, August 10: naval battle Japanese victory strategically/tactically inconclusive
• 1904 Battle off Ulsan, August 14: naval battle Japanese victory
• 1904-1905 Siege of Port Arthur, August 19 to January 2: Japanese victory
• 1904 Battle of Liaoyang, August 25 to September 3: Inconclusive
• 1904 Battle of Shaho, October 5 to October 17: Inconclusive
• 1905 Battle of Sandepu, January 26 to January 27: Inconclusive
• 1905 Battle of Mukden, February 21 to March 10: Japanese victory
• 1905 Battle of Tsushima, May 27 to 28 May naval battle: Japanese victory

[edit] The Russo-Japanese War in art and literature

Painting of Admiral Togo on the bridge of the Japanese battleship Mikasa, before the Battle of Tsushima in 1905

• Russo-Japanese War was covered by dozens of foreign journalists who sent back sketches that were turned into lithographs and other reproducible forms. Propaganda images were circulated by both sides and quite a few photographs have been preserved.
• The Russo-Japanese War is occasionally alluded to in James Joyce' novel, Ulysses. In the "Eumaeus" chapter, a drunken sailor in a bar proclaims, "But a day of reckoning, he stated crescendo with no uncertain voice-- thoroughly monopolizing all the conversation-- was in store for mighty England, despite her power of pelf on account of her crimes. There would be a fall and the greatest fall in history. The Germans and the Japs were going to have their little lookin, he affirmed." The prophecy of Japan's rise as a great land and maritime power vis-à-vis the empires of Europe (first Russia, then presumably England at a future point) is consistent with the novel's narrative of Western Civilization's exhaustion, decline and diminished potential.
• The Russo-Japanese War is the setting for the naval strategy computer game Storm Eagle Studios, "Distant Guns", Developed by Storm Eagle Studios.
• The Russo-Japanese War is the setting for the first part of the novel "The Diamond Vehicle", in the Erast Fandorin detective series by Boris Akunin.

[edit] References

• Aleksei Novikov-Priboy. "Tsushima." (An account from a seaman aboard the Ironclad (Battleship) ORYOL (which was captured at Tsushima). London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. (1936).
• Pleshakov, Constantine. "The Tsar's Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima." ISBN 0-46505-792-6. (2002).
• Semenov, Vladimir, Capt. "Rasplata (The Reckoning)." London: John Murray, (1910).
• Semenov, Vladimir, Capt. "The Battle of Tsushima." New York, E.P. Dutton & Co. (1912).
• Grant, R., Captain, D.S.O. "Before Port Arthur In A Destroyer." (The Personal Diary Of A Japanese Naval Officer-Translated from the Spanish Edition by Captain R. Grant, D.S.O. Rifle Brigade). London: John Murray, Albemarle St. W. (1907).
• Kowner, Rotem (2006). Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War. Scarecrow. ISBN 0-8108-4927-5
• Nish, Ian (1985). The Origins of the Russo-Japanese War. Longman. ISBN 0-582-49114-2
• Morris, Edmund (2002). Theodore Rex. The Modern Library. ISBN 0-8129-6600-7
• Saaler, Sven und Inaba Chiharu (Hg.) - Der Russisch-Japanische Krieg 1904/05 im Spiegel deutscher Bilderbogen, Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien Tokyo, (2005).
• Warner, Denis & Peggy. "The Tide at Sunrise, A History of the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905." (1975). ISBN 0-7146-5256-3
• Tomitch, V. M. "Warships of the Imperial Russian Navy." Volume 1, Battleships. (1968).
• Jukes, Geoffry. "The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905." Osprey Essential Histories. (2002). ISBN 9-78184-17644-67
• Hough, Richard A. "The Fleet That Had To Die." New York, Ballantine Books. (1960).

• Corbett, Sir Julian. "Maritime Operations In The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905." (1994) Originally classified, and in two volumnes, ISBN 155-7501-297
• Seager, Robert. "Alfred Thayer Mahan: The Man And His Letters." (1977) ISBN 0870-21359-8

(http://www.dijtokyo.org/?page=publication_detail.php&p_id=903)

[edit] See also

• Russian Imperialism in Asia and the Russo-Japanese War
• Imperialism in Asia
• List of wars
• Baron Rosen
• Sergius Witte

[edit] External links

• Russo-Japanese War research society
• Text of the Treaty of Portsmouth: http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1914m/portsmouth.html
• Russian Navy history of war: http://www.navy.ru/history/hrn10-e.htm
• Meeting of Frontiers (Library of Congress): Russo-Japanese Relations in the Far East
• Treaty of Portsmouth now seen as global turning point from the Christian Science Monitor, by Robert Marquand, December 30, 2005
• The New Student's Reference Work/Russo-Japanese War