Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 09:34, 26 May 2006

The Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperialist ambitions of Russia and Japan in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of the war were Port Arthur, known also as Lushun and Ryojun, and the Liaodong Peninsula, plus up the railway from the port to Harbin. The Russians were in constant pursuit of a warm water port. The Japanese were driven to war through geostrategic concerns to secure their interior lines by stemming Russian interest in Korea.

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 as Japan strove to form itself into a modern great power. Great power status rested on access to colonies which provided raw materials, and these, in turn, rested 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.

Japan's location encouraged it to focus on the Choson Dynasty in Korea and the Qing Dynasty in northern China, putting it in competition with its neighbor, Russia. The Japanese effort to occupy Korea led to the Sino-Japanese War. Japan's subsequent defeat of China led to the Treaty of Shimonoseki (April 17, 1895) by which China abandoned its own claims to Korea, as well as ceding Taiwan and Lüshunkou (often called Port Arthur). However, three Western powers (Russia, the German Empire and the French Third Republic) by the Triple Intervention of April 23, 1895 applied pressure on Japan to give up Port Arthur, and the Russians later (in 1898) negotiated a 25-year lease of the naval base with China. Meanwhile, Japanese forces were trying to take over Korea, which had a protection pact with Russia. Russian forces consequently occupied most of Manchuria and parts of Korea.

Japan, after failing to negotiate a favorable agreement with Russia, sent an ultimatum on December 31st, 1903, broke off diplomatic relations on February 6, but began attacking the Russian Navy at Port Arthur three hours prior to the ultimatum being received by the Russian Government. Both sides issued a declaration of war on February 10. Under international law, Japan's attack was not considered a sneak attack, because of the ultimatum. However, it was commonly mentioned as an example of Japan's preference for surprise attack, after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

War

Campaign of 1904

Port Crazed, on the Liaodong Peninsula in the south of Manchuria, had been fortified into a major naval base by the Russians. The Japanese needed to control the sea in order to fight a war on the Asian mainland, so their first military objective was to neutralize the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. On the night of February 8, the Japanese fleet under Admiral Heihachiro Togo opened the war with a surprise torpedo attack on the Russian ships at Port Arthur, badly damaging two Russian battleships. The attacks developed into the Battle of Port Arthur the next morning. A series of indecisive naval engagements followed, in which the Japanese were unable to attack the Russian fleet successfully under the land guns of the harbor and the Russians declined to leave the harbor for the open seas, especially after the death of Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov on April 13. These engagements provided cover for a Japanese landing near Incheon in Korea, from which they occupied Seoul and then the rest of Korea. By the end of April, the Japanese army under Kuroki Itei was prepared to cross the Yalu river into Russian-occupied Manchuria.

In counterpoint to the Japanese strategy of gaining rapid victories to control Manchuria, Russian strategy focused on fighting delaying actions to gain time for reinforcements to arrive via the long Trans-Siberian railway. On May 1, the Battle of the Yalu River, in which Japanese troops stormed a Russian position after an unopposed crossing of the river, was the first major land battle of the war. Japanese troops proceeded to land at several points on the Manchurian coast, and fought a number of engagements driving the Russians back on Port Arthur. These battles, including the Battle of Nanshan on May 25, were marked by heavy Japanese losses attacking entrenched Russian positions, but the Russians remained passive and failed to counterattack.

At sea, the war was just as brutal. After the February 8 attack on Port Arthur, the Japanese attempted to deny the Russians use of the port. During the night of February 13–14, 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 the steamers sank too deep into the water for it to be effective. Another attempt to block the harbor entrance on the night of May 3–4 with blockships also failed. In March, the energetic Vice Admiral Makarov took command of the First Russian Pacific Squadron with the intention of making plans to break out of the Port Arthur blockade. By then, both sides began a policy of tactical offensive mine-laying by laying mines in each others ports. This was the first time in warfare that mines were used for offensive purposes. In the past, mines were used as purely defensive purposes by keeping harbors safe from invading warships. The Japanese mine-laying policy was effective at restricting the Russian movement of its ships outside Port Arthur when on April 12, 1904, two Russian battleships, the flagship Petropavlovsk and the Pobeda ran into a Japanese minefield off Port Arthur, both striking mines. The Petropavlosk sank within an hour, while the Pobeda had to be towed back to Port Arthur for extensive repairs. Makarov died on the Petropavlovsk by choosing to go down with his ship. But the Russians soon learned the Japanese policy of offensive minelaying and decided to play the strategy too. On May 15, 1904, two Japanese battleships, the Yashima and the Hatsuse, were both lured into a recently laid Russian minefield off Port Arthur, both 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 June 23, a breakout attempt by the Russian squadron, now under the command of Admiral Vitgeft failed. By the end of the month, Japanese artillery were already putting shells into the harbor.

Japan began a long siege of Port Arthur, which had been heavily fortified by the Russians. On August 10, 1904, the Russian fleet attempted to break out from Port Arthur and proceed to Vladivostok, but they were intercepted and defeated at the Battle of the Yellow Sea. The remnant of the Russian fleet remained in Port Arthur, where they were slowly sunk by the artillery of the besieging army. Attempts to relieve the city from the land also failed, and after the Battle of Liaoyang in late August, the Russians retreated to Mukden (Shenyang). Port Arthur finally fell on January 2, 1905, after a series of brutal, high-casualty assaults.

Campaign of 1905

The Japanese army was now able to attack northward. To finalize the war, Japan needed to crush the Russian army in Manchuria. The Battle of Mukden opened in the end of February. Japanese forces progressed step by step with damage and tried to encircle General Kuropatkin Headquarters at Mukden (Shenyang). Russian forces resisted but on March 10, 1905, they decided to retreat. The heavily damaged Japanese could not pursue the Russians. Because strategically the possession of the city meant little, the final victory was dependent on the navy.

Meanwhile, at sea, the Russians had already been preparing to reinforce their fleet the previous year by sending the Baltic Sea fleet under Admiral Zinovi Petrovich Rozhdestvenski around the Cape of Good Hope to Asia. On October 21, 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 duration of the 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 port at Vladivostok. He intercepted them in the Tsushima Strait between Korea and Japan, and in the Battle of Tsushima, May 27–28, 1905, the more modern Japanese fleet, numerically inferior but with superior speed and firing range, shelled the Russian fleet mercilessly, destroying all eight of their battleships.

Peace

Although Russia still had a larger army than Japan, these successive defeats had shaken Russian confidence. Throughout 1905, Russia was rocked by the Russian Revolution of 1905, which represented a severe threat to the stability of the government. Russia elected to negotiate peace rather than continue the war so 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. Navy facility at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on September 5, 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 signed over its 25-year leasehold rights to Port Arthur, including the excellent 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 one of the first major victories in the modern era of an Asian country over a Western one and began a series of 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 downward in esteem. This was particularly true in the eyes of bellicose Germany, then locked in a power struggle with France over Morocco. While the Kaiser was a relative of the Tsar, Russia was France's ally, and that loss of prestige would have a significant effect on German war plans.

In the absence of Russian competition and with the distraction of European nations during World War I and the Great Depression, the Japanese military began the efforts to dominate China that would lead to the Pacific War of World War II. In Russia, this defeat 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 and military defeat presaged the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Importance of the war

The conflict resulted in a victory for Japan which won most conflicts of the war, and devastated Russia's deep water navy while chewing up several Russian armies. That feeling of triumph soured drastically in Japan, leading to widespread riots when the terms of the peace treaty were announced, military and economic exhaustion of both belligerents, and the reluctant and distasteful (to the West) establishment of Japan as a major world power. The war ended with the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by the US, which alienated the two powers and started a trend of repeated insults and disrespect that culminated in Japan's decision to go to war with the United States in 1941. Japan resented the settlement and felt like she had been treated like the defeated power.

Popular discontent in Russia following the defeat led to the Russian Revolution of 1905, an event Tsar Nicholas II of Russia had hoped to stave off and avoid entirely by taking intransigent negotiating stances prior to coming to the table at all. The Russian position hardened further during the days immediately preceding and during the Peace Conference itself. The war ended with mediation by the United States in the person of Theodore Roosevelt who was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize for Peace in 1908. However, there was "widespread riotous discontent" among Japanese when peace was announced because of the lack of territorial gains; but especially at the lack of monetary indemnity (reparations to Japan). Both nations were all but bankrupt after the exhaustive war, and it is hard to fault Roosevelt for finessing the monetary and territorial demands when both parties had such diametrically conflicting expectations and preconditions. Since Roosevelt had also served as honest broker in getting both parties to the peace table, he might have been less cagey and lowered expectations during the preliminary diplomatic wrangling. However, it was a very bloody war foreshadowing World War I in many ways. This led to feelings of distrust toward all western nations. According to Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Edmund Morris, Japanese feelings that the honest broker United States had misled them since indemnity was a precondition they expected the US to support. Japan also expected that they would retain all of Sakhalin Island, but they had to give half after some Rooseveltian pressure.

The defeat of Russia was met with shock both in the West and especially across Asia. That a non-Western country could defeat an established power in a large military conflict was inspiring to various anti-colonial independence movements around the world. The world’s major powers, in the fashion of the times, looking with racist or national condescension, failed to heed the lesson of how modern technology had transformed land warfare into a deadly morass. The major powers had also unanimously embraced naval improvement programs which had the cumulative effect of making future naval battles at short to moderate ranges, as had occurred in this war, nearly as deadly as charging a machine gun. Assimilating these lessons would be bought with blood and treasure only nine years later on the muddy fields of World War I.

It should be noted, however, that the first naval battle of this war (and possibly the war itself) does not accurately reflect the military prowess of either Russia or Japan as compared to each other. With European militaries, it had been customary for opponents to declare an intention of hostility before opening battle. However, in the first naval battle the Japanese, either ignorant or possibly exploitative of this custom of battle, had given the Russians no foreword before opening fire on a surprised Russian navy. Had this battle been fought under more equal circumstances, its victor might have well been the Russians. Although the Japanese had consistently defeated Russian forces throughout the war and not just in the first battle, this string of defeats for the Russians might be attributed in no little part to the heavy loss of morale incurred from the first battle. Russia also faced problems from within its Empire as in Russian occupied Poland the national resitance grew as Polish population expressed joy at first defeats of Russia, and Polish emissaries reached Japan in order to cooperate diversion and intelligence gathering within Russian Empire.,.

In the war, the Japanese army treated Russian civilians and prisoners of war well (the same cannot be said of Korean and Chinese prisoners), without the brutality and atrocities that were widespread during World War II. Japanese historians think this war was a turning point for Japan and a key to understanding why Japan failed militarily and politically later. The acrimony within Japanese society went to every class and level, and it became the consensus within Japan that they had been treated as the defeated power during the peace conference. This feeling built up by degrees with every perceived slight and condescending act by the Western powers toward Japan for the next few decades.

List of battles

• 1904 Battle of Port Arthur, February 8: Inconclusive
• 1904 Battle of Chemulpo Bay, February 9: Japan defeats Russia (Heroic Russian Cruiser Varyag)
• 1904 Battle of Yalu River, April 30 to May 1: Japan defeats Russia
• 1904 Battle of Dairen, May 30: Japan defeats Russia
• 1904 Battle of the Yellow Sea, August 10: Japan defeats Russia
• 1904 Battle of the Japanese Sea, August 14: Japan defeats Russia
• 1904-1905 Siege of Port Arthur, August 19 to January 2: Japan defeats Russia
• 1904 Battle of Liaoyang, August 25 to September 3: Inconclusive
• 1904 Battle of Sha-ho River, 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: Japan defeats Russia
• 1905 Battle of Tsushima, May 27 to 28 May naval battle: Japan defeats Russia

The Russo-Japanese War in Art and Literature

• 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 Joyces' 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 monopolising 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.

• Alexei Silych Novikov-Priboy, a sailor on the Russian battleship "Oryol", wrote an epic documental novel about the journey of the Russian Baltic fleet and battle of Tsushima. It was first published in 1930 in Soviet Union under the name "Tsusima".

References

• Nish, Ian (1985). The Origins of the Russo-Japanese War. Longman. ISBN 0582491142
• Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex, The Modern Library, pb.,2002; ISBN 0-8129-6600-7 (div. of Random House, hc,2001)

See also

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

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

• 1900s
• History of Manchuria
• Wars of Russia
• Wars of Japan
• Russo-Japanese War
• History of Korea