Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) was an extremely bloody conflict that grew out of the rival imperialist ambitions of Russia and Japan in Manchuria and Korea. The war was fought principally over possession of the town of Port Arthur (aka Lushun and Ryojun) and the Liaodong Peninsula, plus the railway from the port to Harbin.

Importance of the war

The conflict resulted in a triumphant surprise victory for Japan which won virtually every conflict 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, to the Japanese point of view, 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.

Related Topics:
Treaty of Portsmouth - 1941

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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 an erosion of good feelings towards all the western powers. According to Pulitzer Prize biographer Edmund Morris, Japanese feelings that the honest broker United States had mislead 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.

Related Topics:
Russian Revolution of 1905 - Nicholas II of Russia - United States - Theodore Roosevelt - Nobel Prize - 1908 - Honest broker - Pulitzer Prize - Edmund Morris - Sakhalin

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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 such a large military conflict was particularly 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.

Related Topics:
Asia - Major power - World War I

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In the war, the Japanese army treated civilians and prisoners of war well, without the brutality and atrocities that were widespread during World War II. Japanese historians think this war was a turning point of Japan and a key to understanding why Japan failed militarily and politically later. The acrimony that occurred in Japan's society went to every class and level, and shortly 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.

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