subject = History
title = Russian-Japanese War


Russian-Japanese War

Russian-Japanese
War

20th Century History


	The Russian-Japanese war of 1904 was a European
conflict that was

 fought because one country was becoming too strong. 
The conflict was mainly

 fought because two separate countries had their
own special interests in far east

 countries like Korea, China, and Manchuria.

	Britain
and Japan recognized the independance of China and Korea, but at

 the same
time authorized each other to intervene in either territory if their own


"special interests" were threatened by another power or by internal disorder.


 That power was now Russia.  There was already a rivalry going on between


Britain and Russia because of the Trans-Siberian railway but now there was


another dimension.  Russia now had access to the pacific.  Her presence in
Asia

 threatened already established Britain interests.  China leased the
ice-free Port

 Arthur to Russia and allowed them to store their war ships
there.  The two

 empires were set on a collision course.

	Britain was
very reluctant to commit herself to a distant threat of war so she

 took
a step to allying herself with the growing industrial power of Japan.  In


doing so, Britain found her soldiers in the east.

	At this time Russia failed
to realize how powerful Britain and Japan had

 made themselves.  Russia
was unable to take Japan seriously even though they

 had many reports on
how large the Japanese naval and military forces were.

  Unfortunately,
 Russia's constant penetration into Korea and Manchuria

 continued unabated
despite the presence of numbers of Japanese immagrants

 and traders.

	Russia
had succeeded in replacing the now defunct Chinese influence with

 her own.
 Russia now began taking over the administrative departments and had

 their
officers train the Korean army to fight on their side.

	In April, May, and
June of 1903, Russian's had told the Japanese that they

 would move out
of China.  They did not and continued to occupy the land.  In

 July of the
that same year, the Japanese Ambassador proposed that Russia and

 Japan
were to recognize the independance of China and Korea.  Both nations

 were
to rcognize preponderance, the Japanese in Korea balanced by russians in


Manchuria.  They were to recall their troops from their respective area as
soon as

 possible.  In return, the Russians would protect the railways in
Manchuria and

 the Japanese would do the same in Korea.

	It came to the
attention of the Japanese that the Russians were building up

 their naval
and military forces in the far east.  They were also moving troops not


only into Manchuria, but also into North Korea.  It now became obvious to the


Japnese that the Russians had no intention of releasing their hold on Manchuria


and Korea.  Nevertheless,  the negotiations went on.  On February 10th, 1904,


both nations produced formal declarations of war.

	On February 8th, a large
part of the Russian Pacific squadron lat anchor in

 the roadstead of Port
Arthur.  The ships were arranged in three lines running east

 and west.
 The innermost consisting of five battleships:  the flagship, the

 petroulouk,
the sebastopol, peresuept, pobieda, and pollada.  The middle line

 was headed
by two more battleships which were the tsarevich and the retvizan.

  They
were followed by three crusiers and the outline of three more.  Meanwhile,


off Round Island about 60 miles east of Port Arthur, the Japanese fleet was


making its disposition under Admiral Togo.  He was in command of the
 
 combined
fleet which had left Japan two days before they had broken off

 negotiations.

	Around
11:00pm the Shiralaimo, the leading Japanese destroyer, came

 within sight
of the two patrolling Russian destroyers, the Pastoropin and the

 Bezstrashini.
 To the surprise of the Japanese, the two ships turned around and

 headed
back to Port Arthur so the captains could report to the Russian Admiral


Stark.  At this time there was no fighting going on at all.  However,  as the
ships

 turned to go and make their report, the Japanese began to fire at
the same time

 that the two Russian destroyers were making their report.

	The
Pollada was the first Russian ship to go down, they were hit mid ship

 and
one of the coal tankers caught on fire.  The Retvizan was the next with a 200


square foot hole in her port side.  The Tsarevich was hit on her stern.


 Unfortunately, her bulkheads shattered and the steering compartment flooded.


 All three ships tried to make it to shallow water.  The Pollada grounded near
a

 light house on the west side of the harbor, and the Retvizan and the
Tsarevich

 came to grief in the narrow gullet of the harbor, almost blocking
it.  Admiral

 Togo of Japan, saw this and sent five merchant ships around
with bombs to

 blow up the rest of the ships in attempt to block the harbor.
 This attempt was

 unfortunately unsuccessful because Russian ships began
to open fire and

 destroyed the Japanese merchant ships.

	On the morning
of february 25th, admiral Togo tried yet another approach

 through indirect
bombardment of the harbor and its installations in the hope of

 damaging
more ships.  He found that as long as the Russian fleet remained in the


harbor under the protection of the shore batteries, it would be impossible
for the

 Japnese to destroy them.

	Japan had won many battles in this
war.  None of them were as important

 as the one they had fought in the
harbor of Port Arthur (the second battle).  Port

 Arthur was a big turning
point for them because almost a year later a weak

 Russian Navy decided
to give up in January of 1905.  Russian rule of Port Arthur

 had fallen,
and for the Russians, they had the advantage of having Port Arthur,

 so
when they lost it, they pretty much lost the war.  By this time, they had already


lost many men and also many ships.  The Japanese combined with Britain were


victorious and the countries that were held under Russian rule were eventually
left

 by the Russians to rule for themselves.  The British and Japanese
interests in the

 three countries in which the war was fought over, were
now protected. 


Russian-Japanese War

20th Century History


	The
Russian-Japanese war of 1904 was a European conflict that was

 fought because
one country was becoming too strong.  The conflict was mainly

 fought because
two separate countries had their own special interests in far east

 countries
like Korea, China, and Manchuria.

	Britain and Japan recognized the independance
of China and Korea, but at

 the same time authorized each other to intervene
in either territory if their own

 "special interests" were threatened by
another power or by internal disorder.

  That power was now Russia.  There
was already a rivalry going on between

 Britain and Russia because of the
Trans-Siberian railway but now there was

 another dimension.  Russia now
had access to the pacific.  Her presence in Asia

 threatened already established
Britain interests.  China leased the ice-free Port

 Arthur to Russia and
allowed them to store their war ships there.  The two

 empires were set
on a collision course.

	Britain was very reluctant to commit herself to
a distant threat of war so she

 took a step to allying herself with the
growing industrial power of Japan.  In

 doing so, Britain found her soldiers
in the east.

	At this time Russia failed to realize how powerful Britain
and Japan had

 made themselves.  Russia was unable to take Japan seriously
even though they

 had many reports on how large the Japanese naval and military
forces were.

  Unfortunately,  Russia's constant penetration into Korea
and Manchuria

 continued unabated despite the presence of numbers of Japanese
immagrants

 and traders.

	Russia had succeeded in replacing the now defunct
Chinese influence with

 her own.  Russia now began taking over the administrative
departments and had

 their officers train the Korean army to fight on their
side.

	In April, May, and June of 1903, Russian's had told the Japanese
that they

 would move out of China.  They did not and continued to occupy
the land.  In

 July of the that same year, the Japanese Ambassador proposed
that Russia and

 Japan were to recognize the independance of China and Korea.
 Both nations

 were to rcognize preponderance, the Japanese in Korea balanced
by russians in

 Manchuria.  They were to recall their troops from their
respective area as soon as

 possible.  In return, the Russians would protect
the railways in Manchuria and

 the Japanese would do the same in Korea.

	It
came to the attention of the Japanese that the Russians were building up


their naval and military forces in the far east.  They were also moving troops
not

 only into Manchuria, but also into North Korea.  It now became obvious
to the

 Japnese that the Russians had no intention of releasing their hold
on Manchuria

 and Korea.  Nevertheless,  the negotiations went on.  On February
10th, 1904,

 both nations produced formal declarations of war.

	On February
8th, a large part of the Russian Pacific squadron lat anchor in

 the roadstead
of Port Arthur.  The ships were arranged in three lines running east

 and
west.  The innermost consisting of five battleships:  the flagship, the


petroulouk, the sebastopol, peresuept, pobieda, and pollada.  The middle line


was headed by two more battleships which were the tsarevich and the retvizan.


 They were followed by three crusiers and the outline of three more.  Meanwhile,


off Round Island about 60 miles east of Port Arthur, the Japanese fleet was


making its disposition under Admiral Togo.  He was in command of the
 
 combined
fleet which had left Japan two days before they had broken off

 negotiations.

	Around
11:00pm the Shiralaimo, the leading Japanese destroyer, came

 within sight
of the two patrolling Russian destroyers, the Pastoropin and the

 Bezstrashini.
 To the surprise of the Japanese, the two ships turned around and

 headed
back to Port Arthur so the captains could report to the Russian Admiral


Stark.  At this time there was no fighting going on at all.  However,  as the
ships

 turned to go and make their report, the Japanese began to fire at
the same time

 that the two Russian destroyers were making their report.

	The
Pollada was the first Russian ship to go down, they were hit mid ship

 and
one of the coal tankers caught on fire.  The Retvizan was the next with a 200


square foot hole in her port side.  The Tsarevich was hit on her stern.


 Unfortunately, her bulkheads shattered an