Russo-Japanese War
Called the nichiro sensou 「日露戦争」, this war included some of the most successful naval battles of the 20th century.
Japan and Great Britain made an alliance called the Anglo-Japanese Alliance 日英同盟 Nichi-Ei Dōmei because Great Britain wanted to gain the concession of the Qin dynasty and Japan wanted to gain a better position on Korea. If Japan faced more than one country in a war, Great Britain would also enter the war. The media supported starting a war, and so Japan slowly began preparations.
In February of 1904 the Russo-Japanese War began. The Japanese tried hard, and slowly began winning. America and Great Britain also supported Japan. However, the Japanese had done everything they could and Russia had troubles at home which made continuing the war very hard for both countries. Consequentially, after the Japanese had won the Houten Kaisen and the Nihon Kai Kai Sen
Battle of Mukden and Battle of Tsushima [the Sea of Japan]America intervened and the Portsmouth Treaty, Treaty of Portsmouth, Portsmouth Peace Treaty was made. Japan and Russia decided to help each other.
However, in Japan, many people had lost their family members and were not happy that Japan did not get any war reparation. Adding onto that, Japan did not stop increasing the power of their army after the war, and the population did not enjoy too good a life with the heavy taxes for the army. Of course, the Japanese did get a feeling of superiority and affected other countries throughout Asia.
Japan and Great Britain made an alliance called the Anglo-Japanese Alliance 日英同盟 Nichi-Ei Dōmei because Great Britain wanted to gain the concession of the Qin dynasty and Japan wanted to gain a better position on Korea. If Japan faced more than one country in a war, Great Britain would also enter the war. The media supported starting a war, and so Japan slowly began preparations.
In February of 1904 the Russo-Japanese War began. The Japanese tried hard, and slowly began winning. America and Great Britain also supported Japan. However, the Japanese had done everything they could and Russia had troubles at home which made continuing the war very hard for both countries. Consequentially, after the Japanese had won the Houten Kaisen and the Nihon Kai Kai Sen
Battle of Mukden and Battle of Tsushima [the Sea of Japan]America intervened and the Portsmouth Treaty, Treaty of Portsmouth, Portsmouth Peace Treaty was made. Japan and Russia decided to help each other.
However, in Japan, many people had lost their family members and were not happy that Japan did not get any war reparation. Adding onto that, Japan did not stop increasing the power of their army after the war, and the population did not enjoy too good a life with the heavy taxes for the army. Of course, the Japanese did get a feeling of superiority and affected other countries throughout Asia.
A Detailed Explanation of R-J War and WW1
A collision between Japan and Russia over the basic question of dominance in the Pacific was inevitable. This was apparent to the whole world. The principal issues were these: The mammoth Russian Empire had long wanted an ice-free Pacific port. Vladivostok had a good harbor, but for several months a year it was frozen in. When China's weakness was laid bare to the world, Russia joined the international grab and obtained a lease on Port Arthur. This served her purpose well. However, a port cut off from the main body of the Empire by the expanses of Manchuria was a dubious asset. The Russians built a branch railroad line connecting Port Arthur and the main line running through Siberia to Vladivostok. This means of communication through alien territory was tenuous at best. The Boxer Rebellion in China gave the Russians a pretext for moving large numbers of troops into Manchuria. After the Rebellion had been put down, it was evident that the Russian troops were in Manchuria to stay, despite protests of China, the United States and other powers. Manchuria was obviously being engulfed.
At this juncture Japan was faced with the prospect of seeing the Russian colossus establishing bases which would enable her to become the dominant sea power in the Pacific. Japan's whole position of influence in the Far East was threatened. Furthermore, Russian acquisition of Manchuria would mean that Korea was encircled on land. Ultimately, it would mean that Russia would "acquire" Korea too.
Interests of the two countries were thus diametrically opposed. Both nations openly rushed preparations for war. Russian shipyards, working full blast, turned out ships as fast as possible. Each new one was immediately dispatched to the fleet in the Pacific. Japan acquired warships as quickly as they came off the ways in England. The Japanese fleet drilled and trained and maneuvered constantly. Morale was excellent, the victories of the China was having been a heady tonic. Efficiency reached new heights. The Russian fleets, on the other hand, lay in the harbors of the Pacific, the Baltic, and the Black Sea gathering barnacles. The crews, whose discontent with the Czar's graft-ridden, corrupt, inefficient government was already smouldering, talked revolution.
Japan risked everything in a conflict with Russia. Her fleet was heavily outnumbered, although Russian dispositions were such as to cut down greatly the disparity. Japanese losses at sea could not be replaced. Her yards were still not capable of building capital ships, and the international laws of neutrality prohibited the purchase of warships abroad by a nation at war. If Japan should be decisively beaten at sea, Russia would have a free hand on the continent and would even be in a position to invade the Japanese homeland.
On the other hand, Russia could replace losses of ships from her own yards. Even if defeated at sea, her enormous manpower would probably enable her to fight indefinitely, if need be, on the mainland. Russia had far less at stake.
Japan possessed one great advantage. Her bases for repair and supply were near the scene where action must take place. Vast distances, spanned by a single railroad line, lay between Russian bases in the Pacific and the industries of the West. Problems of supply were staggering. For a nation as incompetently administered as the Russian, the problems were insuperable.
Such was the background and the stakes involved. Diplomatic maneuvers failed inevitably. The issues had to be decided by the fleets and by the armies.
Russian disposition of naval units on the eve of war could hardly have been worse. She had a fleet in the Black Sea that was absolutely worthless, for by international treaty the Dardanelles could not be transited by warships. The English Navy was a potent guarantor of that treaty. Thus the Alliance of 1902 was paying big dividends. A second fleet was in the Baltic. It seemed doubtful that these ships could even make the agonizingly long voyage around the Cape of Good Hope to the waters of the Far East. Sailing ships might have done it, but the steamers needed coal. Neutrals were forbidden by international law to fuel ships of a belligerent nation. Russia conceivably could, and later did, rely on France to make this breach of neutrality. Finally, there was the Pacific fleet, the only one of immediate danger to the Japanese. This was largely based on Port Arthur and consisted of seven battleships, powerful units but not the equal of those of the Japanese; one armored and five protected cruisers, much inferior to the enemy's, two gunboats, 25 destroyers and two minelayers. In addition, over a thousand miles away at Vladivostok, were three good armored cruisers, one protected cruiser, 17 torpedo boats and numerous auxiliaries.
To oppose this force Japan had its six modern battleships, eight modern armored cruisers, 17 protected cruisers of which about half were modern, four new torpedo-gunboats, 20 destroyers, and over 70 torpedo-boats. In addition to this superiority in guns and armor, Japanese personnel from the High Command on down had a big edge in experience, in training, and in general over-all competence. In matters of strategy, in tactics, and in seamanship the Russians were greatly inferior.
On the night of February 8, 1904, the Russian fleet lay at anchor in the roadstead outside of Port Arthur. Although war seemed imminent, there had been no declaration and there was apparently hope for some kind of mediation. Ship's lights were burning. Two destroyers were patrolling in a half-hearted manner, and what torpedo nets had been set protected only the waists of the ships. It was a perfect opportunity for the Japanese for whom a declaration of war was easily dispensed with. Admiral Togo, now in command of the Fleet, had sailed from Sasebo on the sixth. His approach had been undetected. With the Russians sitting in the roadstead like ducks, Togo sent his destroyers in. Eighteen torpedoes were fired; three found their marks. The two finest Russian battleships, Czarevick and Retvisan, and the light cruiser Pallada were badly hit but did not sink. Togo failed to follow up his initial advantage, and the Russians withdrew to the shelter of Port Arthur guns. Here they stayed.
Japan was faced with the problem of whether she dared risk an expeditionary force to Korea while control of the sea was lacking. Should Togo be defeated, only disaster could follow. She took the risk, and 60,000 men were transported without incident to Korea, the first of many soldiers to be sent to the continent.
Meanwhile, Togo was blockading Port Arthur. (He had sent part of his heavy cruiser squadron to deal with the cruisers at Vladivostok.) The Russians would not come out and he could not get in. In his effort to solve this impasse, Togo made three separate attempts to sink block ships at the mouth of the harbor and so bottle up the enemy. Seventeen merchant ships* were vainly sacrificed with considerable loss of life. As the months wore on the situation became more serious for the Japanese. The Russian ships injured in the first blow had been repaired. Command of the Russian fleet had been taken over by Admiral Makaroff, an extraordinarily able leader, who was injecting new life into his personnel. Most serious of all, intelligence reports indicated that the Baltic Fleet was in the throes of preparations to steam to the Pacific. A successful reinforcement would have made the odds against Togo enormous. The Port Arthur force had to be disposed of.
Careful observations had been made of Russian movements between their own minefields in the roadstead. Under cover of darkness Japanese minelayers were sent in to mine the channels. The stratagem worked. Makaroff was lured out of the harbor by a Japanese flotilla which fled at his approach. On returning to the harbor, the flagship Petropavlosk struck a mine and blew up, killing Makaroff and most of the crew. A second battleship was disabled.
Even more drastic steps had to be taken, however, if Japan was to be in a position to deal with the Russian naval forces separately. A decision was made to employ the tactics of the war with China, and an army was landed on the Liaotung Peninsula. Meanwhile, the Japanese Navy had suffered heavy losses. Taking a leaf out of the enemy's book, the Russians mined, under cover of fog, an area in which the Japanese battleships had been seen frequently to maneuver. Two battleships struck mines and sank. The Japanese yelled foul at the top of their lungs, for the mined area was several miles off-shore, a violation of the unwritten but generally accepted rules protecting neutral shipping. Foul or no, the loss was a serious one. One third of their heaviest units was gone at a blow. On the same day a light cruiser collided with a ship of its own fleet and went to the bottom.
The dreary weeks of blockading dragged on while the Japanese Army fought its way, with heavy losses, toward Port Arthur. Vitgeft, the new Russian Admiral, made one abortive sortie out from the protection of the big guns. He got within sight of the Japanese fleet but turned tail for home before any action ensued. A battleship, on the way into harbor, was badly damaged by a Russian mine. Circumstances finally forced Vitgeft's hand. By August the Japanese Army was menacingly near. An order from the Czar commanded Vitgeft to make a break for Vladivostok where the fleet was to wait until reinforced. Thus was the Battle of the Yellow Sea joined.
Vitgeft's dash was intercepted by Togo who had anticipated some such move. The Russians' six battleships (those damaged having been repaired), four light cruisers, and eight destroyers were opposed by four battleships, three armored
* It is interesting to note that the expansion of the merchant marine kept pace with the expansion of the Navy in this period. In 1893, thirty merchant ships totaling 4,426 tons were constructed in Japan. Nine years later 204 ships with a tonnage of 29,363 tons were built.
cruisers, eight light cruisers, and torpedo boats. Togo's mission was to sink what he could but, at all odds, to prevent a break-through to Vladivostok. In this latter he was successful. The engagement was carried on for the most part at long range, and was indecisive until toward, evening two 12-inch shells simultaneously hit the Russian flagship. Vitgeft, most of his staff, and nearly everybody in the conning tower were killed in the explosions. The ship went out of control with the result that the entire Russian battle line was thrown into whirling confusion. At this critical moment the Japanese closed the range. Under the renewed assault, and with no leadership to guide them, the Russians broke for Port Arthur.
Togo's failure to finish off the demoralized enemy that night has been criticized, but he did accomplish his mission. Although not a Russian ship was sunk, not a one got through to Vladivostok. The flagship was so badly damaged it had to make for a neutral port, where it was interned, as were several smaller vessels. Two battleships were battered too heavily to be repaired at Port Arthur. The other three big ships were hurt; furthermore, nearly all their 12-inch ammunition had been expended, and it could not be replaced.
The Japanese, too, were hurt, in some instances heavily. But they were all intact and could be marshalled against the Baltic fleet, if necessary. It was a decisive Japanese victory.
A few days later the Vladivostok-based cruisers received a bad mauling from the squadron Togo had sent to counter them. One Russian ship was sunk. The others limped back to port.
These fleet actions were the last undertaken at sea by the Russian Pacific Fleet. By December, after taking huge losses, the Japanese Army had succeeded in capturing famous "203-Metre Hill", a promintory overlooking Port Arthur. This sealed the fate of the battleships. With their heavy howitzers, the Japanese "zeroed in" on the armored ships and methodically sank all but one. Only the battleship Sevastopol put up much of a fight. She steamed out of the harbor and anchored in the outer roads where she fought gallantly her hopeless battle. It was three weeks before she succumbed to the repeated Japanese torpedo attacks. In January 1905 Port Arthur surrendered. Togo was master of Far Eastern waters. He had long respite in which to prepare for the final Russian challenge.
The challenge had been long in the making. Twelve thousand miles from the scene of action, the Russian Baltic Fleet finally got under way by the middle of October 1904. The fleet was a strange conglomeration of the obsolete and the untried. Three-fourths of the men, it is said, had never been to sea before. Enormous difficulties confronted Admiral Rojestvensky before he could hope to come anywhere near Pacific waters. Somehow the fuel problem had to be solved. Somehow the fleet had to be welded into at least a semblance of a fighting unit. Somehow the men had to be trained.
Somehow Rojestvensky did it. He bullied and cajoled coal from neutrals who had no business giving it to him. He performed miracles of fueling from colliers at sea. He trained men in gunnery although he was short of ammunition. And he shepherded his heavy units through the North Sea, clear down around the Cape of Good Hope up to Madagascar. Here he picked up lighter vessels which had been able to come by way of the Suez Canal. After three debilitating months of inactivity there, while the Admiral argued long distance with the Admiralty, the entire fleet got under way once more, transited the entire Indian Ocean, the Straits of Malacca, and reached Camranh Bay without once having entered a harbor. This was a remarkable feat for those days.
Leaving Cochim, China, Rojestvensky entered upon the last lap. His forces looked imposing: 45 ships, including seven battleships, six cruisers, a flotilla of destroyers, the rest auxiliaries and the train. Four of the battleships were so new that this long voyage to destruction was their shakedown cruise. On the other hand, four ships of the line were so old that their own fleet called them the "flat-irons and galoshes". They were worse than useless.
Meanwhile, Togo's forces had been resting, refitting, and were at the peak of fighting trim. Commander H. H. Frost, U.S.N., has estimated Japanese superiority in materiel at the Battle of Tsushima as two to one, their superiority in personnel as "at least" the same.
Contact between the two fleets was made as Rojestvensky steamed east of Tsushima Island on his dash for Vladivostok, now the only port remaining open to him. Immediately, the superiority of Togo's forces told. In a daring maneuver which gave the Russians an initial advantage they failed to capitalize on, Togo crossed the enemy's T and brought the guns of his heavies to bear on the leading Russian battleships. His fire control was excellent. The Japanese repeatedly scored four hits to the Russians' one. No fleet could take that punishment. One by one the Russian ships of the line were sunk or put out of action. Those which could stagger on tried vainly to break through to Vladivostok. It was like trying to break through a shifting, impenetrable wall of steel. By night four of Russia's five best battleships were on the bottom. The ships remaining were harried all night long by torpedo attacks which sank an old battleship and at least two cruisers.
Morning brought the realization that any further efforts would be madness. Rojestvensky was out of the battle, severely wounded. Nebogatoff surrendered his four old hulks and the wounded battleships remaining in his command. Some few other Russian vessels made neutral ports where they were interned. Thirty-six hours after the initial contact every ship of the main Russian line had been sunk or captured. One cruiser and two destroyers escaped sinking, capture or internment. That was all. The Russians lost 4,830 men, the Japanese 117. It was the most devastating naval victory in modern history, and it established Japan as the undisputed mistress of Asiatic waters.
Once the enemy's power at sea was broken, the Japanese embarked on a campaign similar to the Formosa-Pescadores expedition of 1895. They sent an army to the Russian island of Sakhalin, lying north of Hokkaido. The occupation was effected against little opposition. On the Asiatic mainland, meanwhile, the armies had reached a deadlock of exhaustion. Both countries were ready for peace. Russia's reserves were still enormous, but revolution was threatening at home. The Japanese, in spite of their brilliant victories at sea and on land, had about reached the limit of their military effort. Prolongation of the war seemed foolish for either side. At this juncture President Theodore Roosevelt stepped in. Pleased at having the Japanese in the dominant role in Asia, as was the great majority of the American people, he proposed an armistice. The Treaty of Portsmouth resulted. By its terms Russia agreed to recognize Japan's special interests in Korea and to surrender her rights and privileges in South Manchuria to Japan. No indemnity payment was required of Russia. Sakhalin was divided between the two nations, the northern half going to Russia, the southern to Japan.
Although the treaty was unpopular with the public at home, Japan had got what she wanted from the war. She was mistress of Asiatic waters. The road lay clear for further imperialist expansion*. The threat of the Slav, which had been so menacing, was done away with. Furthermore, almost literally over night -- within the 36 hours of the Battle of Tsushima -- Japan had projected herself into the exclusive and jealous ranks of the Great Powers. Steaming against Rojestvensky, Togo had flown this signal from the masthead of his flagship: "The destiny of the Empire depends upon this one battle," The battle had been won, and the Empire was riding high.
* In 1905 Korea assigned full authority over her foreign relations to Japan; in 1907 Tokyo took over internal administration; in 1910 the treaty of annexation was signed.
The Japanese participated in World War 1 too. Togo's entire main battle line at Tsushima had been foreign-built. Rapidly, however, the shipyards of Kure and Yokosuka developed to the point where they could turn out capital ships. By the time negotiations at Portsmouth were over Japan had two battleships of 16,400 tons building in England. Two battleships of over 19,000 tons were under construction in Japan. Shipyards of the homeland were turning out simultaneously four armored and one light cruiser.However, the advent of England's new super-warship, the fast, big-gunned Dreadnought, changed the construction plans of every navy in the world. The Dreadnought carried ten 12-inch rifles, was rated at 21 knots. It made obsolete every capital ship preceding it. Japan's first two dreadnoughts (the name became generic) were laid down in 1909 and completed in 1912 and 1913, respectively. Battle cruisers were the next type adopted in the program to keep up with the latest design. By 1915 Japan had four: Kongo, Hiei, Haruna and Kirishima.These are familiar names to the men who have been fighting Japan at sea since December 7, 1941, for when the war started they played important roles in the Japanese battle line. Colin Kelley's famous attack was thought to have sunk the Haruna early in the war. We later had to admit that Haruna had survived to take part in many later engagements. Two of these old battle cruisers (they are now classified as battleships) were reported sunk off Guadalcanal as they were supporting Japanese landings there.
When they first came off the ways more than 30 years ago, the Kongo class carried a main battery of eight 14-inch, 45 calibre guns. They had an over all length of 704 feet, a beam of between 92 and 95 feet. Over a period of years, of course, they underwent extensive modifications to fit them for modern fighting conditions. The Kongo, for instance, was completely rebuilt in 1935-1937.
Approximately the same story applies to the four 14-inch battleships Japan had built by 1918. They were Fuso, Yamashiro, Ise and Hyuga. Of these, the first two were reported sunk at the Second Battle of the Philippines Sea. Ise and Hyuga have undergone a strange transformation. Both carry a short flight deck, and, being neither fish nor fowl, are known as "hermaphrodites". They are a far cry from the sleek vessels laid down in the yards of the Kawasaki and Mitsubishi Companies in 1915.
Lighter units, of course, kept pace in that expansion of World War I days. So firmly embedded in the Japanese mind was the conviction that their existence as a Great Power depended on their sea forces, that no expense was spared to keep the Navy modern, big and powerful.
When the World War came, Japan was in an excellent position. She could jump either way or she could remain neutral. Traditionally, Japan was Britain's ally. Traditionally, also, Japan remembered with bitterness Germany's intervention in her affairs in 1895. That loss of Port Arthur, occasioned by the Western diplomats, had always rankled. But more important than these considerations was the prospect of loot with little risk attached. Japan entered the war on the side of the Allies, but not until secret commitments had been made granting to Japan those German-held islands in the Pacific north of the Equator. Islands to the south were reserved for Britain.
The part played by Japan in the war was not particularly significant. Germany had a lease-hold on Tsingtao and the port of Kiaochow. Based there was the German Far Eastern squadron under Vice Admiral Graf von Spee. Japan's ultimatum and declaration of war allowed Spee's ships (two fast armored cruisers and two light cruisers) ample time to disappear into the Pacific. When Britain entered the war, Spee was at Ponape in the Carolines. From there he went toward Japan to Pagan in the Marianas. After Japan's ultimatum had expired, he lost himself among the Marshall atolls. For months these cruisers raised havoc with Allied merchant shipping. The light cruiser Emden made one of the most devastating forays of this kind in history. Although Japan took part in the hunt for the Germans, it was a half-hearted effort at best. Her contribution to the pursuit consisted of an old Russian battleship, one of those that had been torpedoed the first night at Port Arthur, and some decrepit cruisers. Spee was not bothering Japan and Japan did not bother Spee. He was finally brought to bay and sunk by the British at the Battle of the Falklands.
Meanwhile, in a joint Army-Navy operation of a type which the Japanese have employed so often in their history Tsingtao was occupied by the Mikado's armies. Hard on the heels of this operation against the enemy, Japan pressed the infamous Twenty-one Demands on China -- demands which would in effect have reduced all of China to the status of Korea before her annexation. The pattern of conquest was even then being laid out.
All during the war, Japan kept her battle fleet within home waters. She did do good work, however, in escorting Australian convoys in the Indian Ocean. And she did send one cruiser and three destroyer divisions to the Mediterranean, where their work was praised by the British.
In return for this service, the League of Nations granted to the Mikado a mandate over the Marshall, the Caroline, and the Marianas Islands (less Guam). Here was the source of those "unsinkable aircraft carriers" of our day: Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Saipan, Truk, Peleliu, and so many others. Measured in terms of American blood lost on these islands, Japan was paid a heavy price for her services in World War I.
At this juncture Japan was faced with the prospect of seeing the Russian colossus establishing bases which would enable her to become the dominant sea power in the Pacific. Japan's whole position of influence in the Far East was threatened. Furthermore, Russian acquisition of Manchuria would mean that Korea was encircled on land. Ultimately, it would mean that Russia would "acquire" Korea too.
Interests of the two countries were thus diametrically opposed. Both nations openly rushed preparations for war. Russian shipyards, working full blast, turned out ships as fast as possible. Each new one was immediately dispatched to the fleet in the Pacific. Japan acquired warships as quickly as they came off the ways in England. The Japanese fleet drilled and trained and maneuvered constantly. Morale was excellent, the victories of the China was having been a heady tonic. Efficiency reached new heights. The Russian fleets, on the other hand, lay in the harbors of the Pacific, the Baltic, and the Black Sea gathering barnacles. The crews, whose discontent with the Czar's graft-ridden, corrupt, inefficient government was already smouldering, talked revolution.
Japan risked everything in a conflict with Russia. Her fleet was heavily outnumbered, although Russian dispositions were such as to cut down greatly the disparity. Japanese losses at sea could not be replaced. Her yards were still not capable of building capital ships, and the international laws of neutrality prohibited the purchase of warships abroad by a nation at war. If Japan should be decisively beaten at sea, Russia would have a free hand on the continent and would even be in a position to invade the Japanese homeland.
On the other hand, Russia could replace losses of ships from her own yards. Even if defeated at sea, her enormous manpower would probably enable her to fight indefinitely, if need be, on the mainland. Russia had far less at stake.
Japan possessed one great advantage. Her bases for repair and supply were near the scene where action must take place. Vast distances, spanned by a single railroad line, lay between Russian bases in the Pacific and the industries of the West. Problems of supply were staggering. For a nation as incompetently administered as the Russian, the problems were insuperable.
Such was the background and the stakes involved. Diplomatic maneuvers failed inevitably. The issues had to be decided by the fleets and by the armies.
Russian disposition of naval units on the eve of war could hardly have been worse. She had a fleet in the Black Sea that was absolutely worthless, for by international treaty the Dardanelles could not be transited by warships. The English Navy was a potent guarantor of that treaty. Thus the Alliance of 1902 was paying big dividends. A second fleet was in the Baltic. It seemed doubtful that these ships could even make the agonizingly long voyage around the Cape of Good Hope to the waters of the Far East. Sailing ships might have done it, but the steamers needed coal. Neutrals were forbidden by international law to fuel ships of a belligerent nation. Russia conceivably could, and later did, rely on France to make this breach of neutrality. Finally, there was the Pacific fleet, the only one of immediate danger to the Japanese. This was largely based on Port Arthur and consisted of seven battleships, powerful units but not the equal of those of the Japanese; one armored and five protected cruisers, much inferior to the enemy's, two gunboats, 25 destroyers and two minelayers. In addition, over a thousand miles away at Vladivostok, were three good armored cruisers, one protected cruiser, 17 torpedo boats and numerous auxiliaries.
To oppose this force Japan had its six modern battleships, eight modern armored cruisers, 17 protected cruisers of which about half were modern, four new torpedo-gunboats, 20 destroyers, and over 70 torpedo-boats. In addition to this superiority in guns and armor, Japanese personnel from the High Command on down had a big edge in experience, in training, and in general over-all competence. In matters of strategy, in tactics, and in seamanship the Russians were greatly inferior.
On the night of February 8, 1904, the Russian fleet lay at anchor in the roadstead outside of Port Arthur. Although war seemed imminent, there had been no declaration and there was apparently hope for some kind of mediation. Ship's lights were burning. Two destroyers were patrolling in a half-hearted manner, and what torpedo nets had been set protected only the waists of the ships. It was a perfect opportunity for the Japanese for whom a declaration of war was easily dispensed with. Admiral Togo, now in command of the Fleet, had sailed from Sasebo on the sixth. His approach had been undetected. With the Russians sitting in the roadstead like ducks, Togo sent his destroyers in. Eighteen torpedoes were fired; three found their marks. The two finest Russian battleships, Czarevick and Retvisan, and the light cruiser Pallada were badly hit but did not sink. Togo failed to follow up his initial advantage, and the Russians withdrew to the shelter of Port Arthur guns. Here they stayed.
Japan was faced with the problem of whether she dared risk an expeditionary force to Korea while control of the sea was lacking. Should Togo be defeated, only disaster could follow. She took the risk, and 60,000 men were transported without incident to Korea, the first of many soldiers to be sent to the continent.
Meanwhile, Togo was blockading Port Arthur. (He had sent part of his heavy cruiser squadron to deal with the cruisers at Vladivostok.) The Russians would not come out and he could not get in. In his effort to solve this impasse, Togo made three separate attempts to sink block ships at the mouth of the harbor and so bottle up the enemy. Seventeen merchant ships* were vainly sacrificed with considerable loss of life. As the months wore on the situation became more serious for the Japanese. The Russian ships injured in the first blow had been repaired. Command of the Russian fleet had been taken over by Admiral Makaroff, an extraordinarily able leader, who was injecting new life into his personnel. Most serious of all, intelligence reports indicated that the Baltic Fleet was in the throes of preparations to steam to the Pacific. A successful reinforcement would have made the odds against Togo enormous. The Port Arthur force had to be disposed of.
Careful observations had been made of Russian movements between their own minefields in the roadstead. Under cover of darkness Japanese minelayers were sent in to mine the channels. The stratagem worked. Makaroff was lured out of the harbor by a Japanese flotilla which fled at his approach. On returning to the harbor, the flagship Petropavlosk struck a mine and blew up, killing Makaroff and most of the crew. A second battleship was disabled.
Even more drastic steps had to be taken, however, if Japan was to be in a position to deal with the Russian naval forces separately. A decision was made to employ the tactics of the war with China, and an army was landed on the Liaotung Peninsula. Meanwhile, the Japanese Navy had suffered heavy losses. Taking a leaf out of the enemy's book, the Russians mined, under cover of fog, an area in which the Japanese battleships had been seen frequently to maneuver. Two battleships struck mines and sank. The Japanese yelled foul at the top of their lungs, for the mined area was several miles off-shore, a violation of the unwritten but generally accepted rules protecting neutral shipping. Foul or no, the loss was a serious one. One third of their heaviest units was gone at a blow. On the same day a light cruiser collided with a ship of its own fleet and went to the bottom.
The dreary weeks of blockading dragged on while the Japanese Army fought its way, with heavy losses, toward Port Arthur. Vitgeft, the new Russian Admiral, made one abortive sortie out from the protection of the big guns. He got within sight of the Japanese fleet but turned tail for home before any action ensued. A battleship, on the way into harbor, was badly damaged by a Russian mine. Circumstances finally forced Vitgeft's hand. By August the Japanese Army was menacingly near. An order from the Czar commanded Vitgeft to make a break for Vladivostok where the fleet was to wait until reinforced. Thus was the Battle of the Yellow Sea joined.
Vitgeft's dash was intercepted by Togo who had anticipated some such move. The Russians' six battleships (those damaged having been repaired), four light cruisers, and eight destroyers were opposed by four battleships, three armored
* It is interesting to note that the expansion of the merchant marine kept pace with the expansion of the Navy in this period. In 1893, thirty merchant ships totaling 4,426 tons were constructed in Japan. Nine years later 204 ships with a tonnage of 29,363 tons were built.
cruisers, eight light cruisers, and torpedo boats. Togo's mission was to sink what he could but, at all odds, to prevent a break-through to Vladivostok. In this latter he was successful. The engagement was carried on for the most part at long range, and was indecisive until toward, evening two 12-inch shells simultaneously hit the Russian flagship. Vitgeft, most of his staff, and nearly everybody in the conning tower were killed in the explosions. The ship went out of control with the result that the entire Russian battle line was thrown into whirling confusion. At this critical moment the Japanese closed the range. Under the renewed assault, and with no leadership to guide them, the Russians broke for Port Arthur.
Togo's failure to finish off the demoralized enemy that night has been criticized, but he did accomplish his mission. Although not a Russian ship was sunk, not a one got through to Vladivostok. The flagship was so badly damaged it had to make for a neutral port, where it was interned, as were several smaller vessels. Two battleships were battered too heavily to be repaired at Port Arthur. The other three big ships were hurt; furthermore, nearly all their 12-inch ammunition had been expended, and it could not be replaced.
The Japanese, too, were hurt, in some instances heavily. But they were all intact and could be marshalled against the Baltic fleet, if necessary. It was a decisive Japanese victory.
A few days later the Vladivostok-based cruisers received a bad mauling from the squadron Togo had sent to counter them. One Russian ship was sunk. The others limped back to port.
These fleet actions were the last undertaken at sea by the Russian Pacific Fleet. By December, after taking huge losses, the Japanese Army had succeeded in capturing famous "203-Metre Hill", a promintory overlooking Port Arthur. This sealed the fate of the battleships. With their heavy howitzers, the Japanese "zeroed in" on the armored ships and methodically sank all but one. Only the battleship Sevastopol put up much of a fight. She steamed out of the harbor and anchored in the outer roads where she fought gallantly her hopeless battle. It was three weeks before she succumbed to the repeated Japanese torpedo attacks. In January 1905 Port Arthur surrendered. Togo was master of Far Eastern waters. He had long respite in which to prepare for the final Russian challenge.
The challenge had been long in the making. Twelve thousand miles from the scene of action, the Russian Baltic Fleet finally got under way by the middle of October 1904. The fleet was a strange conglomeration of the obsolete and the untried. Three-fourths of the men, it is said, had never been to sea before. Enormous difficulties confronted Admiral Rojestvensky before he could hope to come anywhere near Pacific waters. Somehow the fuel problem had to be solved. Somehow the fleet had to be welded into at least a semblance of a fighting unit. Somehow the men had to be trained.
Somehow Rojestvensky did it. He bullied and cajoled coal from neutrals who had no business giving it to him. He performed miracles of fueling from colliers at sea. He trained men in gunnery although he was short of ammunition. And he shepherded his heavy units through the North Sea, clear down around the Cape of Good Hope up to Madagascar. Here he picked up lighter vessels which had been able to come by way of the Suez Canal. After three debilitating months of inactivity there, while the Admiral argued long distance with the Admiralty, the entire fleet got under way once more, transited the entire Indian Ocean, the Straits of Malacca, and reached Camranh Bay without once having entered a harbor. This was a remarkable feat for those days.
Leaving Cochim, China, Rojestvensky entered upon the last lap. His forces looked imposing: 45 ships, including seven battleships, six cruisers, a flotilla of destroyers, the rest auxiliaries and the train. Four of the battleships were so new that this long voyage to destruction was their shakedown cruise. On the other hand, four ships of the line were so old that their own fleet called them the "flat-irons and galoshes". They were worse than useless.
Meanwhile, Togo's forces had been resting, refitting, and were at the peak of fighting trim. Commander H. H. Frost, U.S.N., has estimated Japanese superiority in materiel at the Battle of Tsushima as two to one, their superiority in personnel as "at least" the same.
Contact between the two fleets was made as Rojestvensky steamed east of Tsushima Island on his dash for Vladivostok, now the only port remaining open to him. Immediately, the superiority of Togo's forces told. In a daring maneuver which gave the Russians an initial advantage they failed to capitalize on, Togo crossed the enemy's T and brought the guns of his heavies to bear on the leading Russian battleships. His fire control was excellent. The Japanese repeatedly scored four hits to the Russians' one. No fleet could take that punishment. One by one the Russian ships of the line were sunk or put out of action. Those which could stagger on tried vainly to break through to Vladivostok. It was like trying to break through a shifting, impenetrable wall of steel. By night four of Russia's five best battleships were on the bottom. The ships remaining were harried all night long by torpedo attacks which sank an old battleship and at least two cruisers.
Morning brought the realization that any further efforts would be madness. Rojestvensky was out of the battle, severely wounded. Nebogatoff surrendered his four old hulks and the wounded battleships remaining in his command. Some few other Russian vessels made neutral ports where they were interned. Thirty-six hours after the initial contact every ship of the main Russian line had been sunk or captured. One cruiser and two destroyers escaped sinking, capture or internment. That was all. The Russians lost 4,830 men, the Japanese 117. It was the most devastating naval victory in modern history, and it established Japan as the undisputed mistress of Asiatic waters.
Once the enemy's power at sea was broken, the Japanese embarked on a campaign similar to the Formosa-Pescadores expedition of 1895. They sent an army to the Russian island of Sakhalin, lying north of Hokkaido. The occupation was effected against little opposition. On the Asiatic mainland, meanwhile, the armies had reached a deadlock of exhaustion. Both countries were ready for peace. Russia's reserves were still enormous, but revolution was threatening at home. The Japanese, in spite of their brilliant victories at sea and on land, had about reached the limit of their military effort. Prolongation of the war seemed foolish for either side. At this juncture President Theodore Roosevelt stepped in. Pleased at having the Japanese in the dominant role in Asia, as was the great majority of the American people, he proposed an armistice. The Treaty of Portsmouth resulted. By its terms Russia agreed to recognize Japan's special interests in Korea and to surrender her rights and privileges in South Manchuria to Japan. No indemnity payment was required of Russia. Sakhalin was divided between the two nations, the northern half going to Russia, the southern to Japan.
Although the treaty was unpopular with the public at home, Japan had got what she wanted from the war. She was mistress of Asiatic waters. The road lay clear for further imperialist expansion*. The threat of the Slav, which had been so menacing, was done away with. Furthermore, almost literally over night -- within the 36 hours of the Battle of Tsushima -- Japan had projected herself into the exclusive and jealous ranks of the Great Powers. Steaming against Rojestvensky, Togo had flown this signal from the masthead of his flagship: "The destiny of the Empire depends upon this one battle," The battle had been won, and the Empire was riding high.
* In 1905 Korea assigned full authority over her foreign relations to Japan; in 1907 Tokyo took over internal administration; in 1910 the treaty of annexation was signed.
The Japanese participated in World War 1 too. Togo's entire main battle line at Tsushima had been foreign-built. Rapidly, however, the shipyards of Kure and Yokosuka developed to the point where they could turn out capital ships. By the time negotiations at Portsmouth were over Japan had two battleships of 16,400 tons building in England. Two battleships of over 19,000 tons were under construction in Japan. Shipyards of the homeland were turning out simultaneously four armored and one light cruiser.However, the advent of England's new super-warship, the fast, big-gunned Dreadnought, changed the construction plans of every navy in the world. The Dreadnought carried ten 12-inch rifles, was rated at 21 knots. It made obsolete every capital ship preceding it. Japan's first two dreadnoughts (the name became generic) were laid down in 1909 and completed in 1912 and 1913, respectively. Battle cruisers were the next type adopted in the program to keep up with the latest design. By 1915 Japan had four: Kongo, Hiei, Haruna and Kirishima.These are familiar names to the men who have been fighting Japan at sea since December 7, 1941, for when the war started they played important roles in the Japanese battle line. Colin Kelley's famous attack was thought to have sunk the Haruna early in the war. We later had to admit that Haruna had survived to take part in many later engagements. Two of these old battle cruisers (they are now classified as battleships) were reported sunk off Guadalcanal as they were supporting Japanese landings there.
When they first came off the ways more than 30 years ago, the Kongo class carried a main battery of eight 14-inch, 45 calibre guns. They had an over all length of 704 feet, a beam of between 92 and 95 feet. Over a period of years, of course, they underwent extensive modifications to fit them for modern fighting conditions. The Kongo, for instance, was completely rebuilt in 1935-1937.
Approximately the same story applies to the four 14-inch battleships Japan had built by 1918. They were Fuso, Yamashiro, Ise and Hyuga. Of these, the first two were reported sunk at the Second Battle of the Philippines Sea. Ise and Hyuga have undergone a strange transformation. Both carry a short flight deck, and, being neither fish nor fowl, are known as "hermaphrodites". They are a far cry from the sleek vessels laid down in the yards of the Kawasaki and Mitsubishi Companies in 1915.
Lighter units, of course, kept pace in that expansion of World War I days. So firmly embedded in the Japanese mind was the conviction that their existence as a Great Power depended on their sea forces, that no expense was spared to keep the Navy modern, big and powerful.
When the World War came, Japan was in an excellent position. She could jump either way or she could remain neutral. Traditionally, Japan was Britain's ally. Traditionally, also, Japan remembered with bitterness Germany's intervention in her affairs in 1895. That loss of Port Arthur, occasioned by the Western diplomats, had always rankled. But more important than these considerations was the prospect of loot with little risk attached. Japan entered the war on the side of the Allies, but not until secret commitments had been made granting to Japan those German-held islands in the Pacific north of the Equator. Islands to the south were reserved for Britain.
The part played by Japan in the war was not particularly significant. Germany had a lease-hold on Tsingtao and the port of Kiaochow. Based there was the German Far Eastern squadron under Vice Admiral Graf von Spee. Japan's ultimatum and declaration of war allowed Spee's ships (two fast armored cruisers and two light cruisers) ample time to disappear into the Pacific. When Britain entered the war, Spee was at Ponape in the Carolines. From there he went toward Japan to Pagan in the Marianas. After Japan's ultimatum had expired, he lost himself among the Marshall atolls. For months these cruisers raised havoc with Allied merchant shipping. The light cruiser Emden made one of the most devastating forays of this kind in history. Although Japan took part in the hunt for the Germans, it was a half-hearted effort at best. Her contribution to the pursuit consisted of an old Russian battleship, one of those that had been torpedoed the first night at Port Arthur, and some decrepit cruisers. Spee was not bothering Japan and Japan did not bother Spee. He was finally brought to bay and sunk by the British at the Battle of the Falklands.
Meanwhile, in a joint Army-Navy operation of a type which the Japanese have employed so often in their history Tsingtao was occupied by the Mikado's armies. Hard on the heels of this operation against the enemy, Japan pressed the infamous Twenty-one Demands on China -- demands which would in effect have reduced all of China to the status of Korea before her annexation. The pattern of conquest was even then being laid out.
All during the war, Japan kept her battle fleet within home waters. She did do good work, however, in escorting Australian convoys in the Indian Ocean. And she did send one cruiser and three destroyer divisions to the Mediterranean, where their work was praised by the British.
In return for this service, the League of Nations granted to the Mikado a mandate over the Marshall, the Caroline, and the Marianas Islands (less Guam). Here was the source of those "unsinkable aircraft carriers" of our day: Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Saipan, Truk, Peleliu, and so many others. Measured in terms of American blood lost on these islands, Japan was paid a heavy price for her services in World War I.
Conclusion
An ancient Japanese proverb says: "The life blood of Japan is the water of the sea." There is much truth in this statement. In ancient times the sea served as a mighty line of defense, protecting the homeland against foreign invasion. During the years of seclusion, however, Japan turned back from the sea while other nations mastered its dangers. The result is implicit in the statement of a Shogun to the Mikado: "We are surrounded by the sea, and therefore vulnerable at every point." The sea brought life, but it also brought Perry and the British.
Japan's fortunes in relation to Asiatic powers have always varied directly with her control over adjacent waters. Dreams of conquest Have from earliest times been a part of her life. From the Empress Jingo through Hideyoshi down to the present time the desire of this island people to expand, to control, to be mighty beyond their size has run like a constant design through the pattern of their history. Yi-sun and his "turtleback" taught them that conquest was impossible with an army alone. A Navy, powerful enough to control Eastern waters, must be basic to all overseas ventures, just as it must be basic to homeland defense. Perry provided stimulus, and after his visit the Japanese, with great single-mindedness, built just such a Navy.
Few Americans had knowledge or understanding enough to realize the implications of Japan's new position in the Orient at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Shortly after the Battle of Manila Bay, however, Admiral George Dewey made some extraordinarily prescient remarks on the subject. He said:
"I look forward some 40 to 50 years and see a Japanese naval squadron entering this harbor, as I have just done, and demanding the surrender of Manila and the Philippines, with the plan of making these islands a part of the great Pacific Japanese empire of the future.
"I will not live to witness what you will see if you live your ordinary life. That will be the conquest of China by Japan and when that is done conquest of all island possessions from north to south off the Pacific coast of the Far East."
The pattern was there, although few had vision enough to see it. The Japanese Navy grew and with it Japanese ambitions, until they finally over-reached themselves at Pearl Harbor. One of the biggest mistakes was Japan's 大艦巨砲主義 Taikan Kyohou Shugi. Which is basically Bigger Guns need Bigger Ships. Big Ships will defeat all the American ships. However, you should read about it in the page The Pacific War.
Copyright © 2014 Editors of Yukikaze Shinbunsha/ Editors of The Yukikaze Times.