TWENTIETH CENTURY JAPAN AND THE WAR WITH RUSSIA
The Period of Enlightened Rule--The Japanese Imperial
Family--Semi-Democratic Government--Social and Educational
Conditions--Religion and Law--Industries and Commerce--European
Influence--The Agricultural Class--The Greater Japan--Japan and
Asia--The Leader of Asiatic Countries--Japan’s Development of
Formosa--Her Influence in Siam--Her Interests in China--Japan
and the Boxer Movement--Japanese Trade in Manchuria--Japan’s
Interests in Corea--The Anglo-Japanese Alliance--Japan and the
United States--Japan and Russia--Russian Interference with Japan in
Manchuria and Corea--The Diplomatic Game with Russia--Outbreak of
the Russo-Japanese War--Japan’s Naval and Military Strength--The
Naval and Military Operations at the Opening of War
Having taken her place as a power on an equality with the great
world-powers, Japan entered upon the Twentieth Century as the leader
of Asiatic nations in introducing modern civilization. The year
1901, in the Japanese calendar, was called the Meiji Era, or Period
of Enlightened Rule--a fitting name for the first year of the New
Empire in the new century. The electoral franchise had been extended,
in 1900, to include all excepting certain uneducated persons in the
lowest classes. The country was now divided politically into fifty
Prefectures, Imperial Cities and Territories, in each of which the
people had a voice in the administration. Consistent with her alliance
with the great nations of Christendom, and with a constitutional
government, the Japanese people now enjoyed, not only representative
institutions, but also local self-government, freedom of the press and
of public meetings, and religious liberty. Behold Twentieth Century
Japan, then, open to any and every religious faith; her people taking
part in the government, and through the Imperial Diet, a representative
body, wielding a direct influence; the right of petition, assembly,
discussion, and publication, free and open; advocating free and
untrammeled education of her masses; and to the ambitious student
lending a helping hand to the attainment of the highest education.
The Japanese Imperial family, at the dawn of the twentieth century,
had severed its connection with all the impracticable and æsthetic
traditions of 2,600 years; and its members permitted the people now to
look upon their faces, meeting Japanese subjects face to face, without
fear on either side. Even the Emperor, Mutsuhito, the one hundred and
twenty-second Mikado in direct descent of the dynasty founded B.C. 660,
is to-day a personage far different from the Mikado of 1804. Instead
of the secluded monarch, whose face was never seen by his subjects,
the Mikado of 1904 appears in public quite as freely as the King of
England or the President of France. Three times a year he reviews his
troops; he permits foreign visitors to be shown through his palace;
he receives distinguished foreigners in person; he drives through the
streets and parks daily. This monarch, not by force or by revolution,
but voluntarily, surrendered to the people many of his prerogatives.
By the Mikado, in fact, more than by any statesman or party, Japan was
recreated.
As for the Empress, Her Majesty, more than any Japanese man, is
responsible for the changed conditions surrounding Japanese womanhood.
Toward the close of the nineteenth century she adapted modern ideas to
Japanese customs, in so far as they affected those of her sex. Instead
of being a recluse, a prisoner, virtually a slave, with blackened
teeth and shaved eyebrows, like her predecessor of 1804, the Empress
of 1904 appears frequently in public with her beauty unimpaired. She
encourages, in every practical way, feminine education. She is a patron
of many artistic and philanthropic enterprises and a member of the
International Red Cross Society. She is beloved by the people for her
many good and charitable deeds. Mainly through the influence of the
Empress, then, the conditions surrounding Japanese women, with the dawn
of the twentieth century, had changed for the better. Formerly, the
Japanese women had no rights whatsoever. A wife was merely an Oriental
chattel--she could be sold or divorced as her husband willed. In
1899, however, rights which her husband was bound to respect, together
with her legal social status, were defined as follows: “A woman can
now become the head of a family and exercise authority as such; she
can inherit and own property and manage it herself; she can exercise
parental authority; she can act as guardian or executor and has a voice
in family councils.”
The Crown Prince of Japan, Yoshihito--Prince of Haru-no-Miya--who will
succeed the present Mikado on the throne, followed his father and
mother in the adoption of Western ideas and customs. Though he has
never traveled outside of Japan, he has ignored the traditions of his
dynasty to an extent unheard of in any other Oriental country. His
attendance at the Nobles School in Tokio marked the beginning of the
new era in Japanese education. For theretofore the Imperial Princes
were educated privately within the seclusion of the palace walls. The
Crown Prince, however, recited his lessons with the children of the
nobles and joined them in their games. In May, 1900, the Crown Prince,
then in his twenty-first year, was married at Haru to the second
daughter of Prince Kujo. His bride, Princess Sava-Ko, was then in her
nineteenth year. As the future Empress of Japan, she is now receiving
an education that will fit her for the throne.
To conclude this mention of the Imperial family, it may be stated that
the Shogun, meantime, and all that he represented, had passed into
history. The last of the Tokugawa dynasty--referred to in a previous
chapter--who abdicated in 1867, was, in 1901, living in retirement in
Tokio as a private citizen, riding a bicycle and otherwise evincing
practical approval of the New Japan that had shouldered aside the Old
Japan.
The new form of government in Japan was declared by statesmen of the
Liberal party to be only semi-democratic. Enlightened Japanese and
students of Japan’s development asserted that Japan was hampered rather
than helped by this semi-democracy, and affirmed that the new order of
things was a complete disappointment.
“The representative assembly of Japan, so admirably arranged in
theory,” wrote United States Senator Beveridge, after a close study of
the subject, “has more than once proved to be a vexatious interference
with the far-seeing plans of the empire’s real statesmen. The floors
of the Diet have frequently been made rostrums from which demagogy
has shouted to the masses--a stage upon which candidates for applause
have outscreamed one another in playing the rôle of parliamentary
conspicuity.”
All such criticism of the new form of government was based on
comparison with that of European powers whose period of development
included centuries, while Japan’s period of advancement covered barely
half a century. Against the “disappointment” of students who had been
educated out of Japan, and of “enlightened Japanese” who had traveled
abroad, stood the satisfaction of the great body of people, whose
source of satisfaction was the comparison of conditions in their
country at the beginning of the twentieth century with conditions at
the opening of the nineteenth century. Conditions in Japan in the
first years of the nineteenth century are given in detail in previous
chapters of this work. In comparison with those conditions, it is now
in order to give the most important details of conditions one hundred
years later. It must be remarked, first, that all Japan’s real advance
took place during the last third of the nineteenth century, and that
conditions in 1904 were the result, therefore, of the achievements of a
single generation. It is not recorded in history that any other nation
advanced so far in so short a time.
In 1904, foreigners, instead of being feared, hated, and excluded
from the country, as in 1804, were invited to come to Japan by the
Government itself--to teach in Japanese universities, to drill the
Japanese army and navy, to advise in matters of administration, and
to engage in trade. Thousands of foreigners, then, of many different
nationalities, not only traveled in Japan, but resided there. On the
other hand, thousands of Japanese subjects were now seen in all parts
of the world; many were enrolled as students in European and American
universities; and many were residing in foreign countries as merchants
and traders. In all the harbors of Japan were seen vessels flying the
flags of many different nationalities; while vessels carrying the
Japanese flag plied regularly between home ports and Asia, America,
Europe, and Australia, conducting freight and passenger service.
In 1904, too, the classes below the nobility had been minimized to
two--namely, the gentry and the commons. Even in these two classes the
distinction was nominal. Only in official records, in the exercise of
the elective franchise and on certain other occasions, were the people
required to register their grade in the social or political scale.
Aside from the nobility, caste had disappeared. Merit, not rank, was
rewarded in public life; while in private life claim to respect lay in
achievement and education rather than in one’s standing as to class.
In education, a suggestion of the broadening process in this
field--from the mere study of the Japanese and Chinese classics--is
contained in the statement that one college in Tokio, in its desire
to attract students, took the name “College of One Hundred Branches.”
Studies in Japan now include all Occidental as well as all Oriental
branches. With the spread of education, with the learning of languages,
came foreign books. The study of the English language had been made
compulsory in all schools, and with the advent of the twentieth century
thousands of students had learned also French, German, Spanish, Dutch,
Russian, and Italian. Books in all these languages were imported, and
libraries throughout Japan now contained as many books in foreign
languages as in Japanese. The dead languages, too--Greek, Latin,
Hebrew, and Sanskrit--had become part of the curriculum of nearly all
schools and colleges. Formerly, only nobles, priests, and those of the
military classes received an education. Now elementary education was
free for all, the American school system, with certain modifications,
having been put into effect throughout the Empire. Books in many
different foreign languages were also now printed within the Empire, in
printing-offices equipped with modern type, presses, and appliances.
A large number of magazines were published in Tokio and Yokohama, and
almost every town had its local newspaper.
In religion, Japan in 1904 still remained a Buddhist country, yet
Christianity had 125,000 enrolled believers. With religious freedom
came Christian ministers, who built Christian churches which were
openly attended by Christian converts, while a gospel ship cruised in
the Inland Sea, seeking converts among Japanese sailormen and fishermen.
Japan began the twentieth century with a system of law and legal
administration based on European models. The criminal law, for example,
was based on the Code Napoleon. Trial by jury, however, had not
yet been adopted. There were four courts--namely, Local, District,
Appellate, and Supreme. The judges were appointed by the Emperor and
held office for life or during good behavior. Certain foreigners
claimed at this time that a European citizen stood small chance of
receiving justice in a Japanese court. To refute these charges a
Yokohama newspaper, the “Japan Mail,” made an examination of the courts
there covering a period of six years, with the following result:
Ninety-six cases brought by Europeans. In eight a judgment partly in
favor of each party; compromised and settled thirty-eight. Out of
the remaining fifty, thirty-six were decided in favor of the foreign
plaintiff and fourteen in favor of the Japanese defendant. These facts
show that foreigners were treated fairly in, at least, the courts of
Yokohama.
In the world’s commerce, Japan at the beginning of the nineteenth
century played so small a part that no record was kept of her exports
or her imports. In the first year of the twentieth century, the figures
for Japan’s commerce showed $130,000,000 for exports and $140,000,000
for imports. At this time, next to the soldier, the merchant was the
most important factor in Japanese society and civilization. Formerly
despised for trading for profit, the Japanese merchant class now
represented the complete change from feudal and æsthetic Japan to
commercial and democratic Japan. The sword and the barracks were still
first in Japanese esteem, but the next highest honors belonged to the
ledger and the business office. Behind her new commerce lay Japan’s
newly developed manufacturing industries. In the gardens of the Prince
of Mito in Tokio was built a national arsenal. And all over the Empire,
Japanese makers of things had built an immense number of manufacturing
plants--engine works, electrical apparatus manufactories, cotton,
woolen, and paper mills, and iron foundries, dockyards, and shipyards.
As for modern means of communication, Japan began the present century
with four thousand miles of railway, ten thousand miles of telegraph,
and, in the Japanese capital city alone, sixty-five hundred telephones.
Telegraph and telephone bureaus in the Mikado’s palace placed the
Emperor in direct communication with his entire Empire and with the
whole world. The jinrikisha remained the most popular local conveyance,
principally because Japan lacked horses. But there were also
horse-cars, stages, a few horses, and some carriages, trolley-cars, and
bicycles. In 1904, an electric railway had even invaded Kyoto, once
sacred to the Mikado. Trolley-cars even ran through the ancient domains
of Shogun and Emperor, where once the peasant who even unwittingly
stepped foot was arrested and ultimately beheaded.
In the three great necessities--food, clothing, and shelter--Japan
began the twentieth century with a modern bill of fare, with European
dress, and with houses built and furnished to some extent in Western
fashion. Once a nation of vegetarians, the Japanese diet now included
anything and everything to eat and drink known in Europe. Many
families employed foreign cooks, and great numbers of the common
people ate foreign food at least once a day. In 1904, the Empress of
Japan received foreign visitors dressed precisely as were dressed
the European women in Tokio; that is to say, in the latest Parisian
gowns, with the addition of the latest Parisian millinery. The Emperor,
too, abandoned the kimono for trousers and frock coat; at least on
public occasions. In short, European clothes were as common a sight in
the streets of the greater cities as native costumes, though in the
rural districts the people still adhered strictly to the costumes of
their forefathers. In the matter of houses, the influence of foreign
architecture was, in 1904, just beginning to be perceptible. Not
that dwelling-houses were built European style, but that Japanese
architecture had become somewhat modified by foreign architecture.
Brick and stone were replacing wood in the construction of residences,
stores, and offices. Paper in doors and windows was giving way to
glass; matting for floors was being replaced by rugs. And in rooms
where formerly there was not one article of furniture--rooms in which
the family sat and slept and ate on the floor--there were now European
chairs, bedsteads, and tables. Where once the only light in the
house was furnished by a pith-wick floating in vegetable oil, or by
lightning-bugs imprisoned in a bamboo-cage, there were now lamps filled
with oil from Russia or America, and, in the cities, gas and electric
lights.
One class alone, in all Japan at the beginning of the present
century, was still of the Japan of old. This was the agricultural
class. Agriculture was still the chief pursuit of the common people.
The soil, of volcanic origin, was liberally fertilized, and yielded
immense harvests. The farms were small, exceeding in few cases more
than fifteen acres. Upon these few acres, however, a Japanese peasant
supported himself and his family, and even had something left over
after paying his tax-bills. The chief products for export were rice,
tea, and silk. It was in the _method_ that farming remained the same
as in years gone by. Very few farmers owned horses; in general, the
farmers broke the ground with a spade and cultivated it with a hoe. Of
this class a traveler has said: “Left to the soil to till it, to live
and die upon it, the Japanese farmer has remained the same--with his
horizon bounded by his rice fields, his water courses, or the timbered
hills, his intellect laid away for safe keeping in the priest’s
hands--caring little who rules him, unless he is taxed beyond the power
of flesh and blood to bear.”
In the first quarter of the twentieth century, the Japanese promised
to make of their country that which they called Greater Japan. Public
opinion, in 1904, regarding Japan’s immediate future, as summed up by
Japanese statesmen and by Japanese publicists, was as follows: “Japan
is especially favored by nature with beauty and picturesqueness of
scenery and a healthful climate, and has been appropriately called the
‘Paradise of the East.’ We shall turn this country into a grand park
of the nations, and draw pleasure-seekers from all parts of the world.
We shall build magnificent hotels and establish excellent clubs, in
most splendid style, to receive the royal visitors of Europe and the
millionaires of America.
“To all appearances, the seas about Japan and China will be the
future theatre of the Far East. The Philippines have been reduced to
a province of the United States. China, separated from us only by a
very narrow strip of water, is offering every promise of becoming a
great resource open to the world of the twentieth century. The Siberia
railway has been opened to traffic; and the construction of a canal
across Central America is expected to be finished before long.... As
for fuel, our supply of coal from the mines of Hokkaido and Kiushiu is
so abundant that the surplus, not required for our own consumption, is
exported largely into various parts of the East, where no productive
coal mines have been found except a very few ones of poor quality....
“Taking all these things into account, it is not too much to say that
the future situation of Japan will be that of a central station of
various water passages--a situation most conducive to the good of our
country; and that, numerous as the attractive places of historical
interest and natural beauty are, it is chiefly from our excellently
advantageous position--a connecting link common to the three chains of
water passage to and from Europe, America, and Asia--that we shall be
able to obtain the largest share of the riches of the nations of the
world.”
In the story of Japan’s interests and influence in Asia, in which are
involved the events that led to the war with Russia, we will first
explain the relationship of Japan to Asia from the Japanese viewpoint.
The substance of the Japanese idea at this time was that the Japanese
people regarded themselves as the natural leaders in all Asiatic
countries in the introduction of modern civilization. The Japanese
agreed that the Chinese and Coreans, for example, could learn about
civilization much faster and easier from Japan than from the countries
in Europe and America, for they had a common system of letters, and
to a certain extent common ideas. A Japanese professor is reported as
saying: “It is the mission of Japan to set up an example of a civilized
and independent national state for her Asiatic neighbors, and then
to make a confederation of all the Asiatic nations on the basis of
international law; just as it is the mission of the United States of
America to form one vast pan-American Union of all the republics of
the new hemisphere, and thus to hasten on the progress toward the
organization of the whole world.”
Supplementing which a Japanese editor is quoted as follows: “It is
our duty to transmit the essence of Occidental civilization to our
neighbors, as better success may be realized by so doing than by
introducing there the new institutions directly from the West. The
present state of things in China does not allow her to appreciate fully
the ideas of Westerners, more so because their fundamental conception
of morals is at variance with that of Occidentals. But Japan has
every facility to win the confidence of China, in consideration of
its geographical situation and of its literary affinity. The valor,
discipline, and order of our army have already gained the confidence
and respect of the Chinese, and it now remains for us to guide them
to higher possibilities with enlightened thoughts and ideas. Such
a work can not be accomplished in a day; it will require years of
perseverance and toil.”
After this citation of what the Japanese deemed to be their mission
and duty in Asia, let us see what Japan has accomplished in Asiatic
territory already acquired. Formosa, as stated in the foregoing
chapter, was ceded to Japan by China after the Chino-Japanese War.
In the first eight years under Japanese rule, the revenue of the new
territory increased many hundred per cent--from $1,500,000 in 1896
to $12,000,000 in 1903. In 1897, Japan took a complete census of the
population, built 800 miles of roads and constructed a tramway line
from Takow to Sintek. This was followed by the construction of a main
line of railway between principal cities, which now, in 1904, is open
to passenger and freight traffic. Japan also laid down three cables
connecting Formosa with Japan, Foo Chow, and the Pesadores. In the
interior of Formosa, Japan has since established a complete system of
intercommunication by means of 1,500 miles of telegraph and telephone
wires. She has opened over a hundred post-offices in Formosa, and
letters can now be sent to any part of the Empire for two cents each.
She has established nearly one hundred and fifty Government educational
institutions in Formosa, only a few of these being for Japanese,
leaving the majority for natives. Japan has now twelve great Government
hospitals on the island, at which more than 70,000 patients are treated
without charge every year. Japan has also given considerable attention
to Formosa in the matter of free vaccination and general sanitary
precautions, and has consequently greatly reduced the danger from
the frequent outbreaks of smallpox and the plague. When the Japanese
first took possession of Formosa in 1895, the people rose in rebellion
against their new rulers. By 1904, however, Japan had restored peace
throughout the island, a settled government had assumed full control
and the island’s resources were being developed to their fullest extent.
Now to glance at Japan’s influence in Asiatic countries not under
Japanese rule. First of all, Siam. The Siamese Crown Prince, for
example, after a visit to Japan, caused a Japanese building to be
constructed for himself, while the King ordered a Japanese house and
garden to be added to his palace grounds. Japan is in many ways,
indeed, the teacher and leader of the Siamese. She sends teachers to
Siam, and many Siamese boys and girls, on the other hand, are enrolled
in schools in Japan. Japan also sends seeds of raw materials to be
grown in Siam, for to Japan Siam has ever represented a source of food
supply which would remain neutral in war-time. In 1904, Japan reaped
the benefit from all such influence and teaching and seed supply; for
in that year, with the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Japan was
able to depend upon Siam for vast reserves in food supplies.
In China, the interest of the Japanese, after the Chino-Japanese War,
multiplied year by year. In 1897, a Japanese consulate was established
at Foo Chow. In that year there were only eight Japanese residents
in Foo Chow; in 1904, the number has increased to three hundred,
including natives of Formosa who have become naturalized Japanese. In
Amoy, because of its position directly opposite northern Formosa, the
Japanese have large interests. Further, on the Yangtse River, there are
Japanese lines of passenger steamers, Japanese steamers for the iron
and coal trade, and other Japanese enterprises.
“Side by side with this development of carrying facilities,” says a
traveler, “many Japanese, in the capacity of merchants, Government
employees or projectors, may be seen traveling in the Yangtse
Valley; and further the number of persons engaged in the translation
of Japanese books into Chinese has increased in an extraordinary
degree.... Nothing is more remarkable than the popularity enjoyed by
Japanese things and Japanese subjects in China.”
The facts just mentioned typify the growing influence of Japan in
China at the time of the outbreak of the Boxer Insurrection in 1900.
It should first be mentioned that in 1900 a General Missionary
Conference, attended by delegates from many branches of the Protestant
and Catholic Churches, was held in Tokio. In that same year, when
Christianity was still sending missionaries to Japan to convert the
Buddhists, behold the “heathen” nation allied with the armies of
Christendom in a suppression of the Boxer Movement in the Chinese
Empire. During that troublous year, the Japanese not only helped to
rescue Christian missionaries and Chinese converts from the fury of
mobs and an uncontrolled soldiery, but those whom they had thus saved
were transported free of charge to Japan and there given comfortable
refuge until it was safe to return to China. The principal distinct
events of historical interest marking Japan’s connection with the
suppression of the Boxer uprising were as follows: On June 11, the
Chancellor of the Japanese Legation at Pekin was murdered by a
Chinese mob. On June 17, the Japanese troops, with the allied armies,
captured the forts at Taku. On July 13-14, the Japanese, again with
the allies, took Tien-tsin by storm. On August 14, the Japanese, this
time with the divisions of the allied armies destined for the relief
of Legations and foreign residents, entered Pekin. September found the
Japanese doing their full share in policing the disturbed districts.
The Boxer Movement soon after came to an end, and the Chinese Imperial
Court--which fled from Pekin at the beginning of the trouble--now
returned to the capital. Altogether, in quelling the disturbances which
had shocked the world, and particularly in raising the siege of Pekin,
the Japanese played a brave and conspicuous part which, more than any
of their previous military triumphs, helped to establish their right to
a place on an equal footing among the world-powers.
In 1901, only twelve months after the events just narrated, Japan’s
trade in North China, especially in Manchuria, had increased more than
in the twelve years previous to the Boxer uprising. In 1903, Japanese
trade with Newchwang alone amounted to $8,000,000 and her trade with
all Manchuria to $12,000,000. And, from a commercial viewpoint, other
parts of China as well as Manchuria had become of great importance to
Japan. A partial summary of her achievements in the Chinese Empire at
the beginning of 1904, by peaceable invasion, by the introduction of
modern ideas and educational institutions, as given in the “Chinese
Recorder,” includes the following:
“1. The Agricultural College, established some years ago at Wuchang by
the Viceroy Chang Chih-tung, and managed for some time by an expert
American, has now been given over to Japanese management.
“2. The military school in Hangchau is taught wholly by Japanese.
“3. A large amount of translation work is done by the Japanese.
“4. Many Chinese students have been sent by Chang Chih-tung during
recent years to be educated in Japanese schools for Chinese Government
service.
“5. Influential Chinese newspapers, owned by Japanese, and advocating
closer union between the two countries.
“6. One hundred Japanese students enrolled in the schools at Shanghai,
studying Chinese and English.
“7. Formation of societies of Japanese in China to push the circulation
in China of books on Western learning.”
At this time, then, every Japanese subject employed in China, in
whatever capacity, “was a centre diffusing the light of liberalism.”
The Chinese themselves acknowledged that they were led along their new
path by the Japanese, who “have some degree of distant kinship with the
Chinese.” That Japan was doing her duty in the way of helping China
to the benefits of material civilization, that Japan was exerting her
influence in China for good on high planes, is shown in the words of
the most eminent Chinese scholar in America, Dr. Hirth, professor of
Chinese in Columbia University, New York City. Said he: “No capable
observer of events in China since the Imperial Court returned to Pekin
can doubt that the Government has decided to adopt the policy of
Japan, which is to take the methods of Western civilization for their
models. In directing the new movement in China, Japan is taking the
lead over other foreign nations, and this, it is asserted, is due to
her superior command of the language.
“Moreover, every educated Japanese is imbued with the ideas prevalent
in Chinese literature, religious and political, and hence he has a
different standing in the eyes of the Chinese from that of Americans
and Europeans. China has thus placed the work of educating the rising
generation in the hands of the Japanese as being less likely to destroy
the old knowledge while familiarizing the students with the advantages
of the new.
“A National university has been established by the Emperor at Pekin,
which it is calculated will be the model for educational institutions
all over the country. Recently a Japanese professor has been selected
to draft a new code of laws for the Empire. The reason why a Japanese
was selected for this work in preference to an equally learned German,
American, or Englishman, is because men who are both willing and
capable of making due allowance for traditional prejudices will never
arise from a country where the study of Chinese institutions is so much
in its infancy as with all of us, except Japan.”
After the above consideration of Japan’s leadership in Formosa, Siam,
and China, including Manchuria, there remain the facts relating to
Japan’s most important interests in Corea. In the latter country,
Japanese influence, at the beginning of 1904, was felt even more widely
and more potently than in any other part of Asia. In Corea, on January
1, 1904, there were more than twenty thousand Japanese subjects. These
managed practically all the important commercial and educational
enterprises in the kingdom. By far the largest part of Corea’s foreign
trade--with respect to both imports and exports--was with Japan. Corea
sent agricultural products to Japan, and imported Japanese manufactured
goods. Japan also virtually controlled Corea’s means of communication
with foreign countries; for the postal and telegraph offices in every
open port in the kingdom were in the hands of the Japanese. All Corea’s
coasting trade, also, was carried on by Japanese vessels; for Corea
herself had only an insignificant merchant marine. Practically all the
railways were controlled by the Japanese who had built them. Every bank
of good standing was managed by Japanese. The fisheries and mining
industries were conducted almost entirely by subjects of the Mikado.
Altogether, all the greatest business enterprises, of whatsoever nature
throughout the kingdom, were conducted by the Japanese. In short, the
Japanese represented the employers of Corea, while the subjects of the
Corean king composed the great body of employees.
So great were Japanese interests in China and Corea, that the question
of the integrity of those countries, with “open doors,” had become of
vital importance to the Island Empire. To secure both integrity and
“open doors,” Japan utilized the full power of her diplomatic genius to
obtain an alliance with Great Britain. Her endeavors in this direction
were highly successful. On February 12, 1902, was formed the historical
Anglo-Japanese Alliance to preserve the integrity of China and the
independence of Corea. What led to this greatest political event in
1902? this first alliance in history between a white nation and a
yellow nation? What induced England to abandon her traditional policy
of “splendid isolation”? Why did England break that policy for the
first time in many decades to ally herself with an Oriental rather than
an Occidental power? It is to be noted here that Japan at this time
called herself the England of the East, one historian--Diosy--referring
to the matter thus: “Japan, geographically to the mighty continent of
Asia what Great Britain is to the continent of Europe; Japan, an island
people with all the strength, mental and physical, that is the heritage
of a nation cradled on the sea; Japan, by the necessities of her
environment compelled to appreciate the importance of sea-power; Japan,
in short, the Britain of the Orient.”
Japan’s first opportunity to back up this view of herself, by concrete
demonstration, was furnished by the Boxer Movement in China. Even
then, in 1900, Japan had in mind an alliance with Great Britain; and
now she determined to make the best possible showing. So thoroughly,
accordingly, did she display her military and naval efficiency, so
repeatedly did her troops win laurels side by side with European
troops, that England was greatly impressed. It was by her triumph
during the Boxer uprising, indeed, that Japan confirmed her claim
to recognition as a world power--a claim recognized by the powers
in 1899, but not reaching full completion until the signing of the
Anglo-Japanese Convention in 1902.
Second, the alliance was said to be the result of a natural community
of British and Japanese interests in the East; that the two countries
were now allies in fact, while formerly they had only been allies in
spirit; that Japan and England had similar sympathies and similar
policies in the East; and that therefore the convention was entirely
voluntary, spontaneous, and natural.
Third, the alliance was popularly supposed to include the two greatest
naval powers in the world, and as such it was said to represent a
guarantee of peace in the Orient, and of fairness in all matters
relating to China and Corea. A Japanese official, in his exaltation,
said: “There is no power or combination of powers that could make head
against this union in the Far East; the attempt would be like spitting
at a tiger.”
The signing of the convention met with popular disapproval in England;
but it was the occasion of great rejoicing in Japan. In every province
in the Mikado’s empire feasts were held, the celebration being
continued over a period of ten days.
One significant phase of public opinion regarding the alliance, was
that to all intents and purposes it would include the United States
as a “silent partner.” An American historian, Ernest W. Clement, in
his “Hand Book of Modern Japan,” wrote: “It is well known that the
convention was shown at Washington before it was promulgated, and that
it was heartily approved by our Government. Practically, therefore,
it is, in a very broad sense, an Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Certainly
our interests in the Far East have been and are identical with those
of Great Britain and Japan; and all our ‘moral influence,’ at least,
should be exerted toward the purposes of that convention. Indeed, the
Anglo-Japanese Alliance should mean the union of Great Britain and the
United States with Japan to maintain in the Orient the ‘open door,’ not
merely of trade and commerce, but of all social, intellectual, moral,
and religious reforms; the open door, not of material civilization
only, but also of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
It was natural that Japan should be eager for American assistance. When
events foretold the coming war between Russia and Japan, the influence
of the United States in international councils was so great that, as an
ally, she would have been welcomed by Japan, of course. Until the exact
position which the United States would take in regard to affairs in the
Far East was known Japan was nervous; for Japan understood that the
policy of Great Britain as well as that of France and Germany would be
governed to some extent by that of America. As a government, however,
the government would take no part in the coming war, principally
because the government, for the present, at least, could not see
wherein American interests would be threatened. However, Japan asked
the question pointblank: Would the United States assist Japan? The
answer was an emphatic but courteous “No.”
With the signing of the Anglo-Japanese Convention began the
seventh great period in the Japan of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries--the period of Cosmopolitanism. Japan was no longer native
Japan, or Asiatic Japan; she was now Cosmopolitan Japan. The sixth
previous periods were:
I. Seclusion (1801-1853). II. Treaty-making (1854-1858). III. Civil
Commotions (1858-1868). IV. Reconstruction (1868-1878). V. Internal
Development (1879-1889). VI. Constitutional Government (1889-1904).
The Anglo-Japanese Alliance was presumably a proof that both the
nations signing the convention regarded the presence of Russian
troops in Manchuria and Russian aggression in the East generally as a
genuine, threatening, and immediate source of danger--danger to British
and Japanese trade. The facts concerning Russia’s interference with
Japan were these: The Russian military forces which were stationed
throughout Manchuria, in 1900, to suppress the Boxer Movement, had
remained on Manchurian soil. In 1901, Japan and other European powers
began pressing the Pekin Government to order the Russian forces out
of Manchuria. Finally, on April 8, 1902, Russia and China signed a
convention at Pekin, wherein Russia agreed to evacuate Manchuria by the
8th of October. In the meantime, however, through astute diplomatic
procedure on the part of Russia, the Convention of April 8th “lapsed,”
and on October 8th, consequently, there was as great a number of
Russian troops in Manchuria as on April 8th. It was the “lapse” of the
Convention of April 8th that aroused the Japanese nation to the fact
that she would have to deal sternly with Russia; else Russia, secure
in Manchuria, would assume a like position in Corea, and thus prepare
the way for Russian armed invasion of Japan. A Japanese statesman
referred to Corea at this time as “an arrow with the point aimed at our
heart.” “The absorption of Manchuria by the Russians,” continued the
statesman, “renders the position of Corea precarious. Corea is life or
death to Japan. For the safety of my country I insist that it shall
become Japanese, and upon that insistence every subject of the Mikado
is willing to lay down his life.”
Corea represented for Japan, indeed, a territorial outlet for her
already congested population. Still further, Japan feared for her
enormous material interest in Corea--her railways, banks, and trade,
already mentioned. Russia’s interest in Corea, at the same time, lay
in the fact that in Corea, as in Manchuria, were ice-free ports, or
doors for the great cage called the Russian Empire. With the Russians
in Manchuria, Japan’s vast interests in Corea were believed to be so
seriously imperiled that Japanese diplomats in St. Petersburg were
ordered to insist to the end upon the evacuation by the Russians of
Manchuria.
To all the representations of the Japanese Government, the Russian
Government gave no heed, but proceeded with her railroad construction
and her colonization in Manchuria, regardless of Japanese protestation.
On May 8, 1903, the largest Russian force that had entered China since
1900 occupied the province of Newchwang, Manchuria. And on October 29,
1903, the Russian troops entered Mukden, Manchuria, and established
there a military base. From that day onward, both countries understood
that war was inevitable, both sides prepared for the conflict. In the
coming struggle Russia counted upon the assistance, if needed, of
France, with whom she had formed an alliance similar to that of Japan’s
with England.
On the 1st of February, 1904, the prolonged tension between the two
countries reached a climax. Diplomatic notes had been exchanged in
vain; diplomacy had done all it could. At a Cabinet conference in
Tokio, hope of peace was practically abandoned, for the reason that
while Russia was unreasonably delaying her reply to the last Japanese
note, she was daily increasing her warlike activities. When this
long-awaited Russian document was sent to the Russian Minister at
Tokio, it was never delivered. It was known in advance that Russia
partly conceded the demand of Japan in Corea, but would not place
herself on record as recognizing the sovereignty of China in Manchuria.
Nor would Russia even discuss these questions with Japan. On Saturday,
February 6th, at four o’clock in the afternoon, M. Kurino, the Japanese
Minister at St. Petersburg, called personally to inform the Russian
Government that in view of the futility of negotiations Japan deemed
it useless to continue diplomatic relations, and that Japan would take
such steps as she deemed proper for the protection of her interests.
Thereupon M. Kurino asked for his passports. A few hours later the
Russian Minister to Japan prepared to leave the Island Empire.
Twenty-four hours later, forty Japanese transports were loaded with
troops to be landed at various points in Corea. A naval division sailed
from Japanese waters for Chemulpo and another for Port Arthur, and the
first landing force was disembarked at Masanpo, Corea. It was to be a
war for mastery on the Continental shore of Asia, and Japan invited the
war with open defiance.
Before beginning the story of hostilities, it may be well to give
the facts concerning Japan’s naval and military strength. Her naval
strength had for several years been such that European nations
marveled. Joseph Chamberlain, England’s Colonial Secretary, had
said of Japan’s navy: “Any foreign power that should venture to
attack Japan in her own waters would be strangely advised.” With her
splendidly equipped arsenals and dockyards, with her abundant supply
of coal, with the number and fighting strength of her ships, with
the proved efficiency of her naval officers, with her perfection of
naval organization, with the _esprit de corps_ of the personnel of
her navy--Japan at the beginning of 1904 was indeed a naval power
which any European country might respect. Of this naval power Arthur
Diosy, in the “New Far East,” said: “Japan possesses all the elements
of sea-power: swift, powerful ships, adapted to the work they are
intended for, numerous good harbors, excellent coal in abundance,
capital facilities for the repair of her vessels, and the necessary
plant, constantly augmented and improved, for building new ones. Her
naval organization is wise and efficient, her administrative services
are thorough and honest; her naval officers are gallant, dashing, and
scientifically trained, and the armament they control is of the latest
and best pattern. Strong in ships, strong in guns, Japan is stronger
still in the factor without which ships and guns are useless--‘the Man
behind the Gun.’”
As for her military strength, Japan’s army was conceded by military
authorities to be the finest “land fighting machine” east of Germany.
“Their tactics,” wrote Senator Beveridge, in his “Russian Advance,”
“are almost wholly German, even to the artificial and exhausting ‘goose
step’ on parade. Indeed, the Japanese army is a perfect machine, built
on the German model, but perfected at minute points and in exquisite
detail with the peculiar ability of the Japanese for diminutive
accuracy and completeness. The Japanese army, regiment, company, is
‘built like a watch,’ and each Japanese soldier is a part of this
machine, like a screw or spring or disk, with this exception--every
soldier is capable of being transformed into another part of this
complex yet simple mechanism.”
At midnight, Monday, February 8, the first shot in the war was fired.
Waiving entirely the formality of a declaration of war, Japan ordered
her finest fleet, under Admiral Togo, to Port Arthur. There, in the
outer harbor, the fleet suddenly appeared and sent in a flotilla of
torpedo-boats to attack the Russian warships which lay at anchor
under the guns of the forts. For this unexpected attack the Russians
were ill-prepared. Many of the officers of the ships were ashore at
places of amusement. None of the Russian ships was even stripped for
action. With the onslaught of the torpedo-boats, therefore, the Russian
fleet, under Admiral Stark, was thrown into the utmost confusion.
Defeat ensued. Two Russian first-class battleships were torpedoed and
beached, and a Russian cruiser was torpedoed and sunk. The Japanese
torpedo-boats escaped unharmed. In this attack, the Russians reported
two men killed and thirteen wounded. The Japanese reported no losses.
Russia at the time claimed treachery on the part of Japan for attacking
her ships prior to a declaration of war. Experts on international law,
however, agreed that under circumstances such as then existed either
nation might attack as Japan did. All diplomatic relations had ceased,
affairs had reached an acute stage, each country was preparing for war,
and the experts declared that it was unnecessary for either country to
await a declaration of war before striking the blow.
The next day, February 9, the Japanese fleet of sixteen vessels
returned to Port Arthur and opened a bombardment on the Russian ships
and forts. The Russian return-fire was ineffectual. During this
bombardment one Russian battleship and three cruisers were damaged
below the water line. The Russian commanders also reported two officers
and fifty-one men wounded, and nine killed.
That same day, February 9, a division of the Japanese fleet consisting
of three cruisers, four gunboats, and eight torpedo craft, under the
command of Admiral Uriu, approached the harbor of Chemulpo, Corea.
Two Russian cruisers, one of them the _Variag_, of the first class,
the other an inconsiderable fighting unit, the _Korietz_, were given
until noon to come out of the neutral port. In the harbor were French,
British, Italian, and American cruisers, whose crews cheered the craft
to sea like the crowds at a football game. Four miles out the battle
began. The Russians were smothered by weight of metal, and after being
crippled and set on fire, crawled back to the harbor where they blew
up and sank. The _Variag_ lost 30 men and 7 officers killed and 42
wounded, while the Japanese reported no losses.
Altogether in these first engagements of the war, ten Russian ships
were put out of action, while the Japanese vessels suffered little
damage and reported no loss of life. The best ships of the Russian
fleet were now out of the problem of attack against Japan; and Japan
felt free to pour her troops into Corea.
Admiral Togo, however, continued to blockade and harass Port Arthur, at
the same time sending a small squadron to hover off Vladivostok, and
hold in check the Russian cruisers there. The Japanese control of the
sea was so complete by this time that preparations were made to resume
the mail steamer service between Shanghai and Japanese ports without
convoy, and to return several of the liners, which had been taken as
auxiliary cruisers, to their regular runs across the Pacific and to
Australia. Such were, in brief, the naval operations during the first
month of the war.
The land operations of the same period included no engagements that
might be called battles. The Japanese landed twenty thousand men on
Russian territory, south of Vladivostok; and a similar number of men
had been landed on the east coast of Corea. Thus Japan began a flank
movement, whose objective was the isolation of Vladivostok; while
at the same time other troops advanced toward Harbin, in Manchuria,
where the Russians occupied a strategic position. During this time the
Russian and Japanese outposts clashed repeatedly near Ping-yang in
northern Corea. On March 1st, the Japanese General Staff left Japan for
Corea, and a few days later the landing and the mobilization of the
Japanese army in Corea was complete.
In the first week in March, Japan announced that a treaty had been
made with Corea which recognized the entity of that kingdom, included
guarantees against absorption by Japan or Russia, and virtually
established a protectorate, such as England held in Egypt. Corea became
an ally of Japan by the terms of this treaty.
At the end of the first month of the war both combatants had settled
down to the most thorough preliminary campaign, for the establishment
of bases and lines of communication, before their armies swung into
battle line. Such was the war situation in the Far East in March, 1904,
when throughout the world it was feared that the Russo-Japanese War
would end in a world war, or in a conflict involving, at least, Japan’s
ally, England, and Russia’s ally, France. Friends of the Japanese put
the matter thus: “Russia and Japan can not both breathe freely in the
Orient. One or the other must be cramped in opportunity and warped in
development. Each is acting upon the law of self-preservation, not as
a pretext, but as an immediate, pressing necessity. If Russia wins,
Europe becomes rapidly more like Asia. If Japan is the victor, the
continent of so many glories may have a future of its own.”