Russo-Japanese War

Russo-Japanese War
Date 8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905 Location Manchuria, Yellow Sea Result Japanese victory; Treaty of Portsmouth
Belligerents
Russian Empire	Empire of Japan
Commanders and leaders
Tsar Nicholas II Aleksey Kuropatkin Stepan Makarov  † Zinovy Rozhestvensky	Emperor Meiji Ōyama Iwao Nogi Maresuke Tōgō Heihachirō
Strength
500,000[source?]	300,000[source?]
Casualties and losses
34,000 – 52,623 killed and died of wounds 9,300 – 18,830 died of disease overall 43,300 – 71,453	47,400 – 47,152 killed 11,424 – 11,500 died of wounds 21,802 – 27,200 died of disease overall 80,378 – 86,100

The Russo-Japanese War was a war between the Japanese Empire and the Russian Empire. It started in 1904 and ended in 1905. The Japanese won the war, and the Russians lost.

The war grew out of the ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea. It was fought mostly on the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden, the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea. The politics of the two countries in the war were very complicated, but both wanted to gain land and economic benefits.

China, though large, was a weak country, and it was Chinese land and possessions they fought over. Korea, for example, was under Chinese rule, and was seized by Japan. The Russians sought a warm water port on the Pacific Ocean, for their navy as well as for maritime trade. Because of ice, Vladivostok only operates during the summer season, but Port Arthur (now called the Liaodong Peninsula in China) is operational all year round. That was the port Russia wanted, plus the land around it.

Reasons for war

Russia wanted a warm-water Pacific Ocean port. Japan wanted to expand its empire into China and Korea. Japan also wanted to test its new military and navy. Russia thought it could easily defeat an Asian country.

Peace treaty and aftermath

United States President Theodore Roosevelt helped Russia and Japan make peace after the war. He won a Nobel Prize for this. Russia had to give up all influence in the Far East. The Russian people were very angry at the government and at Tzar Nicholas II for losing the war.

Japan would take over Korea five years later in 1910. The Japanese got part of China. Japan would continue to grow its empire in Asia until World War II. The Russian defeat was one of the reasons for the Russian Revolution in 1917.

Further reading

• Asakawa, Kanichi. (1905). The Russo-Japanese Conflict: Its Causes and Issues. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. OCLC 2418247; reprinted by Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New York, 1970.
• Koda, Yoji. "The Russo-Japanese War: Primary Causes of Japanese Success," Naval War College Review (Spring 2005)
• Mutsu, Munemitsu. (1982). Kenkenroku (trans. Gordon Mark Berger). Tokyo: University of Toyko Press. ISBN 9780860083061; OCLC 252084846
• Nish, Ian, ed. The Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5 Folkestone, Kent : Global Oriental. ISBN 978-1-901-90306-5; OCLC 56955351