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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
1,365,000	1,200,000
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 Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan from 1904 to 1905. The war started because both countries wanted to control parts of Asia such as Korea. The war was fought on both land and sea, mostly in southern Manchuria (a part of China) and in the Yellow Sea.

Background

Japan and Russia have had many points of contact since the time of the Tokugawa Shogunate. In the middle of the 1800s, especially after Russia lost the Crimean War, their goals changed to focus on the east. Russia wanted to get land in Asia, and it took parts such as Sakhalin and land next to the Amur river. Russia again threatened Japan when it wanted to build the Trans-Siberian Railway. The railway would mean that people and resources would get to the Asian (eastern) part of Russia easier. In 1895, Japan won the First Sino-Japanese War against China, which gave Japan the Liaodong Peninsula in Northeastern China. This angered Russia, and along with France and Germany, Russia made Japan back down.

After the war, Russia could now build the Trans-Siberian Railway through China, and agreed with China to help it against Japan. In 1898, Russia bought for some time Port Arthur. In the Boxer Rebellion from 1899 to 1901, Russia took northeast China, a place known as Manchuria. In the Treaty of Beijing of 1902, Russia said that its soldiers would leave China, but they never did this. Japan became friends with Britain in 1902, which meant that Britain and Japan could now fight Russia.

On 12 August 1903, Tsar (Emperor) of Russia Nicholas II made Yevgeni Alekseev "Viceroy (leader) of the Far East (of Russia)". Alekseev was hard on his views on taking more of Asia. Japan was scared that Russia would try more to take more of Asia, especially Korea. but Russia treated Japan badly and did not listen to Japan saying that there was going to be a war. So, in February 1904, Japan went to war with Russia.

War

At sea

The day Japan went to war with Russia, Japanese admiral (leader in the Navy) Tōgō Heihachirō went out from Sasebo and attacked Port Arthur.

The last big battle of the war was at seain October 1904. The Russians sent the Second Pacific Squadron of ships from Europe to help the soldiers in Port Arthur. The fleet was led by Zinovy Rozhestvensky. In May 1905 in the Battle of Tsushima, these Russian ships were destroyed by the Japanese.

On land

Tthe first time in the war that Japan and Russia fought on land was at the Yalu river, with 42,000 Japanese and 19,000 Russians. The Russians wanted to keep the Japanese from going past the river, but they went past in one night and attacked the Russians on 1 May 1904. Over 2,000 Russians were hurt or died, but Japan had only 900 men hurt or dead. At the end of May, General Oku Yasukata went north and fought the Russians at Nanshan. The Japanese then took Dalny. This separated the Russians at Port Arthur from the Russians in the north. In late August and early September 1904, Japan and Russia fought at Liaoyang. In this battle, the Russians had more soldiers than the Japanese, but the Japanese were faster. The Japanese stopped because they were tired, so the Russians went to Mukden.

On 1 January 1905, the Russians lost Port Arthur, and six weeks later, the Battle of Mukden started, where the Russians lost.

The first, second, and fourth armies of Japan went north, while the third army went south to Port Arthur.

References

Sources

• Amakawa, Yoshiaki (1979). The Anglo-Japanese Alliance 1902-1923: The Study of an Alliance Under the Balance of Power System. Claremont Graduete School.
• Jacob, Frank (17 August 2017). The Russo-Japanese War and its Shaping of the Twentieth Century. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-315-45191-6.
• Mikhailova, Julia; Steele, M. William (28 August 2008). Japan and Russia: Three centuries of mutual images. Global Oriental. ISBN 978-90-04-21315-9.
• Larson, Deborah Welch; Shevchenko, Alexei (26 February 2019). Quest for Status: Chinese and Russian Foreign Policy. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-24515-8.
• Wang, Chi (1990). History of U.S.-China Relations: A Bibliographical Research Guide. Academic Press of America. ISBN 978-0-9625401-1-0.
• Wells, David N. (2004). Russian Views of Japan, 1792-1913: An Anthology of Travel Writing. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-29730-1.