Japan's spectacular victory over the Imperial Russian Navy heralded the birth of a new military power in Asia. The modern battleships of the Japanese were too fast and too well armed for the old-fashioned vessels of the Russians. It was a grim warning to the Western Empires. Just as victory over France in 1870 had given Prussia supreme confidence in her own military system, so Japan's triumph over Russia gave her the confidence to embark on campaigns against the Western powers in the early Twentieth century. Until then, Japan had only tested its capabilities without much success.
Japan had first had successes in 1895 in its war against China over Korea, but Russia had intervened to seize possessions won by the Japanese and the Japanese could do little to help it. prevent it. Since 1902, however, Britain had been as concerned as Japan about the Russian presence in Manchuria, and Japan won a diplomatic victory by signing an alliance in which England pledged not to support any Western interventions. . This left Japan free to deal with the Russian presence in Manchuria. The two countries had agreed on a common protectorate in Korea, but in 1900, when the Boxer Rebellion broke out in China, Russia sent large troops to Manchuria. “If Manchuria becomes Russian property,” declared the Japanese foreign minister in 1901, “Korea itself cannot remain independent. It is a matter of life or death for Japan. The Russo-Japanese War The tension between the two nations came to a head in February 1904, when Japan attacked Port Arthur, the key Russian naval base in Manchuria. Like Pearl Harbor, several decades later, it was a surprise attack launched before any declaration of war. The Russian ships were badly damaged by the Japanese torpedo boats, and the port was blockaded.
Japanese troops landed in northern Korea and went as far as the Yalu River to provide support for naval actions. Russian troops depended on the Trans-Siberian to bring in reinforcements, but that would take time, and Russian commanders recklessly insisted on reacting immediately to the invasion. Outnumbered, a Russian force faced the Japanese and was completely routed at the Battle of Yalu. The Japanese continued their advance into the interior of Manchuria.
With the arrival of new Japanese soldiers, Port-Arthur was subjected to a siege. Initially, the Japanese tried to storm it, but suffered huge casualties. Russian artillery and machine guns positioned behind trenches and barbed wire reduced the fighting to a succession of suicide attacks by the Japanese, all of which failed to force their way into the harbour. They gave, however, a foretaste of the terrible effects of a desperate charge against entrenched forces, well defended by machine guns. Finally, after almost a year, a tide of Japanese men crushed a vital outpost, and Port Arthur was forced to surrender in January 1905.
Elsewhere in Manchuria, the Japanese and Russian armies clashed in bloody but inconclusive battles. Tens of thousands of casualties were suffered by both sides, reminiscent of what combat on the Western Front would be like during the First World War. Even after a Japanese victory at the Battle of Mukden in March 1905, Russian ground forces refused to withdraw from Manchuria and this costly stalemate seemed set to last indefinitely. A decisive naval battle In October 1904, the Russian Baltic Fleet set sail from its home ports under the command of Admiral Rozhdestvenski. It would take him over six months to reach Manchuria and join the war against Japan. Bizarrely, while she was still crossing the North Sea, rumors spread of an attack by Japanese torpedo boats, and the Russian battleships responded by firing on English fishing boats near the Dogger Bank, killing at least seven fishermen. Outraged Britain sent its own battleships to tail the Russian fleet as it crossed the Bay of Biscay.
Dividing to pass the Suez Canal and round the Cape of Good Hope, the Russian fleet reunited in the Indian Ocean and continued on to French Indochina, where it stopped once more to prepare for battle. Leaving next for the Russian port of Vladivostok in Siberia, the Baltic Fleet approached the Tsushima Strait, between Korea and Japan. On paper, Rozhdestvensky's fleet looked impressive, consisting of 8 battleships, 8 cruisers, 9 destroyers and several smaller vessels, but these ships were old. By contrast, just as modernizing Japan had taken the Prussian army as a model for its land forces, its navy had been profoundly influenced by the British fleet. His ships were built to later English designs and featured increased gun armor protection, but with little added weight, which would have affected their maneuverability and speed. The Japanese fleet consisted of 4 battleships, 8 cruisers, 21 destroyers and 60 torpedo boats, the latter having already proven themselves in the fighting around Port Arthur. Vice-Admiral Togo's crewmen were also extremely motivated and well-trained.
During the afternoon of May 27, as the Russian fleet sailed in line with Rozhdestvenski's flagship, the Suvorov, at its helm, Togo made the most of his ships' superior speed. In a maneuver worthy of Nelson, he cut through the head of the Russian fleet and subjected it to devastating rolling fire. Having formed the bar of the T, he then turned his ships to sail along its flank and subject it to further fire. Japanese shells rained down on poorly protected Russian ships.
The battle continued until nightfall; Admiral Rozhdestvenski had been wounded, and three Russian battleships had been sunk. The bruised Baltic Fleet then tried to withdraw, but Togo sent his smaller torpedo boats to finish off the badly damaged Russian vessels, dropping mines in front of them as they tried to flee. Only one Russian cruiser and two destroyers managed to reach Vladivostok. The rest of the fleet was sunk or captured, and some 10,000 sailors killed or wounded. In stark contrast, the Japanese had lost barely 1,000 men, and only three torpedo boats. Lessons Learned and Unlearned Tsushima precipitously ended the Russo-Japanese War. In September 1905, during the Treaty of Portsmouth, Russia agreed to withdraw from Port Arthur and Manchuria. Korea fell into Japan's sphere of influence and the latter also maintained tight control over Manchuria, but it would not officially become part of Japan's Overseas Empire until 1931. This war, however, shaped the world of the early 20th century. The defeat of Russia further shook the Tsar's government, and a revolution occurred the same year. If this revolution failed to overthrow the Tsarist regime, it would not be long before another completely swept it away and led to the establishment of the Soviet regime.
Japan's victory allowed it to consider itself the equal of other great powers, and it demanded the right to establish its own empire. The militarization of Japanese politics ensued, culminating in Japan's aggressive attitude in the 1930s, which led to war in the Pacific. Russia's defeat also encouraged other Asian nationalist factions to believe that Western imperialism could be fought and defeated. The illusion of Western military invincibility, established for 200 years, had been shattered and this would bear fruit especially during the Second World War. The road leading to the Vietnam War can be considered to have some connection with the events in Tsushima.
Militarily, the Russo-Japanese War revealed the terrible damage that could be wrought by modern entrenched warfare, with neither side gaining a clear advantage despite huge casualties. British and German observers had attended directly, but the conclusion they drew was that any future war would have to be won within the first few months. They believed that Russian incompetence and Japanese inexperience had led to a stalemate, mistakes that other Western armies would not repeat, which would use rapid mobilization and initial maneuvers to outwit their opponents before risking being embroiled in trench warfare. In other words, such a disaster would not happen again in Europe. They were badly mistaken.