CHAPTER XIV

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.”