3.84 Fall and Rise of China: Russo-Japanese War #11: Portsmouth
Last time we spoke about the legendary battle of Tsushima. Admiral Rozhdestvenski traveled across the globe to bring the Baltic fleet to the Pacific to give a climactic fight to Admiral Togo’s combined fleet. Yet during the journey, Port Arthur fell leaving the only destination to be Vladivostok and they would have to take a perilous journey through the Tsushima strait to get to her. Rozhdestvenski’s grand journey meant his ships were ill maintained and the crews had no time for training. The Japanese meanwhile had trained vigorously and brought new technological advantages into the mix that would significantly tip the scale. The Russian baltic fleet was absolutely annihilated at a minimal lose for the IJN. The battle of Tsushima became one of the most famous naval battles in history and its decisive nature would become indoctrinated in the IJN until the end of WW2.
#84 The Russo-Japanese War part 11: The Portsmouth Treaty
Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.
I have to start this podcast by repeating a funny little bit from this week. One of my bosses over at Kings and Generals suddenly messages me on discord and says “hey what’s going on with the China Podcast, are we doing a series on the Russo-Japanese War now?” And to this I laughed, because he had a good point, I am sure there are a lot of you who were wondering….well why are we spending so much time on this, if the Fall and Rise of China podcast is ..well about China. The Russo-Japanese War would have a profound effect on China and global history. Something many forget, this entire war occurred within China, a nation not officially taking part in the conflict! Having a war break out between two other empires within your borders was an absolutely humiliating situation. China had just lost a war against the Russians in Manchuria. When the war broke out, China declared neutrality and asked both sides to not violate her territory, which both did without a care in the world. The Chinese did help the Japanese, especially the Honghuzi. Now the 1st Sino-Japanese War had left quite a foul taste in the mouth of the Chinese, but during the Russo-Japanese War some Pan-Asianim did develop. The Chinese public gradually began supporting the Japanese, there were quite a lot of youth in China demanding the Qing government allow them to enlist and help fight off the Russians. Countless Chinese helped with labor, working in a vast spy network and sold both sides provisions.
When the Russians lost the battle of Tsushima and Mukden, there were many influential and future influential figures that celebrated this. Notably Mahatma Gandhi, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sun Yat-Sen were deeply influenced by the Japanese victory. Why were they so influenced, because it was the first time a non-white nation had defeated a white one, and not just that, one of the great powers. The Russian Empire was in the public's mind, defeated handily by a small asiatic nation, it was a david and goliath story come true. Ironically, the Yellow Peril which Kaiser Wilhelm had utilized to usher in the war was turned up to 100 when the Japanese won.Now all that is fine and dandy, but there was another dramatic effect this war would hold over Japan and China. We technically have not spoken about “the end” of the Russo-Japanese War, there is actually another battle and the peace negotiations to discuss. It is here things will occur that will actually lay the groundwork for WW2. So now we are heading back into the story.
The Japanese had won at Mukden and now at Tsushima, so that was that, they had won the war right? The Russians had taken up a new defensive position in northern Manchuria and were still being reinforced, 2 corps were enroute. In the war of attrition, the Russians would eventually win, despite having no naval ability, they would simply overwhelm the Japanese with numbers. Both nations faced bankruptcy, but the Russians were able to take larger loans from France and Germany, thus the situation was from a financial point of view more perilous for Japan. 53% of Japan’s annual revenue had been devoted to the war effort. For Russia, the humiliation and financial ruin was accompanied by a full blown revolution. Thus both nations really needed the war to end and fast.
Now comes in my favorite US president, Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was one of the few at the offset of the war to place his bet on a Japanese victory. He also attempted to resolve the disputes between the two empires before the war broke out, often citing the Kaiser's Yellow Peril propaganda as being a main culprit to the hostilities. Roosevelt wrote to the British diplomat, Cecil Spring Rice that he believed Wilhelm should bear partial responsibility for the war "as he has done all he could to bring it about". Roosevelt is a fascinating figure. He was of course a product of his time, a 19th century man, he had views of white superiority, but demonstrated a certain tolerance towards nonwhites. This extended itself a lot towards the Japanese, there was a lot about the Japanese he admired. After the battle of Tsushima Roosevelt wrote “even the battle of Trafalgar could not match this. I grew so excited that I myself became almost like a Japanese, and I could not attend to official duties.” Roosevelt famously practiced judo with Japanese opponents and avidly read Nitobe Inazo’s “Bushido”. Roosevelt was sent many books from his friend at Harvard, Kaneko Kentaro and wrote in appreciation “Perhaps I was most impressed by this little volume on Bushido. …It seems to me, my dear Baron, that Japan has much to teach to the nations of the Occident, just as she has something to learn from them. I have long felt that Japan’s entrance into the circle of the great civilized powers was of good omen for all of the world.Certainly I myself, hope that I have learned not a little from what I have read of the fine Samurai spirit, and from the way in which that spirit has been and is being transformed to meet the needs of modern life.” In some ways perhaps you could call Roosevelt a Japanophile, but I would stress, like any white elites of the 19th century, he still had ingrained in him a sense that whites, notably white anglo saxons were the most civilized in the world.
It should come to no surprise, Roosevelt who publicly spoke well of the Japanese during the war, found the Japanese coming to him to help mediate the peace. Now as much as Roosevelt had openly favored the Japanese during the conflict, now there was a looming issue on the American president's mind. The Japanese were aggressively expanding in Asia and the Pacific, this was not something Roosevelt liked very much. After the fall of Port Arthur, Roosevelt wrote “if Japan tries to gain from her victory in the Russo-Japanese War more than she ought to have, she will array against her all the great powers, and however determined she may be she cannot successfully face an allied world”. Roosevelt was greatly troubled by the potential threat Japan posed against America’s own increasing strength and influence in the asia-pacific. He would dispatch one General Arthur MacArthur, for you Pacific War week by week podcast listeners, yes I managed to bring MacArthur into this one. Arthur MacArthur was sent on a tour of the far east in 1905 and he was of course accompanied by his wife and a young Lt Douglas MacArthur who would go on to write ‘The purpose of our observations was to measure the strength of the Japanese Army and its method of warfare … But I had the uneasy feeling that the haughty, feudalistic samurai who were their leaders, were, through their victories, planting the seed of eventual Japanese conquest of the Orient.’ No worries I am not going to turn this into a MacArthur rant.
Roosevelt’s agreed to act as a mediator before the battle of Tsushima. After the Tsushima victory, the Japanese expected they would receive large benefits from peace talks. They had good reason to believe so, Russia had lost on the land and sea, revolution was burning within the empire. Anarchists attacked the Tsar’s uncle and brother in law, Grand Duke Serge Alexandroitich, the governor general of Moscow. Riots and anti-war demonstrations were widespread, violence was found in major Russian cities. From the Russian point of view, the Japanese had committed all her available manpower in the field, thus only mediation could save Japan from incoming disaster. In many ways it was a kind of race, who would run out of men first? Japan because she literally had a much smaller population, or would the Russian people simply overthrow the Tsar regime? Both regimes also were verging bankruptcy, whose dollar would run out first? Russia had not lost any of “her” territory, something Roosevelt was quick to point out to the Japanese. Thus Roosevelt was sort of winking at the Japanese that they should secure Russian territory so they had more bargaining power at the peace table, so the Japanese went to work.
Japan and Russian had signed a treaty in 1875, the Treaty of Saint Petersburg that saw Japan ceding part of Sakhalin island to Russia in exchange for the Kuril islands. Now by the time of the Russo-Japanese war the population of Sakhalin was roughly 30,000 including 4000 Ainu. The island held a large prison and was used as a place for those Russia sought to exile. Overall it was not a very significant territory to the Russians. Its climate as you can imagine, was quite harsh, even by Russian standards. The Russians had a garrison of 7280 men on the island, the majority were conscripted farmers, hunters and prisoners with little in terms of training or equipment. They were led by General Mikhail Nikolaevich Lyapunov, who had been appointed military governor of Sakhalin in 1898. He had joined the military academy at the age of 16, but quickly found a talent in law, so he became a lawyer, while continuing his military career on the side. Thus the man was not particularly experienced in terms of war.
After the battle of Tsushima, the Japanese quickly wrangled together a force of 14,000 men for the brand new 13th IJA division led by General Haraguchi Kensai. Admiral Kataoka Shichiro assembled a naval force at Aomori Bay of 8 armored cruisers, 9 destroyers, 4 coastal defense ships and 12 torpedo boats to transport the division for an invasion of Sakhalin. The naval force departed on July 5th and landed in Aniwa Bay and near the port of Korsakov. They faced little opposition, a second group landed closer to Korsakov where they destroyed a battery of field artillery and defeated a small Russian force. The Japanese quickly advanced against Korsakov the next day, but the garrison of 2000 Russians led by Colonel Josef Arciszweski there had burned it to the ground. On July 8th the IJN force cleared Chitose Bay and on the 10th occupied Kindo Cape. Meanwhile the 13th division advanced north, taking the village of Vladimirovka. Colonel Arciszweski had dug to resist the Japanese, but his force was quickly outflanked and they withdrew into mountains within the interior of the island. By July 16th, Arciszweski surrendered his forces. Around 200 Russians were captured, the Japanese had suffered 18 deaths and 58 wounded. On the 17th 1905 General Lyapunov, through a representative, sent a message to General Kensai "Your Excellency! The lack of medicines and dressings and, as a result, the lack of the possibility of rendering assistance to the wounded, forced me to propose to Your Excellency to cease hostilities for purely humane reasons." General Haraguchi responded by demanding that General Lyapunov surrender all weapons and all movable and immovable state property that were intact, as well as the surrender of all maps, documents, papers related to the military department and administration.
On the 19th General Lyapunov at his headquarters in the village of Onor gave the order: "The lack of food and firearms, as well as entrenching tools, the lack of sanitary facilities, the enormous numerical superiority of the Japanese army and the absence of a prepared path of retreat put us in such a situation when which further resistance would be useless bloodshed. In view of this, having received an offer from the commander of the Japanese army, which landed on the island, to surrender, I convened a military council, at which, to discuss the general situation...".
On the 24th the Japanese landed in northern Sakhalin near Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky. The Russians had 5000 troops under the direct control of General Lyapunov. Lyapunov chose to flee the city with his forces and later surrendered seeing the Japanese capture 3200 men, 79 officers and General Lyapunov. He was the only Russian governor to surrender during the war. The Japanese would also capture another 1260 soldiers around Onor with a large stockpile of weapons, ammunition and food. After all was said and done, the battle for Sakhalin saw the Russians suffer 181 deaths, thousands taken prisoner.
With that done with, the Japanese now had officially seized Russian territory. Alongside this the Japanese re-signed the Anglo-Japanese alliance for another 10 years and entered talks with the US regarding their positions over Korea and the Philippines. The Taft-Katsura agreement between William Howard Taft and Count Katsura Taro saw the US agree Japan should seek a protectorate over Korea, and Japan agreed the Philippines should be left under the good governance of the US. It should be noted this was all “a agreement” nothing was signed. In many ways it was a betrayal of Korea by the US, as the Americans and Koreans had signed an amity and commerce treaty in 1882, which the Koreans assumed was a mutual defense treaty. Regardless, the Japanese were securing their poker hand before heading into the negotiations.
The peace negotiations were held at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The Russian peace team was led by Sergius Witte who quickly stressed Russia had not been beaten and the war was very much still on. He also began privately complaining to all that it was his view the Japanese sought to gain as much loot from an agreement as possible. He was 100% correct in that assumption. Witte also made it clear, the Tsar’s position in regards to Korea had not changed and that Russia would never pay a rouble in war indemnities. The Japanese were lead by Baron Komura, a harvard graduate. He came into the negotiations immediately demanding Korea was in the sphere of Japanese influence, that the Russians should depart Manchuria, the cession of Sakhalin, the granting of new fishing rights along the Russian coast, the spoils of war to be agreed upon and of course a fat sum of war indemnities.
The teams had arrived on August 8th of 1905, and would stay at the Hotel Wentworth in New Castle. The actual negotiations took place at the General Stores Building, furnished with Mahogany furniture from the Cabinet Room of the White House. The conference was arranged so the most difficult parts would come last, namely, indemnities and Sakhalin. There were 12 sessions held between August 9th to the 30th. During the first 8 sessions, both sides reached an agreement on 8 points. There should be an immediate ceasefire. The Russians would recognize Japanese claims over Korea. The Russian forces would evacuate Manchuria. Russia would cede its leases over Port Arthur and Dalien, the South Manchuria Railway and some mining concession, and Russia would retain the Chinese Eastern Railway in northern Manchuria. The next 4 points were much trickery.
On August the 15th the two vexed subjects were brought forth, Sakhalin and indemnity payments. It seemed the American public opinion over these issues had swung to the Russians. Witte, briefed by the Tsar stated there would be no payments for the return of Sakhalin and no indemnities, and stressed the Russians remained resolved to continue fighting. The Russians were very aware of Japan’s financial distress and concluded that a demand for indemnity would be their most pressing concern. During the talks Roosevelt would later write ‘This (the indemnity) would never have been entertained by him, and he had calculated that the Peace Conference would break down on this point, and the struggle be continued until Japan could raise no more money.’On the issue Roosevelt intervened and advised the Japanese that if she did not abandon her claims for an indemnity, the world would come to believe the war had been fought for financial gain. Roosevelt on the 18th proposed dividing Sakhalin. Witte countered this on the 23rrd proposing Japan keep Sakhalin and drop her claims of indemnities. Komura rejected this proposal prompting Witte to warn him he was instructed to cease negotiations and resume the war. This ultimatum was met by 4 new Russian divisions arriving to Manchuria and Witte made a public display of literally showing everyone himself packing his bags preparing to leave. The Russians were convinced the Japanese could not afford to resume the war and were making a grand display to the Americans and Japanese that Russia would never agree to paying a single rouble. Komura was not in a good position and caved into the demands. The Japanese agreed in exchange for the southern half of Sakhalin they would drop their claims for indemnities. On September 5th, the treaty was signed, and ratified on the 10th of October in Japan, and the 14th for Russia. A random little side note, during the war Montenegro had declared war on Japan, but everyone kind of forgot about this and no mention of Montenegro was made in the treaty so technically Japan and Montenegro were at war until 2006 when Japan officially ended the war. Witte wrote to the New York Times about the treaty “The judgement of all observers here, whether pro-Japanese or pro-Russian, is that the victory is as astonishing a thing as ever was seen in diplomatic history. A nation hopelessly beaten in every battle of the war, one army captured and the other overwhelmingly routed, with a navy swept from the seas, dictated her own terms to the victory”. His rather bombastic claims were well warranted as the treaty signing had a profound effect on Japan. The Japanese public exploded. The over taxation for the war effort, the loss of so many sons and fathers had prompted the Japanese public to believe they were owed a lot. From the point of view of the Japanese public, the only news they received was endless victories over the lands and seas, they had no idea of the financial plight of their nation. When they heard the terms of the treaty, riots exploded. The most famous riots occurred in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo where activities and protesters assembled some 30,000 people strong. They marched upon the Imperial Palace grounds and rampaged the city for over 2 days. They especially targeted government buildings, the police, Russian property, but notably that of the US. From the publics view, Roosevelt and America had backstabbed them. Russian and American missionary churches were vandalized, martial law was erected. Over 350 buildings were damaged, 17 people were killed, 450 policemen, 48 firemen and civilians were injured. Prime Minister Katsura Taro’s cabinet collapsed.
While Roosevelt earned a nobel peace prize for his efforts, Japan’s extremely positive view of America had dramatically soured. Its hard to picture it given the history of WW1 and WW2, but until this point America was kind of seen as a good big brother to Japan all things considered. The Japanese felt cheated of their rightful claims as victors of the war. Take this into consideration. During the 1st sino-Japanese War, Japan was denied her spoils by the triple intervention of France, Germany and Russia. During the Boxer Rebellion, the Russians used the situation to encroach into Manchuria, which Japan saw as a direct threat. Japan from her perspective won the Russo-Japanese War and now the US was stealing her spoils from her. From the Japanese perspective she deserved recognition as a great power and furthermore recognition as being racially equal. I wont delve to deeply into it, but after WW1, Japan would receive another similar and egregious wound when President Woodrow Wilson denied Japan’s request to be recognized as racially equal to the other great powers. That would become the last straw, that drove Japan away from the west and towards WW2. But this is not a Japanese podcast haha, I apologize if I sometimes go in that direction its what I specialized in.
The Russo-Japanese War saw the Japanese suffer 58,000 to 86,000 deaths, for the Russians it was between 43,000 and 120,000. Of the casualties, the Japanese had lost perhaps 59,000 from combat, 27,000 from disease. For the Russians 34-53,000 died from combat and 9-19,000 from disease with another 75,000 captured. And let us not forget the Chinese who would see 20,000 civilian deaths and a financial loss of over 69 million taels. While the Japanese treated the tens of thousands of Russian prisoners extremely well considering what POW treatment would look like during WW1 and WW2, the treatment of Chinese was abysmal.
The war between Russia and Japan occurred on Chinese soil, but China was powerless to prevent it and suffered human and financial loss. This added to the Chinese public's sense of humiliation. Alongside this, the treaty of Portsmouth basically started an annexation process of Korea to Japan, but it also handed a ton of privileges and extraterritorial rule over to Japan. Now Japan had her feet firmly set in Manchuria, weakening Qing rule. If you were part of the elites in the Qing dynasty and your responsibility was to improve the empire, it seems investigating how Japan beat Russia should be on top of your list of “to do’s”.
Indeed, as we spoke a lot about during the 1st sino japanese war, Japan and China took different paths to modernization in the face of western imperialism. Japan did not defeat Russia solely because of the modernization of her army, Japan had thoroughly organized and prepared her populace for modern politics, military, economic, social and culture….while China struggled behind. China needed to emulate certain aspects, like Japan had to strengthen herself.
When Japan and Russia signed the treaty of Portsmouth they were exchanging benefits and many of these were not theirs to take or give, but rather Chinas! Imagine you were a subject of the Qing dynasty living in Manchuria where your home may have been destroyed, perhaps you lost loved ones to the conflict, what did your government do? Nothing. It was a watershed moment for the common people of China, their government did absolutely nothing in the face of all of it. The intellectual class of China was enraged and invigorated by it all. There was this tremendous sense they as a people needed to improve in terms of politics, military, societal, economic, education and culture, China needed to actually modernize. The Qing dynasty was being seen by many as decrepit, too old and stuck in its ways.
In the historical context China was entering the “late Qing reforms” or “new policies” period. This actually began in 1901, but I believed it was very important to get the Russo-Japanese War story into the mix before I dabbled into this very complex part of modern Chinese history. The Qing dynasty is soon coming to its end. Stating all of that I thought it would be a cool time to do a bit of housekeeping. You Mr or Mrs listener, I’d love to hear from you. As you likely know I write and narrate the two podcast Pacific War week by week and the Fall and Rise of China Podcast’s for Kings and Generals. However, I also happen to be a Youtuber, and Podcaster on the side. I have the Pacific War Channel where you can find content about the history of Asia from the 1830’s until the end of the Pacific war in 1945, in many ways its like this podcast. I also awkwardly have a podcast platform called “the pacific war channel”, and as you can imagine its a bit directionless since …well lets be honest its redundant given these two podcasts I do. I have been trying to think about how to change that podcast around and I would love to hear from you guys. Best way to give feedback, toss comments on my Youtube channel, or join my Pacific War Channel discord, found on my Youtube channel page. I have a few idea’s myself, perhaps doing a more general history focused podcast where I tell stories just like the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, but my god in much short series haha, let’s say in 3 parters and such. Or I could do an entire other podcast series on The Rise and Fall of Japan, see what I did there with the titles? Yeah that ones been in the back on my mind for awhile. I could also take on a co-pilot for the podcasts so its not only single narration, similar to Tom Holland’s “the rest is history”. There’s a ton of directions I can go in, but one thing is for sure, the “Pacific War Channel Podcast” needs a new direction, probably a new name as well.
Also and I know its annoying, but a big thank you to all of you who check out the Pacific War channel on Youtube and my Patreon where I make monthly patreon exclusive podcasts. I would love to go full time one day, but alas the Youtube game is a hard one. If you get the chance please check out my Youtube channel, I am now as we speak unleashing a multiple part series on the Japanese invasion of Manchuria 1931-1932, something barely anyone covers. Most historians give it about a few paragraphs, but it was quite a complicated event. I am trying to tackle the 15 year war between Japan and China from 1931-1945 in a chronological order, event by event and such. Stating all of that I love all you guys, and here comes the same outro I do every single time haha.
I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me.
One Empire has Risen like a bright Sun as another, tumbles down like a large bear. Asia henceforth will completely change, now the Japanese dominate the landscape. Yet what of China? How will the common Chinese take to this latest round of humiliation? The Qing dynasty is hanging by a thread and that thread is about to be cut.
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