The Impact of the Russo-Japanese War (review)

The Russo-Japanese War (1904–5) is an event that tests theories of causality to the full. Undoubtedly it was a landmark. It produced a large number of casualties, cost a great deal of money, and kept numerous soldiers fighting over a prolonged period; it was replete with significance in the evolution of warfare, not least as the opportunity for the “first large naval operations of modern battleships in history” (Cord Eberspaecher, p. 304); it changed the balance of power in East Asia but also in Europe; and as the first defeat of a European power by an Asian power, it clearly challenged prevailing notions of white, European superiority throughout the world, providing inspiration to colonized people everywhere. On the other hand, the war took place at an exceptionally turbulent time in the history of Asia and the rest of the world and was rapidly overshadowed by some of the towering events of the twentieth century: the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Chinese revolution of 1911, and World War I in 1914–18. Such events contributed to a process by which the Russo-Japanese War was all but forgotten for some decades, as the editor of this volume points out (p. 2). In addition, however, these other events greatly complicate any attempt to assess the impact of the war, whose effects are extremely difficult to disentangle from the numerous other important trends, movements, and events of this complex period.

The war’s centenary has produced a considerable amount of academic comment, after many years in which the subject was relatively neglected.¹ Two related things distinguish this conference volume: its specific attempt to assess the repercussions of the conflict and the span of the papers presented. Inevitably, the extent to which the central theme is directly addressed varies across the 18 essays, but nevertheless the book as a whole does make a useful attempt to come to grips with the war’s complicated effects. In doing so it ranges widely, examining the ramifications of the conflict for Japan and Russia and for the United States, East Asia, and Europe, and covering topics from diplomacy to geopolitics, warfare, and culture.

Specialists on Japan will recognize many of the specific themes from earlier works, especially those by Peter Duus and Jean-Pierre Lehmann, and in the volume coedited by me and David Wells.² What is fresh in this book is a real sense of how far afield the repercussions of the conflict were felt and of the extent to which it was enmeshed with the major global trends of the time. Least familiar to Japan specialists are probably the discussions of the war’s implications for the balance of power in Europe and for U.S.-Japan relations. Thus, T. G. Otte explains that as a result of the war, the political and military equilibrium in Europe shifted toward Germany: previously, alliance between France and Russia had restrained Germany, but once Russia was defeated, Germany had a much freer hand and France was more vulnerable to German pressure. Links with World War I are not far to seek. Matthew S. Seligmann, similarly, concludes that “one significant consequence of the Russo-Japanese War was a major reorientation of Germany’s military posture” (p. 120), with an accompanying emphasis on attack on France through Belgium and little concern for the security of Germany’s eastern border with Russia—at least until Russian military strength began to recover.

In a useful chapter on Russia itself, Jonathan Frankel examines the interrelation of the war with the 1905 revolution, together with the effect of the war on the tsarist autocracy. In foreign relations, Peter Berton charts the surprising rapidity with which Russia and Japan achieved a rapprochement after 1905, while Tal Tovy and Sharon Halevi, in contrast, outline a growing distrust of Japan on the part of the United States, which produced a situation amounting in their view to a “cold war” between the two. The relationship...