The Russo-Japanese War: A Japanese gamble from humiliation to bankruptcy
In 1904, a fierce war broke out between Japan and Russia in order to compete for the interests of the northeastern part of the Great Qing Kingdom. For the Manchus, it was a humiliating war, and for Japan, it had a huge impact.
For the Tsar, his core interests were always in Europe. Because the northeast region was separated from Europe by thousands of miles, Russia at that time was not willing to devote a lot of troops and resources to this war. At that time, the Russian railways had not yet been built, so it was difficult to devote sufficient troops and resources. For Japan, by contrast, the war was a gamble on national fortunes. The island nation has always had ambitions and aspirations for mainland territory, and the abundant resources of the northeast have led Japan to gamble on the fate of the country to fight for this land.
In order to prepare for this war, Japan began to use the reparations of the Great Qing to greatly expand its army after the Sino-Japanese War. The army expanded from 200,000 to 380,000 and could mobilize 2 million people. Before the outbreak of the war, Japan also vigorously purchased a large number of new warships from British shipyards, bringing the total tonnage of the Japanese Navy to 278,500 tons in 1904. Although much less than the total tonnage of the Russian fleet of 680,000 tons, Japan has more new warships with better performance, stronger firepower and more combat effectiveness.
After the outbreak of the war, Japan sent almost all the main forces of the whole country to the northeast, paying a huge price. During the war, Japan suffered 240,000 casualties, of which more than 80,000 died, and for Japan, which has a population of 40 million, the loss of manpower was very large. In addition, due to Japan's weak economic foundation, the war expenses during the entire war period were as high as 1.7 billion yen, equivalent to nearly six times Japan's fiscal revenue in 1904, and about 1 billion taels of silver. In order to raise this huge expense, the Japanese government had to overissue national bonds, plunder private wealth, and even borrowed more than 800 million yen from the United States and other countries.
However, when Japan spent so much money and paid such a great price, they pinned their hopes on pinning Russia to the ground and demanding reparations. Japan demanded 3 billion yen in reparations and demanded that Russia hand over land on the Pacific coast. However, the tsar was uncompromising on such a request and refused it in one fell swoop. For the Tsar, Russia's center of gravity was still in Europe, and if Japan insisted, the Tsar could send troops to Asia. This is unbearable for Japan, which has a weak economic base, and its army can no longer continue to fight. Therefore, Japan chose to accept the good and the war was over. However, it was not until more than a decade later that Japan recovered.
Through this war, we can see that even powerful countries cannot take their economic base and resource constraints lightly. The war had a huge impact on both Japan and Russia. The huge cost of the war, as well as the failure to claim reparations and the loss of land, were a bankrupt gamble for Japan.
Although Tohoku did not become permanent territory of Japan after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the war completely changed the pattern of East Asia and laid the foundation for Japan to become an Asian power. For Russia, the war was a major setback to its great power rise and the beginning of its empire's decline. Although the war has brought great sacrifices and losses to both sides, we still need to remember this history and remind us to cherish peace and strive to promote peaceful development.
