2 Feb Headline:  Frozen Battlements Stopped Czar’s Shells

[Lead paragraph] The battle on the Hun River has yielded no palpable result, both sides practically maintaining their former positions, though it is true that at heavy cost the Russians succeeded in driving the Japanese out of their advanced positions and repelling their flanking column.  The Russian cavalry proved extremely efficient.

The fiver days’ combat, which will go down in history as the battle of the Hun River, was fought out on a seemingly unending plain which is broken only by the amethyst mountains around Yen-Tai and the solitary eminence of which is the Liao-Yang tower, of bloody memory.

For five days Russian soldiers hurled themselves against the defenses and field artillery pounded them until the frosty air reverberated with the thunder of cannon, the din of bursting shells and the rattle of musketry, but neither steel-pointed shell nor nickel bullet availed against the frozen earthworks.

The gunners actually wept with despair at the impotence of the attack.

The soldiers’ fingers, hands, and feet were benumbed, while stinging snow blinded them.  The slightest wound caused excruciating pain.  Warm blood no sooner exuded from lacerated flesh than it began to freeze.

….The surgeons, their assistants, and the nurses were almost powerless in the bandaging of wounds, for they were obliged to wear leather gloves or mittens in order to resist the cold.

7 Feb – Editorial on the 1 year anniversary of the start of the war…

[On the surprise attack on the Russian navy at Port Arthur] From that moment Russia was thrown back on her long Trans-Siberian Railway to strengthen the armies…The plans she had been making for years were balked at a single stroke from her agile enemy.  From a position of haughty aggression she was turned to a desperate effort to retain Port Arthur and to withdraw her forces in safety beyond the territory actually in dispute.

The year closes with Japan in possession of the Lao-Tung Peninsula as far north as the line of Mukden, with complete possession of the sea, threatened, if it can be said to be threatened, only by the distracted Baltic squadrons skulking about the shores of Madagascar.

The foe she [Russia] despised and sought to humble into insignificance has taken a front rank among the military Powers of the world.

And that last paragraph highlights one of the key items in the never-ending K-blog, US-Korea relations concerning the infamous Taft-Katsura “Treaty” ——- In 1905, the United States was in no position to “do something” to effectively prevent Japan from taking over Korea.

7 Feb Headline:  Prosperity in Korea

The short article talks about a report written by the US Consul General at Seoul on the economic impact of Japan’s march into Korea for the war.

Mr. Paddock says there being a large number of troops to be fed, and large railway and other undertakings being pushed forward in Korea, much money has been distributed throughout the country, and the Korean laborer often has more ready money than it ever was his lot to enjoy.

To get a more developed picture of this time period in Korea-Japan relations, with views on the ground, you can read this book for free at Google Books:   Korea’s Fight For Freedom

The book is about the March 1st Movement in 1919 but deals with earlier periods and talks much about this 1904-1905 time.

It says the attitude of the Japanese military and other authorities at the start of the war was quiet good – but:

Korea’s Fight for Freedom By Frederick Arthur Mackenzie

[the article continued...]  Following the advance of the army there has been an enormous immigration of Japanese, mostly laborers and small merchants, and much of the available land in the treaty ports, notably Fusan [Busan/Pusan], Chenampo and Chemulpo and the city of Seoul has been bought by Japanese.

The consul says American commercial interests in Korea today undoubtedly are greater than those of any one European nation.

28 Feb Headline:  Oyama’s Troops Cross Sha River

…the Japanese on Sunday evening crossed the Sha River….The advance was checked by Russian reinforcements.

This is the most important news from the scene of war tonight.  Fighting is continuing on the Russian left flank with indications that the Japanese are planning a demonstration against the centre, but the Russians believe their positions are impregnable.