I haven’t given up on the Russo-Japanese news archive coverage.

It’s just that for the last month or so, when I’ve been on the internet, I’ve been on my internet poker cycle I get every so often……now I’ve played out and become bored with it again…..so I’m back finishing up the last days of the conflict.

I also plan to look into the March 1st Movement news…

1 March – No Headline

The Japanese yesterday achieved a signal victory over the forces commanded by Lieut. Gen. Rennenkampff.  While this victory is important in itself, it is more so because of the strategic advantage gained by the Japanese.  The fighting was over a mountainous country between thirty and forty-five miles east of Yen-Tai, which is about fifteen miles north-east of Liao-Yang.

The Japanese now hold strong lines, extending from southwest to northeast and partly eastward of the Tai-Tse River, threatening the Russian left flank.

The principle engagement was northeast of Tsinkhetchen, where the Russians held strongly defended intrenchments.

The Russians left 203 dead on the field there and lost several machine guns.  Their total casualties are estimated at over 2,000.

2 March Short Front Page Article

One of the coldest and most cheerless operations of the Winter’s warfare in Manchuria was the thirteen-mile retreat of the Tsinkhetchen division…

All day Gen. Rennenkampff’s soldiers, wearied by a week of continual fighting and disheartened by the abandonment of Tsinkhetchen, had flung off attack after attack by overwhelming numbers of Japanese in order to cover the withdrawal of supplies which had been accumulated in large warehouses at ???.

…Word was received at 9 o’clock that the withdrawal had been safely effected, and then the dreary retreat began.  The wind was high and the cold bitter, and snow was falling heavily.  Weary and supperless, the soldiers could scarcely see their file leaders.  Every minute the rattle of musketry on the Gao Pass road became louder, and the bursting of shrapnel occasionally illuminated the heights to the eastward.

It became evident to every man of the command plodding through the deepening snow that the danger of being cut off was imminent.  Only the coolness and courage of the commander averted disaster.

The force retreating on the easterly road had been driven into the village, and the forces, uniting, fixed bayonets, turned, and in utter darkness drove the Japanese back two miles.

…The Japanese fought with fanatical bravery, making several night attacks and charging under cover of darkness and in a fierce snowstorm almost up to the muzzles of the Russian batteries, which met them with canister and grape.

6 March – Losses of Russia and Japan – Editorial

According to statistics complied by the London Daily Mail, the total losses of Russia and Japan for the first year of the war show 240,000, of whom 40,000 were killed or drowned at sea, irrespective of those who died from disease or privation or were taken prisoners.  The figures for the Manchurian campaign are given as 57,250 Japanese and 111,000 Russians killed and wounded, the prisoners being estimated at 600 and 3,483 respectively.  In the Port Arthur operations 55,900 Japanese and 11,400 Russians were killed or wounded and 32,000 Russians captured.

Those numbers for Port Arthur bring home more clearly to me the articles I’ve read describing that siege.  It is one thing to read short sentences about Japanese units coming against the fortifications in waves.  It is another to see how lopsided the numbers of dead and wounded were…

7 March – Details of the Great Flanking Operation on the Russian Right

Early in the morning of March 1, with the troops occupying the east bank of the Hun, they advanced toward the Russian position under the cover of a terrific bombardment from the Japanese artillery on the east bank of the river.  The Russian guns replied without stopping the Japanese advance, which continued firmly until the troops reached points south and southwest of Chantan and neighboring villages, only about a hundred yards from the Russian lines.

The Russians at that point had many machine guns and the advance ceased, the Japanese throwing up cover and awaiting a favorable opportunity to attack the Russian trenches.

9 March – Mukden to Fall Today

Last midnight closed the tenth day of the Titanic struggle for the possession of Mukden and the mastery of a vast empire, the tenth day of unceasing conflict under exploding shrapnel, the roar of cannon, and the whistling of bullets, the tenth day of sleepless night and foodless days.

Gray-coated Russians, patient, uncomplaining, strong of soul, clung doggedly to positions against an enemy whose attacks go to the very point of insanity and desperation.  For forty-eight hours the Japanese have not eaten.  They are starving and exhausted, but Field Marshal Oyama himself has told them that the city will fall, and the slaughter stop on Friday, and their confidence in their leader has increased their strength tenfold.

Yesterday, when the Russians took Ushuntun, a few dozen Japanese clung to the thick-walled temple, and refused all overtures to surrender.  Cannon were brought up and the breached the walls, but the dare-devil courage of the defenders continued under the fire, and finally, when defense was hopeless, they blew themselves skyward with the ruins of the temple.  One survivor, rather than surrender, threw himself into a stone-rimmed well and perished.

The article goes on to describe in brief a fair number of clashes in numerous villages.

11 March – The Fall of Kuropatkin?

“I am surrounded.”  These are the gloomy words in which Gen. Kuropatkin is reported to have announced his situation yesterday.  After the too-tardy abandonment of Mukden, after the awful loss of life-65,000 up to Thursday: fully a quarter of his force by now – his only hope of partial rescue lies in the approach of the Fourth Army to his relief from the north.  It is a desperate case.

The article goes on to play armchair general – arguing that holding Mukden was a waste based on protecting prestige when the more sound military option would have been to fall back to a mountain pass that was easier to defend without severe loss of life and having to abandon the city anyway.  He sums up the whole Russian war effort this way:

Everywhere in this long and fateful game they have neither limited themselves to such resistance as was consistent with safety and the preservation of their strength, nor been able to wage effective aggressive warfare.

…The most that Kuropatkin could do at any point was to “save his army,” and at each successive point he has saved a smaller potion of that army.

The author talks in the end about how the fall of Mukden will reverberate in the capital of the worlds – particularly in China:

in Peking its effect will be incalculable.  It is hardly possible to imagine that ever again Russian influence there can be dominant or even formidable.  Happy would it be for the world at large if the special influence of all the greedy Powers could equally be eliminated and the policy of peace and commerce be steadily maintained.

Of course, this was the 2nd time Japan had fought and won a major war over Korea and an approach into China proper.

I won’t quote from it, but here is a link to an interesting note on a letter Tolstoy wrote for the London Times stating all governments were evil and each individual should detach from it and seek religious and moral perfection.

13 March:  Russia Hopes to Win Through Foe’s Poverty

In spite of signal defeat of the Russian arms at Mukden there is no disposition to talk of peace.  The Russian Government stands committed to the war, and the people have not yet found the voice bestowed on them by the Czar’s ???.

I learn on the best authority that Japan has twice approached Russia through informal channels on the subject of peace negotiations, but in each case the proposal failed because Japan demanded an indemnity and a pledge from Russia not to keep warships in the Pacific for 25 years.

The Japanese insistence on an indemnity convinced the Russian government that Japan’s pecuniary resources were exhausted and that by continuing the war only a few months longer Russia would be able to compel Japan to accept better terms.

13 March:  Mukden’s Place in History

Our cable dispatches this morning report the Russian casualties in the battles about Mukden in Shakhe quarter alone at 130,000, and the total losses by the Japanese since Feb 26 at 41,222.  These losses…make the battle of Mukden appear, even in the comparison with fabled Granicus and Arbela, the most prodigious ever fought.

The article goes on to look at previous major battles in history.

Yet the vast numbers of the combatants in this battle and the unparalleled slaughter reported from the front do not suffice to rank Mukden so high in the list of battles as the fact that it may mark an epoch in Eastern civilization.  The conflict at Mukden represents two civilizations, one Western, medieval, and obsolescent, yet such as made St. Petersburg and Moscow, the Kremlin and the Winter Palace, names of poetic dread and splendor; the other a civilization victoriously and essentially modern, though Asiatic and still adhering to its ancient worship.  On this account, and in such measure as the Japanese genius has manifested its superiority on this field, ought Mukden to find its place with Marathon, Metaurus, Tours, Hastings, and Waterloo.

This article from the 13th describes in full one small battle and is worth reading in full.

14 March:  Hurried Work at Tie Pass

Russia’s “Grand Army,” with the exception of the thousands killed or taken prisoners on the plains and mountains around Mukden, is gathering slowly behind the fortifications of Tie Pass, which were built as a refuge before the battle of Liao-Yang, and is feverishly engaged in the work of reorganization and the further strengthening of its lines.

To the Russian Army every minute is now valuable, and the footsore and disheartened detachments have had scarcely an hour’s rest before being set at work with spade and pick improvising the defenses of the pass.

The article goes on to say these fortifications might already be pointless due to a flanking maneuver by the Japanese rumored to have begun before the Mukden battle.

Continuing, the Russian general says:  “The First Regiment of the Siberian Rifles had the most serious fighting.  They marched under the Japanese fire from east and west almost continuously.  Col. Loesel succeeded in extricating three officers and 150 men of the regiment with its color and one battery.  [A Russian regiment consists of over 3,000 men.]  In the battle of March 6 the regiment lost over 1,000 men.

After the news of the defeat at Mukden, there are a fair number of articles about the Western powers growing anxious for a peace deal apparently fearing too great a defeat and upheaval in Russia and too strong Japan in the Far East…

My focus in this project has been on events on the ground, not the geopolitical aspects, even though those are the biggest connection to Korea, but they are so familiar to people remotely familiar with Korean history, I skipped them.

I will cover a few that specifically mention the US role in heading the peace talks, since it is America’s failure to protect Korea — its “giving it away” to Japan – in exchange for the Philippines (although the US didn’t own or control Korea and Japan didn’t have the Philippines…)

17 March:  Japan’s Philippine Plans

The reported statement by Congressman Hull, which he has declared was distorted in the newspapers that published it, to the effect that the Japanese had cast covetous eyes on the Philippines and that this country might expect trouble in holding them, was taken up in the Senate today.

There are some paragraphs about the back and forth between different Congressmen – with the main gist being that nobody in the government really believes Japan is a threat and that the Japanese specifically said they aren’t.  But…

Considerable discussion has also been excited among army and navy officers by the Hull interview, and some officers believe that the army and navy forces of the US in the Far East will have to be increased as a result of Japanese victory.  They do not ascribe any intention of territorial aggrandizement to Japan, but they believe that Japanese success will change conditions in the Far East and affect the commercial and territorial interests of the US.

Minister Takahira was so exercised over the matter that he went to see both the President and Sec. Hay about it, and today published a statement denying that the Japanese have any intention of interfering with the Philippines, adding:

“The possession of the islands by the US is beneficial to Japan and its people.  The US has given an object lesson to the Orient of a more efficient civilization.  We are trying to do our best to teach the Koreans, as well as the Chinese, and we are aided by what has been done by the US in proving the benefits of the principle of progress.”

I thought this next one might interest some:

19 March:  Booker T. Washington Speaks – Says Americans Know More about Japanese Than Negroes

In the course of a brief speech following the luncheon, Mr. Washington said that Americans as a rule knew more about Russian or Italian life than about the life led by the 10,000,000 negroes in the US.  The inclination of too many persons, he said, was to judge the entire negro race by loafers around saloons and railroad stations.