Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear: Russia’s War with Japan by Richard Connaughton
The Russian Japanese conflict in Manchuria in 1904-5 was the first of a new style of war. It heralded the horrors that became the signature of the First World War - scything machine guns, pounding artillery, trench systems, barbed wire and mine warfare.
Richard Connaughton’s book Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear: Russia’s War with Japan covers the events that led up to the conflict and details the fighting that took place over a fateful seventeen months from February 1904 to July 1905. Mr. Connaughton spent thirty years in the British Army ending with two years as Head of the British Army’s Defence Studies and now undertakes work in the politico-military field. His book, now published in paperback, tells the tale of the fighting and of the soldiers who took part.
The conflict was significant for two main reasons: it used a new generation of weapons that had not seen action before and it was the first time that Asians had been pitted against Europeans in a serious way.
The latter half of the nineteenth century saw a gradual erosion of Chinese sovereignty by European powers. The Russian advance into Manchuria was just one aspect of this. At the same time the Japanese had been emerging from centuries of self-imposed isolation. The Russians had worried them when in 1861 they had invaded the Japanese island of Tsushima. They had withdrawn under pressure from the British but when the Russian’s announced the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1891 it was seen as a major threat. The Japanese felt themselves to be vulnerable and sought to strengthen their position.
The first step was to bring Korea under their control, which they did after a short war with China. The Russians were not happy with the concessions that Japan had obtained. Under pressure from Russia and other European powers the Japanese had to give up some of their gains, but the loss of face spurred them to modernise their armed forces even faster.
The Japanese finally decided that the only way forward was to attack the Russians and by 1904 they felt strong enough to do so. Vice Admiral Togo started hostilities by a pre-emptive attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur, a precursor of their attack on Pearl Harbour forty years later. Although this did some damage its main effect was on the morale of the defenders. The naval battles and the land attacks on Port Arthur were a major part of the war and saw some of the most deadly fighting. However, the Japanese had luck on their side and the capable Russian Admiral Makarov was killed by a lucky shot early in the conflict. This demoralised the other naval officers and they were never again dared to take the initiative.
The Russians inside Port Arthur suffered from poor leadership with the top Generals, Stoessel and Fock taking a defeatist attitude from the start. Their troops were brave and resourceful and their defensive positions were strong. The Japanese General, Nogi, was of the old school and started by throwing his troops forward in frontal attacks. In the face of machine guns and shrapnel shells, they did not stand a chance and casualties were high. Eventually heavy guns were brought up and the Russian positions were literally pounded to pieces and the battleships in the harbour destroyed. The overall carnage was something that had not been seen before.
Meanwhile the Japanese had been fighting the main Russian forces further north. They had landed unopposed and the first battle was at the Yalu River. This battle was perhaps the decisive battle of the war. General Kuropatkin was obsessed with being cut off and defeated. He consistently overestimated the strength of the Japanese as his intelligence was abysmal. On the other hand, General Kuroki knew the importance of accurate information and his spies told him exactly what strength his opponent had and how it was dispersed. He used his forces well and achieved a significant victory. There followed a series of battles and after each Kuropatkin withdrew and moved his troops further north along the railway line. The last battle was at Mukden where the Russians suffered their largest casualties.
Kuropatkin was blamed for falling back but he was subject to many conflicting pressures. However, he did not coordinate his Staff well and often officers were not sure what they were supposed to be doing. In contrast the Japanese Staff worked well together and Kuroki understood the importance of pushing forward with as much force as he could muster. His resources were not sufficient for him to follow up on his various victories with a full pursuit and the Russian withdrawals meant that it was impossible to destroy them. Nevertheless, the Russians had been shocked by their defeats and were never to take the initiative.
The Russians made one last attempt to turn the tables by sending a fleet from the Balkans. Admiral Rozhdestvenski was in command and he was another Russian leader who failed to communicate well with his fellow officers. After a long journey the fleet was destroyed at the battle of Tsushima. At this point the other Western powers became concerned that the Japanese might gain too much and the Americans brokered a peace that conceded Japan’s influence over Korea and kept the Russians out of Port Arthur. However, the Russians refused to pay any indemnity and they never admitted having been defeated. Thus the war ended in a whimper and neither side was happy. In Japan there were demonstrations against the outcome and in Russia the events gave a boost to the revolutionaries.
Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear: Russia’s War with Japan tells an amazing story of incompetence on the part of the Russian Admirals and Generals and of the urge to win at almost any cost on the part of the Japanese. They did so in spite of facing numerically superior forces and suffering more numerous casualties. A major factor in this was their willingness to learn new tactics to suit the new weaponry. All of this forewarned of the horrors of the First World War and it is to the Europeans’ shame that they did not learn more from it. General Sir Ian Hamilton perhaps saw it most clearly when after the battle of Liaoyang, he observed: “I have today seen the most stupendous spectacle it is possible for the mortal brain to conceive—Asia advancing, Europe falling back, the wall of mist and the writing thereon.”
The book is a must for those who want to understand more of the conflicts in Asia and how twentieth century warfare first saw the light of day.