Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (195 page)

38
. Ibid., 10, p. 583.

39
. Sasaki Nobutsuna,
Meiji tenn
ō
gyosh
ū
kinkai
, p. 202;
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 10, p. 584.

40
. Maurice Paléologue,
Three Critical Years
, pp. 4–5. White wrote that the hope of using France’s good offices to moderate the rigid demands of the two antagonists went back to Lamsdorf’s visit to Paris in October 1903 (
Diplomacy
, pp. 124–25). Delcassé accepted this responsibility at the request of both England and Japan, and Russia had also approved. But the Japanese were convinced that further delay would serve Russia’s interests, and Russia showed no signs of relenting in what for Japan were totally unacceptable demands.

41
. Paléologue,
Three Critical Years
, p. 6.

42
. Witte,
Memoirs
, p. 382.

43
. Ibid., p. 369.

44
. Wilhelm was Queen Victoria’s grandson; Alexandra, the wife of the czar, was her granddaughter.

45
. Isaac Don Levine,
Letters from the Kaiser to the Czar
, p. 10. The kaiser’s letters to Nicholas were written in English. Nicholas’s replies have not been published.

46
. Levine,
Letters
, p. 13. When the kaiser spoke of “Mongols,” he meant all members of the yellow race, but especially the Japanese. It
ō
Hirobumi, in a conversation with Dr. Erwin Baelz, said, “There can be no shadow of doubt that the Mongols he had in mind were chiefly the Japanese; for, if any Mongol power should threaten Europe, it could not be impotent China, but only Japan, the rising power of the Far East” (quoted in Baelz,
Awakening Japan
, p. 222).

47
. Levine,
Letters
, p. 17. See also chapter 50.

48
. Levine,
Letters
, pp. 96, 100.

48. Paléologue,
Three Critical Years
, p. 8.

49
. Witte,
Memoirs
, pp. 365, 368.

50
. Okamoto,
Japanese Oligarchy
, p. 100.

51
. Ibid., p. 101.

52
. White,
Diplomacy
, p. 129. He mentions a rumor that the message was purposely delayed by the Japanese telegraph.

53
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 10, p. 593.

54
. The text is in ibid., pp. 595–96.

55
. Sasaki,
Meiji
, p. 158.

Chapter 54

1
. The two cruisers did not reach Yokosuka until February 16, 1904 (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 10, p. 639).

2
.
Ishikawa Takuboku zensh
ū
, 5, p. 37.

3
. Ian H. Nish,
The Origins of the Russo-Japanese War
, pp. 255–56.

4
. The Japanese government, replying to accusations by the Russian government, stated that it had informed the Russian government of its intention to act independently: “An independent action implies all, including, as a matter of course, the opening of hostile acts. Even if Russia were unable to understand it, Japan has no reason to hold herself responsible for the misunderstandings of Russia. The students of international law all agree that a declaration of war is not a necessary condition for beginning hostilities, and it has been customary in modern warfare for the declaration to follow the opening of the war. The action of Japan had, therefore, no ground for censure in international law” (quoted in K. Asakawa,
The Russo-Japanese Conflict
, p. 354). Asakawa, a Japanese scholar living in the United States, wrote that this was translated from a statement published in the Japanese press on March 3, 1904.

5
. The
Times
(London) of February 24, 1904, carried this statement by the Russian government: “Although the breaking-off of diplomatic relations by no means implies the opening of hostilities, the Japanese Government, as early as the night of the 8th, and in the course of the 9th and the 10th, committed a whole series of revolting attacks on Russian warships and merchantmen, attended by a violation of international law. The decree of the emperor of Japan on the subject of the declaration of war against Russia was not issued until the 11th instant” (quoted in Asakawa,
Russo-Japanese Conflict
, p. 351).

6
. Maurice Paléologue,
Three Critical Years
, p. 16.

7
. Baron Roman Rosen,
Forty Years of Diplomacy
, 1, p. 107.

8
. E. J. Dillon,
The Eclipse of Russia
, p. 288.

9
. Rosen,
Forty Years
, 1, pp. 231–32.

10
. Ibid., 1, pp. 232–33. By the time Rosen got back to Russia, rumors had spread that his wife had “received from the Mikado a complete dinner service in gold of great value” (p. 246). The czar had heard the rumor, but he assured Rosen that his wife had done exactly right in accepting the empress’s gift. For a Japanese account of the same incident that discloses that Rosen had forgotten some of the gifts received from the empress, see
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 10, pp. 623–24.

11
. Rosen,
Forty Years
, 1, p. 235.

12
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 10, p. 613.

13
. John Albert White,
The Diplomacy of the Russo-Japanese War
, p. 146.

14
.
Ishikawa Takuboku zensh
ū
, 5, p. 43.

15
. For the texts of both declarations, see
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 10, pp. 618–22.

16
.
Ishikawa Takuboku zensh
ū
, 5, p. 42.

17
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 10, p. 616.

18
. Jane H. Oakley,
A Russo-Japanese War Poem
, p. 9. Bel was the chief deity of Babylon, the lord of heaven and earth, who, King Hammurabi stated, had given him “the black-headed people” and enlarged his kingdom. The name was used in the poem to suggest the great antiquity of the Japanese dynasty.

19
. Paléologue,
Three Critical Years
, p. 100.

20
. Rosen,
Forty Years
, 1, p. 235. Arishima Takeo, who was studying in America at this time, recalled in later years how extremely displeased he was when his classmates praised Japan every time news came in of a Japanese victory. He detected behind the praise their secret pleasure in the victory of a little dog over a big dog (preface to
Ribinguston den
[1919], 4th ed., in Ishimaru Akiko, ed.,
Arishima Takeo
, pp. 49–50).

21
. Tyler Dennett,
Roosevelt and the Russo-Japanese War
, pp. 119, 120.

22
. Roosevelt read the book at the suggestion of Kaneko Kentar
ō
and was so impressed that he ordered thirty copies for distribution among interested friends, including members of Congress. He felt that the book had given him a new insight into the Japanese character (Kaneko Kentar
ō
,
Nichiro sen’eki hiroku
, pp. 119–21; see also White,
Diplomacy
, p. 158).

23
. Sidney Lewis Gulick,
The White Peril in the Far East
, pp. 17–18.

24
. Ibid., pp. 95–96. Gulick’s description of the treatment given to Russian prisoners of war was confirmed by Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, the wife of a Russian prisoner in Japan. She wrote that “the government furnishes here as much privacy and more foreign comforts than any tourist can command in a tea house; while the rank and file are in a heaven of plenty, cleanliness, comfort, and idleness they never dreamed of before” (
As The Hague Ordains
, p. 293).

25
. Gulick,
White Peril
, pp. 118, 153, 173–74.

26
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 10, p. 899.

27
. According to Kaneko’s own account, he was extremely reluctant to go to America because he was convinced that the Americans were pro-Russian. He gave various reasons for this belief, including Russian support for the United States during the War of 1812 and the frequent marriages between American heiresses and impoverished members of the Russian aristocracy. He said it would be beyond his powers to induce the Americans to feel sympathy for the Japanese cause, but It
ō
Hirobumi persuaded him to accept the assignment (
Nichiro
, pp. 11–20).

28
. Kaneko,
Nichiro
, pp. 57–59. Roosevelt had been informed in advance by Minister Griscom of Kaneko’s forthcoming visit.

29
. Kaneko Kentar
ō
, “Meiji tenn
ō
to Ruzuberuto dait
ō
ry
ō
,” p. 123.

30
. Ishimaru, ed.,
Arishima Takeo
, p. 49.

31
. Paléologue,
Three Critical Years
, p. 112.

32
. Ibid., pp. 126, 133. For an excellent account of Russian opposition to the war, see Adrian Jones, “East and West Befuddled.”

33
. Paléologue,
Three Critical Years
, p. 153.

34
. Ibid., pp. 163, 90.

35
. Ibid., p. 175.

36
. Ibid., p. 181.

37
. Ibid., p. 200.

38
. Ibid., p. 207.

39
. Ibid., pp. 221, 255. The Moroccan crisis of 1905 was caused by German apprehension about the increasing French influence in Morocco.

40
. Paléologue,
Three Critical Years
, p. 258.

41
. Count Sergei Iulevich Witte,
The Memoirs of Count Witte
, trans. Sidney Harcave, pp. 420, 422.

42
. Hinonishi Sukehiro,
Meiji tenn
ō
no go-nichij
ō
p. 49.

43
. Sir Claude MacDonald to Lord Lansdowne, October 24, 1905, quoted in Nish,
Origins
, p. 9.

44
. Rosen,
Forty Years
, 1, p. 29.

Chapter 55

1
. Report by the British ambassador to Russia, quoted in Raymond A. Esthus,
Double Eagle and Rising Sun
, p. 38.

2
. Gaimush
ō
,
Gaik
ō
bunsho: Nichiro sens
ō
, no. 5, pp. 231–32, quoted in Shumpei Okamoto,
The Japanese Oligarchy and the Russo-Japanese War
, p. 119.

3
. Tyler Dennett,
Roosevelt and the Russo-Japanese War
, p. 173. Roosevelt was referring to the Three Power Intervention after the Sino-Japanese War that deprived Japan of the Liaotung Peninsula.

4
. Dennett,
Roosevelt
, pp. 23–27.

5
. Ibid., p. 180. This message was in a telegram sent by Komura to Takahira on April 25.

6
. Esthus,
Double Eagle
, p. 25.

7
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 11, p. 33.

8
. Ibid., 11, pp. 3–4.

9
. Sasaki Nobutsuna, ed.,
Meiji tenn
ō
gyosh
ū
kinkai
, p. 244. A different version of the last line—
tsutae kinikeri
—is in
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 11, pp. 4–5.

10
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 11, p. 30.

11
. Sasaki,
Meiji
, p. 254.
Himugashi no miyako
was a poetic way of referring to T
ō
ky
ō
.

12
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 11, pp. 83–84. A similar (but shorter) message was sent to the Yalu River Army.

13
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 11, p. 93.

14
. Ibid., 11, p. 101.

15
. Ibid., 11, p. 156.

16
. Kaneko Kentar
ō
,
Nichiro sen’eki
, p. 217.