The Russo-Japanese War

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2021

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the conflict between Russia and Japan from February 1904 to September 1905, which gripped the world and had a profound impact on both countries. Wary of Russian domination of Korea, Japan attacked the Russian Fleet at Port Arthur and the ensuing war gave Russia a series of shocks, including the loss of their Baltic Fleet after a seven month voyage, which reverberated in the 1905 Revolution. Meanwhile Japan, victorious, advanced its goal of making Europe and America more wary in East Asia, combining rapid military modernisation and Samurai traditions when training its new peasant conscripts. The US-brokered peace failed to require Russia to make reparations, which became a cause of Japanese resentment towards the US. With Simon Dixon The Sir Bernard Pares Professor of Russian History at University College London Naoko Shimazu Professor of Humanities at Yale NUS College, Singapore And Oleg Benesch Reader in Modern History at the University of York Producer: Simon Tillotson

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.7	Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.
0:07.2	Right, and you can get news about our programs if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time.
0:14.6	I hope you enjoyed the programs.
0:16.4	Hello, in February 1904, Japanese destroyers made a surprise attack on the Russian fleet
0:22.5	at Port Arthur on the Yellow Sea, and the next day, the countries were at war.
0:27.2	The Russians defeated them.
0:29.2	Their fleet was unthinkable, but they were soon humiliated and 1905 became a year of revolution.
0:35.2	And victory advised the Japanese goal of making Europe and America more wearer in East Asia,
0:40.8	adopting the newest weapons while calling on peasant conscripts to be more like samurai of old.
0:46.4	With me to discuss the Russia Japanese War, I'm in Dixon, the Serb Bernard-Pierce Professor
0:51.2	of Russian History at University College London.
0:53.8	And now Kojima Zoo, Professor of Humanities at Yale, NUS College Singapore, and Oleg Benish,
0:59.6	reader in modern history at the University of York.
1:02.6	Oleg Benish, it was only 50 years before this, that Commodore Perry famously had arrived
1:08.2	in Japan with American warships.
1:10.1	What changes had that prompted in Japan from, say, in the middle of the 19th century?
1:14.1	Yes, this is an incredible 50-year period that I think is quite necessary for understanding
1:19.7	where these countries are on the eve of the war, especially Japan.
1:24.2	And as you say, when Perry arrives in 1853, a lesser known Russian fleet arrives just a little
1:31.2	bit after him, but at that point, Japan is essentially ruled by what's called the Tokugawa Shogunet.
1:37.4	There is a samurai warrior class that has been ruling the country for the past 250 years.
	...

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