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Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
The Russo-Japanese War: The Emergence of Japanese Imperial Power
By William R. Sprance
Abstract
The Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) was a brief yet bloody conflict that featured large land battles and great engagements between fleets of ironclad ships. At war’s end, Japan emerged a victorious imperial power, while Russia was defeated and on the precipice of revolution. Julian Corbett and Alfred Mahan both wrote about the War, with the former offering Japan as the example of how an insular maritime power could fight a limited war to defeat a much larger enemy and the latter writing how the war showed the primary purpose of navies to be military, and not commerce protection as he had written earlier. Using a very well-matched strategy and policy, Japan won an unexpected victory that established it as the dominant power in Asia and influenced naval strategy for years to come.