The Tide at Sunrise
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2004 is the centenial of the Russo-Japanese War. Hostilities started on Feb 8, 1904 and the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth in September of 1905. So this seems like an appropriate time to review one of the few books in English on the war: Denis Warner and Peggy Warner's The Tide at Sunrise.
The Russo-Japanese War was about control over Korea and influence in North East Asia. The Russian side assumed they could ignore Japan and do whatever they wanted in Manchuria. Japan's leaders wanted control of Korea. Japan started the war with, gasp, a surprise attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. They proceeded to win almost every battle on land and at sea. When the Russian Baltic fleet finally got near Korea and Japan, it was totally destroyed in the famous Battle of Tsushima.
The Russo-Japanese War was one of the more important wars of the last few hundred years. At the time of the war, most of Asia outside of Thailand (then known as Siam) and Japan had been colonized by Western powers. When Japan beat Russia, they showed a generation of Asians that the West was not invincible. Although Japan was not fighting for freedom, it's victory did much to encourage the idea in other Asian countries. (The irony of course is that Japan was fighting one country for control over another country.)
Another reason the Russo-Japanese War was important is because it should have been a wake up call for armies everywhere that set-piece warfare like that of practiced by Napoleon was no longer effective. Firepower was too strong for armies to be rushing en-masse at objectives. This lesson could have been learned after the American Civil War but it wasn't. It should have been learned after the Russo-Japanese War, but wasn't. Thus, millions of young men from around the world lost their lives in World War I when the generals ordered them to charge into machine guns.
The Russo-Japanese war is a facinating example of winning all the battles and losing the war. Japan didn't actually lose the war, but they didn't get as much from the peace treaty as they wanted. The reason was simple - Japan could not continue to fight for long against the enormous power of the Russian Empire. The longer the war went on, the more likely it was that Tokyo would run out of men, money, and material. How do you fight a war then? The Russians, on the other hand, despite losing all the battles, most of their navy, and lots of territory, were just getting warmed up after a year of war.
The Tide at Sunrise was originally published in the early 1970s and has been hard to get ever since. Fortunately, it was recently reprinted. Oddly enough, you can find the Japanese translation of the original in almost any decent sized book store in Japan - it doesn't seem to have ever gone out of print here.
The Tide at Sunrise is the best book on the war that I have found. It is well-written, comprehensive, and absorbing. It almost reads like a novel - partly because the authors have done an astonishing amount of research. The details (like the mountain of vodka at Port Arthur) make the people, places, and situations really come alive.
The authors delve into everything leading upto the war. Russia's expansion into Siberia and Manchuria, Japan's expansion into Korea, the Sino-Japanese War, the ambitions and plots of the European powers, the American "Open Door" in China, Japanese politics, everything. You name a possibly influence on the coming or waging of the war, and the authors have probably covered it.
The Tide at Sunrise is probably the best book available on the Russo-Japanese War. It isn't cheap - it's about $65 at Amazon - but if you are interested in this important but little-known war, The Tide at Sunrise is worth every penny.
Chris Spackman
Kanazawa, Japan
March 2004
This review is Copyright ©2004 by the author
This page is Copyright © 2004 Mark Groenewold
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