Russo-Japanese War
- LAST REVIEWED: 06 February 2012
- LAST MODIFIED: 06 February 2012
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791279-0053
- LAST REVIEWED: 06 February 2012
- LAST MODIFIED: 06 February 2012
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791279-0053
Introduction
The historiography of the Russo-Japanese War can be divided into three phases. The first, the period between the war itself and the outbreak of World War I, was the shortest in time span and the most prolific in numbers of works written. This outpouring of publications resulted in this war being observed by every military establishment and news agency in the world. The level of interest in the Russo-Japanese War rested on two facts: First, the idea of a small and rising Asian power engaging in a conflict with an established and huge European colonial power captured the imaginations of everyone. The other substantial issue was the use of weapons that were the product of a century of industrial development. The conclusions of these pre–World War I studies revealed that the battlefield had become intensely lethal, for which the belligerents were not well prepared in any aspect. Moreover, the defeat of Imperial Russia infused a level of hope and energy to struggle for liberation into the people of color throughout the colonial world. The outbreak of World War I almost rendered the Russo-Japanese War to the dustbin of history. A mini resurgence of studies occurred in the post–World War II period, thereby marking the second phase of publications on this Far Eastern conflict. These books offer readers a basic narrative of the course of the war both on land and sea. The analytical thrust of this literature places the war within the interpretative motif of conventional military history. The third and most recent phase of publications on the Russo-Japanese War occurred with the war’s centennial. Edited collections of essays, composed of articles written by international teams of scholars, were published to commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of the conflict. These studies focus on how much that occurred in Manchuria in 1904–1905 was repeated on a larger scale, primarily in Europe proper, in World War I, in 1914–1918. This premise prompted a historiographic debate over whether the significance of the war had been missed by previous scholarship. Because of the far-reaching global implications of the war, factors ranging from international political, financial, and military relationships to the scale of the battlefield(s), to the size of armies and duration of battles, resulted in conclusions that sought to contextualize it either as a large prelude to World War I or as a separate global conflict that should be renamed “World War Zero.”
Reference Works and Historiographic Guides
The reference books and historiographic guides listed in this section were selected to provide researchers with basic materials to consult if they decide to conduct further work on the conflict. The article signed by a British officer in 1911 (A British Officer 1911a and A British Officer 1911b) is a guide to the early literature on the war. The article on the Russo-Japanese War from the 1910–1911 Encyclopedia Britannica (Unsigned 1910–1911) provides an early comprehensive and authoritative narrative of the conflict. Luchiniin 1939, a bibliographic index, lists all Russian publications, especially articles that focus on unit histories. Kowner 2006 and Starshov 2004 offer readers contemporary historic dictionaries of the war.
A British Officer. “The Literature of the Russo-Japanese War, I.” American Historical Review 16 (April 1911a): 508–528.
This article offers an extensive historiographic essay that identifies much of the most significant works published in the immediate aftermath of the war. The anonymous British officer who wrote this piece paid particular attention to the official histories, to the individual works of military observers, and to the journalist who covered the war for a myriad of news agencies.
A British Officer. “The Literature of the Russo-Japanese War, II.” American Historical Review 16 (July 1911b): 736–750.
This is the second half of the historiographic article listed in A British Officer 1911a.
Kowner, Rotem. Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2006.
Kowner’s dictionary is the most recent encyclopedic guide published in English. It concludes with an extensive (unannotated) bibliography. This bibliography identifies Japanese language sources, materials that are not cited in this bibliography.
Luchiniin, V. Russko-Iaponskaia voina, 1904–05 gg. Bibliograficheskii ukazatel’ knizhnoi literatury. Moscow, 1939.
This book offers a comprehensive list of most works published in Russia/Soviet Union in the period up to the outbreak of World War II. It is an especially important aid in helping scholars identify articles written in the prerevolutionary Russian journals.
Starshov, Y. V. Russko-Iaponskaya voina: Slovar-spravochnik. Moscow: Exlibris, 2004.
On a bibliographic level, this book updates Luchiniin 1939. On a reference level it follows the pattern of a dictionary that offers readers encyclopedia-like entries that provide basic knowledge of the war.
Unsigned. “The Russo-Japanese War.” In Encyclopedia Britannica. 11th ed. Vol. 23. 919–930. Cambridge, UK: University Press, 1910–1911.
Although it may be a bit unusual to include an encyclopedic article in a bibliography, this is no usual encyclopedia article. Clearly written by a veteran of the conflict, this article provides a short yet very thick narrative of the war from beginning to end. It divides the war into three theaters of operation: Naval, the Manchurian War of Maneuver, and the Siege of Port Arthur.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- 1916 Easter Rising, The
- 1812, War of
- Aerial Bombardment, Ethics of
- Afghanistan, Wars in
- Africa, Gunpowder and Colonial Campaigns in
- African Military History and Historiography
- African Wars of Independence
- Air Transport
- Allenby, Edmund
- All-Volunteer Army, Post-Vietnam Through 2016
- American Colonial Wars
- American Indian Wars
- American War of Independence
- Amir Timur
- Ancient Egyptian Warfare (3000 BCE–332 BCE)
- Animals and the Military
- Antietam, Battle of
- Arab-Israeli Wars, 1948-Present
- Arctic Warfare
- Argentine Armed Forces
- Armed Forces of the Ottoman Empire, 1683–1918
- Armored War
- Arms Control and Disarmament
- Army, Roman
- Artillery
- Artists and War Art
- Assyrian Warfare
- Attila and the Huns
- Australia from the Colonial Era to the Present
- Austrian Succession, War of the
- Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces
- Balkan Liberation, 1878–1913, Wars of
- Baltic Crusades
- Battle of Agincourt
- Battle of Bannockburn: 1341
- Battle of Plassey, 1757
- Battle of Route Coloniale 4, 1950: France’s first devastat...
- Battle of Salamis: 480 BC
- Battle of Tours (732?)
- Boer Wars
- Bonaparte, Napoleon
- Brazilian Armed Forces
- Britain and the Blitz
- British Armed Forces, from the Glorious Revolution to Pres...
- British Army in World War II
- British Army of the Rhine, The
- British-India Armies from 1740 to 1849
- Canada from World War I to the Present
- Canada in World War II
- Canada through World War I
- Cavalry since 1500
- Chaco War
- Charlemagne
- China's Modern Wars, 1911-1979
- Chinese Civil War, 1945-1949
- Chivalry
- Christianity and Warfare in the Medieval West
- Churchill, John, 1st Duke of Marlborough
- Churchill, Winston
- Civilians
- Clausewitz, Carl von
- Coalition and Alliance War
- Cold War, 1945-1990
- Cold War Dictatorships in the Southern Cone (Brazil, Argen...
- Commemoration
- Communications, French Revolution to the Present
- Conflict and Migration
- Conquest of Mexico and Peru
- Conscription
- Cornwallis, Charles
- Counterinsurgency in the Modern World
- Crimean War, 1853–1856
- Cromwell, Oliver
- Crusades, The
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- Defense Industries
- Dien Bien Phu, Battle of
- Dominion Armies in World War II
- Douhet, Giulio, airpower theorist
- Eisenhower, Dwight
- Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide
- European Wars, Mid-Nineteenth-Century
- Finland in World War II
- France in World War I
- Franco-Prussian War, 1870–71 (Franco-German War)
- Frederick the Great
- French Armies, Early Modern
- French Military, 1919-1940
- French Revolutionary Wars, The
- Gender Issues
- German Air Forces
- German Army, 1871–1945
- German Sea Power, 1848-1918
- German Unification, Wars of
- Germany's Eastern Front in 1941
- Grant, Ulysses S.
- Greek and Roman Navies
- Guerrilla Warfare, Pre-20th-Century
- Gunpowder Warfare in South Asia: 1400–1800
- Haig, Douglas
- Haitian Revolution (1789–1804)
- Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert, Jacques Antoine
- Hiroshima/Nagasaki
- History of Intelligence in China
- Hundred Days Campaign of 1918
- Hundred Years War
- Hungary, Warfare in Medieval and Early Modern
- Imperial China, War in
- India 'Mutiny' and 'Revolution,' 1857-1858
- Indian Army in World War I
- Indian Warfare, Ancient
- India-Pakistan Wars
- Indochina Wars, 1946-1975
- Information Warfare
- Intelligence, Military
- International Efforts to Control War
- Iraq Wars, 1980s-Present
- Irish Civil War, 1922–1923
- Irish Revolution, 1911-1923, The
- Italian Armed Forces in the Modern Age
- Italian Campaign, World War I
- Japanese Army in the World War II Era, The Imperial
- Japanese Navy
- Jomini, Antoine-Henri
- Justice, Military, the Anglo-American Tradition
- Justice of War and Justice in War
- Khan, Genghis
- Kursk, Battle of
- Learning and Adapting: The British Army from Somme to the ...
- Lee, Robert E.
- Lepizig, Battle of
- Literature and Drama, War in
- Loos, Battle of
- Louis XIV, Wars of
- Low-Intensity Operations
- Manzikert, Battle of
- Maratha Navy
- Media
- Medicine, Military
- Medieval Europe and the Middle East (500–1300), Siege Warf...
- Medieval French Warfare
- Medieval Japan, 900-1600
- Mercenaries
- Meuse-Argonne Offensive
- Mexican Revolution, c. 1910–1960
- Mexico and the United States, 1836–1848, Wars of
- Midway, Battle of
- Militarism
- Military Officers, United States
- Military Revolutions
- Militia
- Modern Piracy
- Mongol Wars
- Montgomery, Bernard Law
- Music and War
- Napoleonic Wars, The
- Napoleonic Wars, War and Memory in the
- NATO
- Navy, British
- Nelson, Horatio
- New Zealand
- Nimitz, Chester
- Nuclear Culture
- Nuclear Weapons
- Occupations and Military Government
- Operational Art
- Ottoman Navy
- Pacifism
- Passchaendale, Battle of
- Patton, George
- Peacekeeping
- Peninsular War
- Polish Armed Forces, 1918-present
- Political Purges in the 20th Century
- Poltava, Battle of
- Popular Culture and Modern War
- Prehistoric Warfare
- Pre-Revolutionary Mexican Armed Forces: 1810–1910
- Prince Eugene of Savoy
- Prisoners
- Private Military and Security Companies
- Propaganda
- Psychiatric Casualties
- Punic Wars
- Race, Ethnicity, and War
- Race in the US Military
- Red Cross
- Religio-Military Orders
- Revolt in the Spanish Netherlands: 1561–1609 (Dutch Revolt...
- Roman Empire
- Roman Republic
- Roses, Wars of the
- Russian and Soviet Armed Forces
- Russian Campaign of 1812
- Russian Civil War, 1918–1921
- Russian Military History
- Russian Military History, 1762-1825
- Russo-Japanese War
- Safavid Army
- Sailing Warships
- Science and Technology in War
- Science Fiction, Military
- Semi-Military and Paramilitary Organizations
- Seven Years' War
- Seven Years' War in North America, The
- Sino-Japanese Wars, 1895-1945
- South Africa's Apartheid Wars
- South West Pacific, 1941–1945, Campaigns in
- Southeast Asian Military History, Colonial
- Southeast Asian Military History, Precolonial
- Space and War
- Spain since the Reconquista
- Spanish Civil War
- Special Operations Forces
- Special Operations Forces
- Stalingrad, Battle of
- Steppe Nomadic Warfare
- Strategy
- Submarine Warfare
- Swedish Armed Forces
- Tactics
- Terrorism
- Tet Offensive
- The Allied Bombardment of Occupied Europe During World War...
- The United States and the Middle East, 1945-2001
- Third Battle of Panipat
- Thirty Years War, 1618–1648
- Trench Warfare
- Uganda–Tanzania War, 1978–1979
- United States Marine Corps, The
- Urban Warfare
- US Air Force
- US Air Power
- US Army
- Verdun, Battle of
- Victorian Warfare, 1837–1902
- Vietnam War
- Vietnam War in Hollywood Feature Films
- War at Sea in the Age of Napoleon
- War, Chemical and Biological
- War Correspondents
- War, Culture of
- War in Mughal India
- War of the Spanish Succession, 1701–1714
- War of the Triple Alliance (Paraguayan War)
- Warfare in Qing China
- Warfare, Precolonial, in Africa
- Warships, Steam
- Women in the Military
- World War I in Film
- World War I Origins
- World War I: The Eastern Front
- World War I: The Western Front
- World War II and the Far East
- World War II in Film
- World War II in the Mediterranean and Middle East
- World War II, Indian Army in
- World War II Origins
- World War II, Russo-German War
- Yugoslavian Civil War, 1991–1999
- Zhukov, Georgii
- Zulu Wars