Milestones: 1899–1913 - Office of the Historian
Milestones: 1899–1913
The Treaty of Portsmouth and the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–1905
The Treaty of Portsmouth formally ended the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The                     negotiations took place in August in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and were                     brokered in part by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. The final agreement was                     signed in September of 1905, and it affirmed the Japanese presence in south                     Manchuria and Korea and ceded the southern half of the island of Sakhalin to                     Japan.
Photograph from the Russo-Japanese War
By 1904, Russia and Japan had endured several years of disputes over control of                     Manchuria. The Russians had entered the region during the Sino-Japanese War of                     1894–95 and, along with Germany and France, was a part of the “Triple                     Intervention” that forced Japan to give up its demands for ports in South                     Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula in the wake of its victory in China.                     Instead, Russia moved into the area and took control of Port Arthur, a warm                     water port with strategic and commercial significance. A Japanese attempt to                     stage a coup in adjacent Korea was thwarted in part by the Russian presence in                     the region, and the two nations’ divergent interests appeared more and more                     likely to clash.
In 1904, the Japanese attacked the Russian fleet at Port Arthur before the formal                     declaration of war was received in Moscow, surprising the Russian navy and                     earning an early victory. Over the course of the next year, the two forces                     clashed in Korea and the Sea of Japan, with the Japanese scoring significant,                     but costly, victories. War casualties were high on both sides. At the battle                     over Mukden, the Russians lost 60,000 soldiers and the Japanese lost 41,000                     soldiers. The military costs were high as well. A Russian fleet made the long                     trip from the Baltic Sea around Africa and India, only to be half destroyed by                     the Japanese upon its arrival in Northeast Asia. By 1905, the combination of                     these losses and the economic cost of financing the war led both countries to                     seek an end to the war.
Photograph of Attack on Port Arthur
The Japanese asked U.S. President Roosevelt to negotiate a peace agreement, and                     representatives of the two nations met in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1905. For                     the sake of maintaining the balance of power and equal economic opportunity in                     the region, Roosevelt preferred that the war end on terms that left both Russia                     and Japan a role to play in Northeast China. Though excited by the Japanese                     military victories, Roosevelt worried about the consequences to American                     interests if Japan managed to drive Russia out entirely.
The negotiations centered on access to ports and territories in Manchuria and                     Korea, control of Sakhalin Island, and the question of who was responsible for                     paying war costs. The chief aims of the Japanese negotiator included first                     control in Korea and South Manchuria, then the negotiation of an indemnity and                     control of Sakhalin Island. The Russians wanted to maintain Sakhalin Island,                     refused to pay a war costs indemnity to the Japanese, and hoped to maintain                     their fleet in the Pacific. The indemnity issue, along with the dispensation of                     Sakhalin Island, were the major sticking points in the negotiation, although                     given its financial straits in 1905, Russia was likely unable to pay an                     indemnity even if required by a treaty to do so.
When negotiations reached an impasse, Roosevelt stepped in with the proposal that                     Russia “buy back” the northern part of Sakhalin from Japanese control. The                     Russians were adamant that they would not pay any amount of money, which would                     act as a disguised indemnity, when the territory ought to be theirs. After long                     internal debate, Japan eventually agreed to take only the southern half of the                     island, without any kind of payment. Theirs had not been a decisive enough                     victory to force the point.
The Treaty ultimately gave Japan control of Korea and much of South Manchuria,                     including Port Arthur and the railway that connected it with the rest of the                     region, along with the southern half of Sakhalin Island; Russian power was                     curtailed in the region, but it was not required to pay Japan’s war costs.                     Because neither nation was in a strong financial position to continue the war                     easily, both were forced to compromise in the terms of the peace. Still, the                     Japanese public felt they had won the war, and they considered the lack of an                     indemnity to be an affront. There was a brief outbreak of protests and rioting                     in Tokyo when the terms of the agreement were made public. Similarly, the                     Russian people were also dissatisfied, angry about giving up half of Sakhalin.
Individuals gathered to work out what became the Treaty of                     Portsmouth
Throughout the war and the peace talks, American public opinion largely sided                     with Japan. Believing that the Japanese were fighting a “just war” against                     Russian aggression, and that the island nation was equally committed to the Open                     Door and the territorial integrity of China, the American people were anxious to                     support it. This sense did not really change over the course of the                     negotiations, in spite of the best efforts of the Russian negotiator to improve                     the press coverage of his nation’s position. The final decision of the Japanese                     to forgo an indemnity only served to strengthen U.S. approval of Japan’s actions                     throughout the conflict. The anti-treaty and, at times, anti-American                     demonstrations in Tokyo that followed the ratification of the treaty caught many                     Americans off-guard.
The Treaty of Portsmouth marked the last real event in an era of U.S.-Japanese                     cooperation that began with the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Instead, competition                     between the two nations in the Pacific grew over the years that followed.                     Conversely, Japanese relations with Russia improved in the wake of the treaty.                     Although the actual importance of Roosevelt’s mediation and personal pressure on                     the leadership in Moscow and Tokyo to the final agreement is unclear, he won the                     Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in moderating the talks and pushing toward                     peace.