The Russo-Japanese war saw the first defeat of a major European imperialist power by an Asian country. When Japanese and Russian expansionist interests collided over Manchuria and Korea, the Tsar assumed Japan would never dare to fight. However, after years of planning, Japan launched a surprise attack on the Russian Port Arthur, on the Liaoyang Peninsula in 1904 and the war that followed saw Japan win major battles against Russia. This book explains the background and outbreak of the war, then follows the course of the fighting at Yalu River, Sha-ho, and finally Mukden, the largest battle anywhere in the world before the First World War.

# Introduction

# Chronology

# Background to war: Russia's foothold in the Far East

# Warring sides: Relative strengths of Russia and Japan

# Outbreak : The strike on Port Arthur

# The fighting: Russian might and Japanese manoeuvres

# Portrait of a soldier : Russia's harsh reality

# The world around war: Russian defeats add to domestic unrest

# Portrait of a civilian: The impact on neutral China

# Conclusion and consequences: Witte woos the US public

After leaving Oxford in 1953 Geoffrey Jukes spent 14 years in the UK Ministry of Defence and Foreign and Colonial Office, specialising in Russian/Soviet military history, strategy and arms control. From 1967 to 1993 he was also on the staff of the Australian National University. He has written five books and numerous articles on the Eastern Front in the two World Wars