Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
connection with mainland Japan, so the men rowed 15 hours over 60 miles (96 kilometers)
to Ishigaki, then ran five hours to reach the telegraph station there. The message alerting
the Japanese Imperial Navy was sent. This deed of patriotic loyalty and bravery is what the
monument celebrates.
The Tsushima Strait connects the East China Sea to the Sea of Japan.
Unfortunately for the Russians, at this stage Port Arthur had fallen and the goal of the
fleet was merely to reach Vladivostok safely and await further instructions. Of the three sea
routes available to them, the commanding admiral had chosen the shortest and most direct,
passing through the Tsushima Strait between Japan and Korea. This, however, was also the
most dangerous route as it passed very close to mainland Japan. And, of course, by now the
Japanese were on full alert as they knew that the fleet was approaching.
On May 27-28 of 1905, the Japanese engaged the Battle of Tsushima (
対馬海戦
;
Tsushima-kaisen) and annihilated the Russian fleet. All eight of their battleships, numerous
smaller vessels and more than 5,000 Russian sailors were lost, while the Japanese lost three
torpedo boats and 116 men. Only three Russian vessels escaped to Vladivostok. After the
battle the Japanese army occupied all of Sakhalin Island and Port Arthur and exercised con-
trol over Manchuria and Korea. The Russians were forced to sue for peace. The Russo-Japan-
ese War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on September 5, 1905 at the
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. For his efforts as mediator, American Presid-
ent Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
For the Russians, the war represented a nadir in their military history; an extra- ordinary
humiliation at the hands of the Japanese; the beginning of the end of the Russian monarchy;
and the nascent beginning of the Russian Revolution. For the rest of the Western world, the
Japanese victory represented a rise in the power and prestige of an Asian power that hereto-
fore was unimaginable. For Japan, it was to set the stage for two great world wars over the
next half a century.
