February 11, 2025 • 35 mins
Two Empires. One region, in tenuous balance. While often forgotten in the modern day, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 was a pivotal turning point in early 20th century geopolitics. On one side, the vast Russian Empire: having established control over Siberia, Nicholas II seeks to secure outlets to the Pacific. On the other side of the conflict, an expansionist Japan rushes headlong toward modernity and empire. Something has to give. In the first part of this week's two-part series, Ben, Noel and Max explore the massive consequences of the Russo-Japanese war, and how the consequences of this conflict resonate in the modern day. (Spoiler, neither empire bothered to ask the actual people of Manchuria for their opinion.)
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Uh that's our own Tzar of podcasting
super producer mister Max Williams Bizar Hizar Hizzar. Indeed, Uh,
I am Ben Bullen.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
You are Noel Brown and Noel.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
This is probably gonna be a two part episode.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
We gotta get think it's gotta be dude, this one
gets pretty in the in the russo Japanese weeds in
the best good way ever.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, and we are definitely going to be on our
p's and q's because I am currently stuck in Japan.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
But luckily this is a story. This is a.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Story where in Japan spoiler history, Buffs emerges victorious. So
I won't get hassled too much. I think trying to
get out of here.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
You're a japan booster is what you.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
There we go and we are so we are coming
to you from around the world, folks. And this is
a story brought to us by our research associate, doctor
z the Man, the myth, the legend about I love
his title here that one time Japan rinsed Russia doctor.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Z is a master phrase turner. I don't know that
I've ever heard rints used in that way, but if
you follow the man on Instagram, he's always posting some
stuff with some very clever little aphorisms that are largely
of his own making.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Which I obviously totally vibe with that. Here's the piece
in a pod bro Pie's in a pod, Noll. Here's
the gist cast memory back. It's September nineteen oh five,
the end of the Russo Japanese War. The world is
shaking because Japan, a country that has long been considered
(02:15):
underdeveloped and prime real estate for colonization, just like less
than fifty years ago, has absolutely whipped Russia on the Keastern.
They gave them a spanking at a time when Russia
(02:36):
was the largest empire in the world. This is the
For some historians, this is kind of the beginning of
the end for Sarist Russia, and then for others it's
the beginning of.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
The beginning for modern Japan.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
You remember that's Smashing Pumpkins song from the Batman and
Robin soundtrack. The end is the beginning is the end?
I do, okay if you don't. It was a bit
of a mind. I don't even know if it was
a hit. It had a really dumb video. It was
specifically written for that soundtrack. What but I always thought
the name was funny. A lot of this early stuff
we're talking about here comes from a fabulous piece on
the Collector by Ilias. I forget the pronunciation here. I'm
(03:14):
doing my best. Ben abd Jalalil, who is a Masters
of International Relations. Russo Japanese War the affirmation of a
global Asian power highly worth checking.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Out, as is the Russo Japanese War in world history.
From our friends at the Association of Asian Studies. We'll
be leaning on some of their findings in this story.
Let's flash back, right because we kind of did a
Tarantino thing, folks. We started in the at the end
of the story, and now we're going back to the beginning.
(03:48):
Here's why Russia and Japan started beefing up anyway, So
Russia and Japan had conflicting ambitions. They wanted to both
be the ultimate sovereigns of Manchuria and Korea. To Russia,
the idea of expanding Russian territory into Manchuria was just
(04:13):
part of an ongoing policy that you can trace back
as far as the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Shout
out to our ongoing series on honorifics, and you know what,
I think we should call that one now, dishonorifics.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
That's true. I do believe even the Terrible came up,
and I think I made the point that in this case,
this was probably an honorific that he would have been
cool with, because terrible in this case doesn't just mean
like God, that guy was awful. It means like a terrible,
like a like a terrible giant, or an ogre or
someone to be feared.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Absolutely, and it's it's pretty good marketing rights. It may
as well be synonymous with Ivan the Mighty, for instance,
strikes fear into the hearts of the little folk, of
which I count myself among their number. And Japan's rise
to prominence at this point had been extraordinary, not unprecedented,
(05:09):
but quite anomalous. They had no industrial revolution or political
franchise of any sort when they were contacted in eighteen
fifty three by commodore Perry. The Great Black Fleet arrived
in Edo Bay, and they because they didn't have this
(05:30):
I guess governmental infrastructure and economic infrastructure. At the time,
they were very vulnerable to what we call the Great
Powers and the age of imperialism. You know, this is
the time when a lot of forces in Europe, and
you know, Russian forces figured hey, if I just walk
over to a new land and I put my flag
(05:52):
on the ground, it's mine.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Sure, just plant the flags like they did on the Moon.
We on the moon.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And there was a lot of you know, dehumanization of
native populations things like that. But Japan understood that there
was a lot at stake here and one of the
things that they prioritized as a nation was maintaining their autonomy. No,
you can't come trade here. They did something that you
(06:21):
should do in any relationship, which is set up serious boundaries.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Mm hmm. Sure did. They were very good. They had
a good therapist as a country. I guess you could
call this sort of an isolationist way of doing business.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yes, yeah, And we could call it selective isolationism.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
That's right, because they wanted to choose who they traded
with or who they did business with, and they were
not opposed to expanding into neighboring territories.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Absolutely absolutely nailed it. And I would say It's also
selective isolationism in that Japan embraced all the scientific and
technical and political expertise from the West as long as
they deemed it appropriate. So you can't run our good bits. Yeah,
(07:08):
we'll take the good man. You can't run our country,
but teach us the biggest innovations in manufacturing and we'll
take that.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
You know, they and we certainly know Japan has always
been quite good at that sort of assimilation of other cultures,
you know, I mean, like with their focused on technology,
with all of their rebuilding in the image of the
future kind of posts the bombs.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, speaking of innovations, I saw something recently that still
confuses me. I'll send Max and you a picture of
this after we record. I was walking around in what
towers and big cities. Lots of big cities have a
tourist attraction that's just a gigantic tower and they've got
(07:55):
shopping and stuff around it, and it's kind of like
a fair ground in some places. And yesterday I saw
a I saw an amazing food stall. It was unfortunately closed,
and all it said was turkey and marshmallow.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
And stick at the same time.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yes, a stick with a marshmallow and a turkey on it,
like a turkey leg, like a piece of turkey, not
like a Thanksgiving treat where you dip a marshmallow and
chocolate and put turkey eyes on it.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I don't know that that's that's that's the thing you need. Yeah, Oh,
I'm learning so much. And yeah, of course Japan has
taken that spirit of innovation and you know, put it
into their cuisine as well. Have you seen those crazy
omelets they make that's like a tornado style omelet and
then they slice it and they put it over rice
and slice it with a knife and it sort of
(08:48):
turns itself inside out. Wow, amu rice esthetically beautiful?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Agreed? And this is uh.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I'm bringing this tangent in just because I'm still I
have many questions about turkey marshmallow. I gotta send this
to you guys, all right, so.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I gotta see it.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
It's weird.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
We've got to try it when we all go together.
So the idea here is that after acquiring various innovations
and due to other regional tensions, Japan gets involved again
in beef with Chinese forces from eighteen ninety four to
eighteen ninety five, there's the Sino Japanese War, and after
(09:32):
being victorious in this conflict, the Japanese government believes we
can make a convincing case that we are the great
power in Asia, not a Western colonial power. If you
want to do business in Asia, you mess with us.
We're the big dogs. Like look at me, I am
the captain now.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And if I'm not mistaken, they did kind of have
to take an l on their isolationist views when the
European hours strong armed a bit of their territory away
from them, right.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Yeah, yes, yeah, the Laodong Peninsula. And forgive my pronunciation there, folks,
despite taking this up, they said, look, we're still going
to do it. We're going to have our own empire.
We are not going to be a vassal state nor
a servant of the West. And to put it simply,
(10:26):
Russia took that personally because Russia, as we mentioned earlier,
had their own plans for the Korean Peninsula for centuries
and centuries and even now in the modern day. By
the way, rulers of Russia have always tried to tackle
one huge problem for their land, which is they don't
(10:47):
have a lot of warm water ports.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
That's right, so they wanted to open up sea trade
routes with these warm water ports, and for that they
had been eyeing that Korean peninsula. So in eighteen feet
Russia acquired a region known as Zolotoi Rog which they
acquired from China along the Pacific coast, and that established
the port of a city that you may well have
(11:12):
heard of, Vladivostok. But it was a bit of a
seasonal bargain. This coastal port was only able to be
used during the warm months of the year because other
times of the year, I believe it would have been
you know, frozen.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Over, yes, yeah, locked in the ice. And that is
something that is something that was still, to their estimation,
better than nothing, right, because they did get a navigable
sea route, they did get access to the wider world
and the Pacific. However, they wanted more so on the
(11:46):
other side of the war. After you know, after Japan
kind of whips Chinese forces in eighteen ninety five, as
we said, the nation of Japan acquires Port Arthur. It
is the ancestor of today's Lushunku province in China. And
Russia was really mad about this. For any fans of
(12:07):
the strategy game's Civilization by sid Meyer. You'll see a
thing that happens whenever you build a city or extend
your territory too close to another territory, even if you're
friendly with each other, you'll get a message that says, hey,
you're getting too close to our stuff. And that's what
(12:28):
Russia was doing. They said, Japan, you getting a little
too close to our backyard. Imagine like if you have
a backyard in your own life ridiculous historians. Imagine if
your neighbors build a fence and it's a decent fence,
(12:52):
and then they they take a few years with that
boundary and you wake up one day and the fence
has moved three feet.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
I to completely know what you mean. It's funny. Actually,
I had a neighbor who purchased a plot of land
next to my house and is building a house, a
brand new house, and he came knocking on my door
and told me, hey, by the way, ignited me choose
my name, And by the way, it turns out that
your fence was incorrectly built and it is actually three
(13:27):
feet on my property. But it's okay because I'll pay
for it to be moved, And in my mind, I'm like,
do I check him on this? Do I just take
his word? And this seems like it opens up a
lot of questions on a very micro example of this
sort of macro geopolitical maneuvering.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, and we have to remember that the imperialism and
the racial attitudes of the time are inseparable from policy.
So Russia, Sarist Russia is able to go to France
and Germany and essential say, all right, fellow Europeans, right,
(14:06):
because the Tsarist Russia would switch between call these self
Asiatic or European or just Russian, however it suited them.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
And you know, it's interesting, though, Ben, because in my
mind I always kind of forget how much Russia is
very much part of Asia because they are just so
uniquely their own thing in my mind, the way they've
established themselves and really have very little in common with
Asian culture, and yet they are absolutely a part of
that region of the world. Right, any any thoughts on that?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yeah, Well, I'm still baffled that we consider and it
always ruffles feathers when I say it, but I'm still
baffled that we consider Europe Western Europe its own continent
because there's no there's no big water separating it from Asia.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
You can wake up and you can wake up in Paris,
and if you have enough time, you can and walk
to Beijing. It'll take a while, it'll take one.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
We'll take him minute flat at least it's not flat. No,
there's a ton of stuff in the way. But anyhow,
so Russia decides to pull this card and they go
to France and Germany and they say, fellow Europeans and
they're like, oh, you're European this week and they go yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Move past it.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
We switch yeah, exactly, we need your help with these
Asiatic forces they're acting up in France and Germany say okay,
right on, we and yeah, And this creates something called
the Triple Intervention wherein Russian ruler Nicholas the Second gains
(15:44):
control of Port Arthur and then Russian armies go into
Manchuria in nineteen hundred, taking advantage of the massive chaos
during the Boxer rebellion in China and.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
When there's an absolute bloodbath. Yes, it's actually portrayed very
interestingly in some like kind of weird Disneyland esque sort
of dioramas in BioShock Infinite, the video game it has
that portrays the Boxer rebellion from a very let's call
it propagandistic perspective in the world, the kind of you know,
(16:21):
bizarro alternate future world of that game.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yeah, and with this we we again. I can't leave
this fence analogy just yet because we're not to an.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Active war with the sit on it.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, right, the Russian nice the Russian army. Now from
the Japanese perspective, the Russian nation, I should say, they
have moved their fence closer and Japan is going and
they're so concerned about this. Tensions are so high that
Japan says, in nineteen oh two, hey, we can play
(16:57):
this game with the Europeans as well. They signed a
defensive pact with Great Britain, and then they say that
at the same time they go to Russia and concurrently
they say, look, guys, let's turn the temperature down a bit,
let's demilitarize Manchuria. And then France comes back and says,
(17:19):
all right, publicly, everybody, Russia is getting a little thirsty,
get a little hungry over there in the Far East.
Let's not escalate things Okay, Nikki, that's what they called
each other. They called Nicholas the second Nikki. They were like, Nikki,
you're a good boy. You know, what would your mom
think if he kept escalating like this? And Nicholas it
(17:43):
turns out, didn't vibe with that.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Maybe he didn't like being called NICKI.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
No, he's a bit of an escalator.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah, there, it is an habitual linestepper. As Charlie Murphy
would say, and shout out to anybody who got that
Dave Chappelle reference. Oh gosh, Charlie Murphy's storytelling. Remember when
he tells the story about Rick James and then Prince Oh,
it's so good.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
It's the best. Some of the best comedy ever ever
put to video film. So Korea and Manchuria back to
them jointly kind of represented a very important, very key
objective for Russia. They were not would not let go
of Port Arthur. So in nineteen oh one, Russia had
(18:28):
concluded the construction of a very very modern and long railway,
the longest in fact in the world. You may have
heard of it, the Trans Siberian Railway. I think there's
a isn't there a band called the Trans Siberian orches
something or other orchestra. That's it. There you go. The
idea is to connect Vladivostok, that seasonal port on the
(18:49):
Pacific coast, with Moscow.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
And this would be followed up. You know, constructing railways
is a lot like rivers and tributaries, right. This would
be followed by a bunch of smaller railways that would
connect Manchuria to the rest of Russia. And this is
a very big move. This is what Jack Miles and
you and I will call an historical flex. Japan knows
(19:15):
what's going on. The Emperor is pod about this. He is.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Not happy.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
He sees what's in the winds, he sees what they're
trying to do, pushing these boundaries literally. And so on
February fourth, nineteen oh four, they break all diplomatic ties
with Russia. And this is where things get even more hectic.
Just a few days later, it's February eighth. Japan doesn't
(19:47):
wait for someone to declare war. They launch a surprise
attack on the Russian naval base of Port Arthur on
the coast of Manchuria. And they never publicly diplomatically declare
war or cause for war.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
They just do it.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yes, tactic that will later be practiced to Pearl Harbor
in Hawaii.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Wrecked definitely gave me Pearl Harbor vibes. So in the nights,
Japanese destroyer ships approached the Russian Pacific fleets that were anchored.
These ships were anchored in the harbor, sailors asleep on board,
they had their lights on, they were very easy to spot,
and they fired torpedoes that were the Japanese that is,
(20:33):
and hit two of these Russian battleships known as the
Retvisan and the Sarevich, in addition to a cruiser. To
believe ben is a smaller vessel, a smaller military vessel
known as the Palada. And then when the sun came out,
the Japanese battleships began to shell the Russian warships that
(20:57):
had taken refuge in their batteries on shore.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yeah, and we want to shout out our pal Richard
Cavendish writing for History Today, who's giving us that blow
by blow? And yeah, I don't you know, maybe we're
oversimplifying with the comparison to Pearl Harbor, but the tactic,
the heart and soul of the tactic remains the same.
You know, and when they when they damage these ships.
(21:26):
The attack is audacious and bold, even though it's not
an automatic knockout, right, there's not a kill shot, not
a kill shot. Yeah, there's still other other naval forces
that exist that can retaliate. The Times of London says,
the Japanese navy has opened the wall by an act
of dabbering, which is destined to take a place of
(21:47):
auto in naval adults.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
And that's how you kind of started that East mid
Atlantic and then you kind of turned it into into British.
I love it. It's a great combo.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
I could do it again. I mean, transit is pretty
much both.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
But it's sort of like I felt like it had
a nice morphing flow to it, and I was I'm
a fan. I thought it was cool.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Well, the.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
European forces clearly thought that the attack by Japan was
as you said, cool, bold, ambitious, and it.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Took a job at a Japanese navy right.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
And navy annals cour naval annimals, of course, is just
the the records of maritime war.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, and so the.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Night after this sneak attack, that's very much what it was.
The Japanese Navy comes back. They've launched multiple assaults on
aspects of the Russian fleet positioned in southern Manchuria, and
the Russians take a lot of losses heavy casualties, but
with the help of ground artillery, they were able to
(22:54):
repel the forces of the Japanese. And the Japanese at
this time are led by an admiral named Togo Haihachiro,
and Haiachiro says, all right, the attack that we're doing,
you know, the thing about these sneak attacks and the
shocking aw stuff is it kind of only works once,
so we have to figure out something.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Else, that's right, Awamiral Togo pivoted to a less flashy
approach and more of like, let's wade them out, let's
smoke them out of their holes, or starve them out
of their holes. They decided to blockade the city, which
is pretty effective strategy, but it is sort of more
of a long game, right.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's a long game, partially because the
people on the boats have to eat too. So the
Russian Navy could not break through this Japanese blockade, which
meant that they couldn't stop Japanese forces from invading Korea
in nineteen oh four. By the end of the month,
(23:53):
Japan's troops were crossing into Manchuria, and then they were
defeating Russians on land, especially in the Battle of the
Yalu River on May one. Now at this point, if
you go to our friends at Brilliant Maps, you'll find
a quote that stood out to doctor Z and to
us as well.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
That's right. I think this does a fine job of
summing up the situation at hand in nineteen oh four.
Russia in nineteen oh four was more of a paper
tiger than a sleeping giant. Japan benefited from much shorter
supply lines than Russia. Therefore, while the initial assault on
Port Arthur failed to achieve its goal, the Japanese were
able to quickly follow the attack with a blockade and
(24:33):
then a siege of the port. More of a paper
tiger than a sleeping giant.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
And Russia reinforcements do exist, the Russian reinforcements Russian to
the region.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Wow, yeah, alliterative.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
King Oh dude, that's a quote from our friends at
the collect So they say, look, we've got to stop
this Japanese advance. We cannot have them completely encircling Port
Arthur by sea and by land because we will never
get it back. And so on October fifteenth, nineteen oh four,
(25:20):
the Russian Baltic fleet sets out from Saint Petersburg and
they say, all right, we're going to reach the theata
of war here in the Far East. Can you guys
hold on for seven months?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Yeah? Sure, why not? We got snacks. So on its way,
the fleet in and of itself almost started another war
one with Great Britain by firing on some British fishing
vessels on October the twenty first, having accidentally clocked them
as enemy ships.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Again. Yeah, whoop.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
See, tensions are high, and the British government gets mad
about this and they say, you know what, since you
guys are being such pills and rascals, we're going to
close the Suez Canal to the Russian fleet. And this
is where, you know again, we see the Defensive Pact
that England and Japan had already signed back a few
(26:16):
years ago in nineteen oh two, and they said, look,
we're going to remain neutral in the event that either
of us getting a scrap with a third party. That's
why England doesn't enter the Free Well, Britain I should
say that's why they don't enter the fray because they cannot.
(26:38):
They cannot go to war with Russia just because Japan
is doing it, right, if everybody else is doing it,
why can't we, et cetera. So they have to fight
back in less direct ways. That's why they closed the canal.
And in either case, this means the Russian forces have
(26:59):
to now travel around the Cape of Good Hope, which
makes their journey even longer.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
It's such a positive sounding cape.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
It really is.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
It's like the pursuit of happiness. It sounds really good
till you think about it, like the Cape of Good Hope.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I hope this is going to be all right around
the court.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Yeah, and it wasn't always, was it.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
No, it wasn't always. But that's the nature of hope.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
And there's another thing Doctor Z points out that that
I think bears bears some cogitation. You would imagine, let's cogitate, Yeah,
you would imagine at this point, right that all right,
we're in the early nineteen hundreds, so people aren't People
are still using sailing ships, but people have also switched
(27:52):
to coal powered steamships and putting a coal powered ship
on the map is really great at this time, so
long as you have a constant supply of coal. Kind
of like how electric cars when they were getting mainstream,
they were really great, so long as you had a
(28:12):
way to plug your car in.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, like a really long extension car. That is the
rub there. And at this point, Japan has kind of
opened up to the rest of the Western world in
eighteen fifty three, and that's in part because the American
government wanted the Japanese to help them set up coaling
stations some of its ports that would then help facilitate
(28:36):
trade between China and the US.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yeah, and because this stuff that happened way back in
eighteen fifty three, now Russia's empire is is kind of screwed.
They don't have those coaling stations because they're largely a
land empire, right, And this means that the Second Pacific Squadron,
these Russian forces, when they leave Ussia, they have to
(29:01):
carry tons of coal, like literal tons of coal just
to keep the boats going. And the Suez Canal gets
cut off, so they're they're like literally I picture them
counting bricks of coal one by one going through the
Cape or going around the Cape of Good hope, and
they are only able to refuel when they reach Madagascar,
(29:24):
which is controlled by France.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
And the clock's taking away. With the Baltic fleet making
its way towards the Pacific, Theatah the Japanese Empire then
begins to kind of close that open hand into a
fists and tighten their grasp on Manchuria and that port
of Arthur. The Russian Navy at this point tries several
(29:49):
little skirmishes or what do you call these? Ben The
collector describes them as sorties. He has always sounded very
high follutant to me. What's a sortie versus a skirmish?
A specific type of attack? Aren't these kind of like
mini attacks?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:04):
A sorty is specifically an attack made from a made
when you're surrounded.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
So like an invasion. Yes, it's like.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
You're cornered, right, and then you say, all right, I'm
not going down without a fight.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Okay, got it?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
So these guys are Yeah, these guys are encircled by
the Japanese forces holding that blockade, and every so often
they go out there and do a little, but they
can't quite sink any of the Japanese ships. They're different
famous battles in this regard that you can read about,
but what you need to know is that none of
(30:45):
those sorties worked at all, and I sort of not
even sorty of yeah, not on land nor on sea.
And after multiple defeat, the Russian forces get knocked again
by the Japanese army, which sieges or besieges Port Arthur
(31:09):
from the ground. The last general in the city, anatotally Stecil,
surrenders to Japanese forces on January tewod nineteen oh five,
which means now Port Arthur and Manchuria are officially controlled
by the Japanese Empire. This is the end of that war.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Thank god took long enough.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I mean, imagine being those being those poor guys on
the Russian squadron who are just trying to get coal
and they're there for seven months and they don't really
know what's happening on the ground. Talked about showing up
late to the party, right, But wait, as Billy Mays
was wont to say there's more war ahead, we played
(32:02):
with this quote a little bit. I don't think he
ever said war as a product.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
No, he was known for that war. Warren never changes
Billy Mays.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yes, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
No, in fact check us, but do check back in
with us for part two on the one time Japan
rinsed Russia.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
We you know, this one's a little bit in the weeds,
but I think it's one for a lot of you
war wonks out there, and maybe we can kind of
set the stage a little bit about what's to come.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Yes, so we'll have a recap here too, because as
you pointed out, there is a lot of back and
forth here. The Japanese Empire is ready to call it
a day on this front and to expand further. Russia
now has a real act to grind because Japan has
(32:54):
yet to conquer Manchuria. Tune in for part two to
see what happens now. In the meantime, Thanks to the
ridiculous historians you all form our empire, we couldn't be
more happy that you're here. Thanks to Max Williams. Thanks
to Alex Tijuana Williams, who composed this.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Slap and bop.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Indeed, Baham Alex Tijuana Bahama Breeze Williams Wall, No, no, no,
it's a j Bahamas Jacobs. What am I doing here?
We've got the puzzler, aj Bahamas Jacobs the Quizzler Quizzler, Sure, yeah,
I like the Quizzler though.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
That's fun.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
That would be Jonathan Aloisious Strickland the third.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yes, yes, Ed of course.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
As always, if there are any criticisms, feedback or complaints,
please please do not hesitate to email us twenty four
hours day, seven days a week at our complaint department
Jonathan Strickland at iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
That's right, but if you want to say nice things,
you can find Ben and I's human individual people peopling
our way across the Worldwide Web. People don't really call
it that anymore. What I think it's fun. We like
a literally here on Ridiculous History. I am Instagram exclusive
at how Now Noel Brown. How about you Ben Bolin.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
If you can find me at Ben Bollen on Instagram
as well. You can also just drop by the website
benbollin dot com. And while you are on the Internet,
why not check out our colleagues, the rude dudes over
at Ridiculous Crime. If you like our show, you will
love theirs. Tell them we sent you.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
And you're on the internet. Someone is someone's on being
coy I suspect let's dead Internet theory turns out to
be true.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
You can check out our stuff.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
They don't want you to do episode on that big
thanks to our research associate, doctor Z. What a legend,
what an absolute mention and Noel Big thanks to you.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
And follow that guy on Instagram too. By the way,
he goes by Herbert Underscore Chill with seven Eyes, seven Eyes,
and two else. That dude is a good follow He's
a real handcrafted memester that guy. Check him out and hey,
in the meantime, we'll see you next time, folks. For
(35:17):
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Uh that's our own Tzar of podcasting
super producer mister Max Williams Bizar Hizar Hizzar. Indeed, Uh,
I am Ben Bullen.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
You are Noel Brown and Noel.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
This is probably gonna be a two part episode.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
We gotta get think it's gotta be dude, this one
gets pretty in the in the russo Japanese weeds in
the best good way ever.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, and we are definitely going to be on our
p's and q's because I am currently stuck in Japan.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
But luckily this is a story. This is a.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Story where in Japan spoiler history, Buffs emerges victorious. So
I won't get hassled too much. I think trying to
get out of here.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
You're a japan booster is what you.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
There we go and we are so we are coming
to you from around the world, folks. And this is
a story brought to us by our research associate, doctor
z the Man, the myth, the legend about I love
his title here that one time Japan rinsed Russia doctor.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Z is a master phrase turner. I don't know that
I've ever heard rints used in that way, but if
you follow the man on Instagram, he's always posting some
stuff with some very clever little aphorisms that are largely
of his own making.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Which I obviously totally vibe with that. Here's the piece
in a pod bro Pie's in a pod, Noll. Here's
the gist cast memory back. It's September nineteen oh five,
the end of the Russo Japanese War. The world is
shaking because Japan, a country that has long been considered
(02:15):
underdeveloped and prime real estate for colonization, just like less
than fifty years ago, has absolutely whipped Russia on the Keastern.
They gave them a spanking at a time when Russia
(02:36):
was the largest empire in the world. This is the
For some historians, this is kind of the beginning of
the end for Sarist Russia, and then for others it's
the beginning of.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
The beginning for modern Japan.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
You remember that's Smashing Pumpkins song from the Batman and
Robin soundtrack. The end is the beginning is the end?
I do, okay if you don't. It was a bit
of a mind. I don't even know if it was
a hit. It had a really dumb video. It was
specifically written for that soundtrack. What but I always thought
the name was funny. A lot of this early stuff
we're talking about here comes from a fabulous piece on
the Collector by Ilias. I forget the pronunciation here. I'm
(03:14):
doing my best. Ben abd Jalalil, who is a Masters
of International Relations. Russo Japanese War the affirmation of a
global Asian power highly worth checking.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Out, as is the Russo Japanese War in world history.
From our friends at the Association of Asian Studies. We'll
be leaning on some of their findings in this story.
Let's flash back, right because we kind of did a
Tarantino thing, folks. We started in the at the end
of the story, and now we're going back to the beginning.
(03:48):
Here's why Russia and Japan started beefing up anyway, So
Russia and Japan had conflicting ambitions. They wanted to both
be the ultimate sovereigns of Manchuria and Korea. To Russia,
the idea of expanding Russian territory into Manchuria was just
(04:13):
part of an ongoing policy that you can trace back
as far as the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Shout
out to our ongoing series on honorifics, and you know what,
I think we should call that one now, dishonorifics.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
That's true. I do believe even the Terrible came up,
and I think I made the point that in this case,
this was probably an honorific that he would have been
cool with, because terrible in this case doesn't just mean
like God, that guy was awful. It means like a terrible,
like a like a terrible giant, or an ogre or
someone to be feared.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Absolutely, and it's it's pretty good marketing rights. It may
as well be synonymous with Ivan the Mighty, for instance,
strikes fear into the hearts of the little folk, of
which I count myself among their number. And Japan's rise
to prominence at this point had been extraordinary, not unprecedented,
(05:09):
but quite anomalous. They had no industrial revolution or political
franchise of any sort when they were contacted in eighteen
fifty three by commodore Perry. The Great Black Fleet arrived
in Edo Bay, and they because they didn't have this
(05:30):
I guess governmental infrastructure and economic infrastructure. At the time,
they were very vulnerable to what we call the Great
Powers and the age of imperialism. You know, this is
the time when a lot of forces in Europe, and
you know, Russian forces figured hey, if I just walk
over to a new land and I put my flag
(05:52):
on the ground, it's mine.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Sure, just plant the flags like they did on the Moon.
We on the moon.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And there was a lot of you know, dehumanization of
native populations things like that. But Japan understood that there
was a lot at stake here and one of the
things that they prioritized as a nation was maintaining their autonomy. No,
you can't come trade here. They did something that you
(06:21):
should do in any relationship, which is set up serious boundaries.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Mm hmm. Sure did. They were very good. They had
a good therapist as a country. I guess you could
call this sort of an isolationist way of doing business.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yes, yeah, And we could call it selective isolationism.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
That's right, because they wanted to choose who they traded
with or who they did business with, and they were
not opposed to expanding into neighboring territories.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Absolutely absolutely nailed it. And I would say It's also
selective isolationism in that Japan embraced all the scientific and
technical and political expertise from the West as long as
they deemed it appropriate. So you can't run our good bits. Yeah,
(07:08):
we'll take the good man. You can't run our country,
but teach us the biggest innovations in manufacturing and we'll
take that.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
You know, they and we certainly know Japan has always
been quite good at that sort of assimilation of other cultures,
you know, I mean, like with their focused on technology,
with all of their rebuilding in the image of the
future kind of posts the bombs.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, speaking of innovations, I saw something recently that still
confuses me. I'll send Max and you a picture of
this after we record. I was walking around in what
towers and big cities. Lots of big cities have a
tourist attraction that's just a gigantic tower and they've got
(07:55):
shopping and stuff around it, and it's kind of like
a fair ground in some places. And yesterday I saw
a I saw an amazing food stall. It was unfortunately closed,
and all it said was turkey and marshmallow.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
And stick at the same time.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yes, a stick with a marshmallow and a turkey on it,
like a turkey leg, like a piece of turkey, not
like a Thanksgiving treat where you dip a marshmallow and
chocolate and put turkey eyes on it.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I don't know that that's that's that's the thing you need. Yeah, Oh,
I'm learning so much. And yeah, of course Japan has
taken that spirit of innovation and you know, put it
into their cuisine as well. Have you seen those crazy
omelets they make that's like a tornado style omelet and
then they slice it and they put it over rice
and slice it with a knife and it sort of
(08:48):
turns itself inside out. Wow, amu rice esthetically beautiful?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Agreed? And this is uh.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I'm bringing this tangent in just because I'm still I
have many questions about turkey marshmallow. I gotta send this
to you guys, all right, so.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I gotta see it.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
It's weird.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
We've got to try it when we all go together.
So the idea here is that after acquiring various innovations
and due to other regional tensions, Japan gets involved again
in beef with Chinese forces from eighteen ninety four to
eighteen ninety five, there's the Sino Japanese War, and after
(09:32):
being victorious in this conflict, the Japanese government believes we
can make a convincing case that we are the great
power in Asia, not a Western colonial power. If you
want to do business in Asia, you mess with us.
We're the big dogs. Like look at me, I am
the captain now.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And if I'm not mistaken, they did kind of have
to take an l on their isolationist views when the
European hours strong armed a bit of their territory away
from them, right.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Yeah, yes, yeah, the Laodong Peninsula. And forgive my pronunciation there, folks,
despite taking this up, they said, look, we're still going
to do it. We're going to have our own empire.
We are not going to be a vassal state nor
a servant of the West. And to put it simply,
(10:26):
Russia took that personally because Russia, as we mentioned earlier,
had their own plans for the Korean Peninsula for centuries
and centuries and even now in the modern day. By
the way, rulers of Russia have always tried to tackle
one huge problem for their land, which is they don't
(10:47):
have a lot of warm water ports.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
That's right, so they wanted to open up sea trade
routes with these warm water ports, and for that they
had been eyeing that Korean peninsula. So in eighteen feet
Russia acquired a region known as Zolotoi Rog which they
acquired from China along the Pacific coast, and that established
the port of a city that you may well have
(11:12):
heard of, Vladivostok. But it was a bit of a
seasonal bargain. This coastal port was only able to be
used during the warm months of the year because other
times of the year, I believe it would have been
you know, frozen.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Over, yes, yeah, locked in the ice. And that is
something that is something that was still, to their estimation,
better than nothing, right, because they did get a navigable
sea route, they did get access to the wider world
and the Pacific. However, they wanted more so on the
(11:46):
other side of the war. After you know, after Japan
kind of whips Chinese forces in eighteen ninety five, as
we said, the nation of Japan acquires Port Arthur. It
is the ancestor of today's Lushunku province in China. And
Russia was really mad about this. For any fans of
(12:07):
the strategy game's Civilization by sid Meyer. You'll see a
thing that happens whenever you build a city or extend
your territory too close to another territory, even if you're
friendly with each other, you'll get a message that says, hey,
you're getting too close to our stuff. And that's what
(12:28):
Russia was doing. They said, Japan, you getting a little
too close to our backyard. Imagine like if you have
a backyard in your own life ridiculous historians. Imagine if
your neighbors build a fence and it's a decent fence,
(12:52):
and then they they take a few years with that
boundary and you wake up one day and the fence
has moved three feet.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
I to completely know what you mean. It's funny. Actually,
I had a neighbor who purchased a plot of land
next to my house and is building a house, a
brand new house, and he came knocking on my door
and told me, hey, by the way, ignited me choose
my name, And by the way, it turns out that
your fence was incorrectly built and it is actually three
(13:27):
feet on my property. But it's okay because I'll pay
for it to be moved, And in my mind, I'm like,
do I check him on this? Do I just take
his word? And this seems like it opens up a
lot of questions on a very micro example of this
sort of macro geopolitical maneuvering.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, and we have to remember that the imperialism and
the racial attitudes of the time are inseparable from policy.
So Russia, Sarist Russia is able to go to France
and Germany and essential say, all right, fellow Europeans, right,
(14:06):
because the Tsarist Russia would switch between call these self
Asiatic or European or just Russian, however it suited them.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
And you know, it's interesting, though, Ben, because in my
mind I always kind of forget how much Russia is
very much part of Asia because they are just so
uniquely their own thing in my mind, the way they've
established themselves and really have very little in common with
Asian culture, and yet they are absolutely a part of
that region of the world. Right, any any thoughts on that?
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yeah, Well, I'm still baffled that we consider and it
always ruffles feathers when I say it, but I'm still
baffled that we consider Europe Western Europe its own continent
because there's no there's no big water separating it from Asia.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
You can wake up and you can wake up in Paris,
and if you have enough time, you can and walk
to Beijing. It'll take a while, it'll take one.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
We'll take him minute flat at least it's not flat. No,
there's a ton of stuff in the way. But anyhow,
so Russia decides to pull this card and they go
to France and Germany and they say, fellow Europeans and
they're like, oh, you're European this week and they go yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Move past it.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
We switch yeah, exactly, we need your help with these
Asiatic forces they're acting up in France and Germany say okay,
right on, we and yeah, And this creates something called
the Triple Intervention wherein Russian ruler Nicholas the Second gains
(15:44):
control of Port Arthur and then Russian armies go into
Manchuria in nineteen hundred, taking advantage of the massive chaos
during the Boxer rebellion in China and.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
When there's an absolute bloodbath. Yes, it's actually portrayed very
interestingly in some like kind of weird Disneyland esque sort
of dioramas in BioShock Infinite, the video game it has
that portrays the Boxer rebellion from a very let's call
it propagandistic perspective in the world, the kind of you know,
(16:21):
bizarro alternate future world of that game.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yeah, and with this we we again. I can't leave
this fence analogy just yet because we're not to an.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Active war with the sit on it.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, right, the Russian nice the Russian army. Now from
the Japanese perspective, the Russian nation, I should say, they
have moved their fence closer and Japan is going and
they're so concerned about this. Tensions are so high that
Japan says, in nineteen oh two, hey, we can play
(16:57):
this game with the Europeans as well. They signed a
defensive pact with Great Britain, and then they say that
at the same time they go to Russia and concurrently
they say, look, guys, let's turn the temperature down a bit,
let's demilitarize Manchuria. And then France comes back and says,
(17:19):
all right, publicly, everybody, Russia is getting a little thirsty,
get a little hungry over there in the Far East.
Let's not escalate things Okay, Nikki, that's what they called
each other. They called Nicholas the second Nikki. They were like, Nikki,
you're a good boy. You know, what would your mom
think if he kept escalating like this? And Nicholas it
(17:43):
turns out, didn't vibe with that.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Maybe he didn't like being called NICKI.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
No, he's a bit of an escalator.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah, there, it is an habitual linestepper. As Charlie Murphy
would say, and shout out to anybody who got that
Dave Chappelle reference. Oh gosh, Charlie Murphy's storytelling. Remember when
he tells the story about Rick James and then Prince Oh,
it's so good.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
It's the best. Some of the best comedy ever ever
put to video film. So Korea and Manchuria back to
them jointly kind of represented a very important, very key
objective for Russia. They were not would not let go
of Port Arthur. So in nineteen oh one, Russia had
(18:28):
concluded the construction of a very very modern and long railway,
the longest in fact in the world. You may have
heard of it, the Trans Siberian Railway. I think there's
a isn't there a band called the Trans Siberian orches
something or other orchestra. That's it. There you go. The
idea is to connect Vladivostok, that seasonal port on the
(18:49):
Pacific coast, with Moscow.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
And this would be followed up. You know, constructing railways
is a lot like rivers and tributaries, right. This would
be followed by a bunch of smaller railways that would
connect Manchuria to the rest of Russia. And this is
a very big move. This is what Jack Miles and
you and I will call an historical flex. Japan knows
(19:15):
what's going on. The Emperor is pod about this. He is.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Not happy.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
He sees what's in the winds, he sees what they're
trying to do, pushing these boundaries literally. And so on
February fourth, nineteen oh four, they break all diplomatic ties
with Russia. And this is where things get even more hectic.
Just a few days later, it's February eighth. Japan doesn't
(19:47):
wait for someone to declare war. They launch a surprise
attack on the Russian naval base of Port Arthur on
the coast of Manchuria. And they never publicly diplomatically declare
war or cause for war.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
They just do it.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yes, tactic that will later be practiced to Pearl Harbor
in Hawaii.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Wrecked definitely gave me Pearl Harbor vibes. So in the nights,
Japanese destroyer ships approached the Russian Pacific fleets that were anchored.
These ships were anchored in the harbor, sailors asleep on board,
they had their lights on, they were very easy to spot,
and they fired torpedoes that were the Japanese that is,
(20:33):
and hit two of these Russian battleships known as the
Retvisan and the Sarevich, in addition to a cruiser. To
believe ben is a smaller vessel, a smaller military vessel
known as the Palada. And then when the sun came out,
the Japanese battleships began to shell the Russian warships that
(20:57):
had taken refuge in their batteries on shore.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yeah, and we want to shout out our pal Richard
Cavendish writing for History Today, who's giving us that blow
by blow? And yeah, I don't you know, maybe we're
oversimplifying with the comparison to Pearl Harbor, but the tactic,
the heart and soul of the tactic remains the same.
You know, and when they when they damage these ships.
(21:26):
The attack is audacious and bold, even though it's not
an automatic knockout, right, there's not a kill shot, not
a kill shot. Yeah, there's still other other naval forces
that exist that can retaliate. The Times of London says,
the Japanese navy has opened the wall by an act
of dabbering, which is destined to take a place of
(21:47):
auto in naval adults.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
And that's how you kind of started that East mid
Atlantic and then you kind of turned it into into British.
I love it. It's a great combo.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
I could do it again. I mean, transit is pretty
much both.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
But it's sort of like I felt like it had
a nice morphing flow to it, and I was I'm
a fan. I thought it was cool.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Well, the.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
European forces clearly thought that the attack by Japan was
as you said, cool, bold, ambitious, and it.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Took a job at a Japanese navy right.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
And navy annals cour naval annimals, of course, is just
the the records of maritime war.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, and so the.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Night after this sneak attack, that's very much what it was.
The Japanese Navy comes back. They've launched multiple assaults on
aspects of the Russian fleet positioned in southern Manchuria, and
the Russians take a lot of losses heavy casualties, but
with the help of ground artillery, they were able to
(22:54):
repel the forces of the Japanese. And the Japanese at
this time are led by an admiral named Togo Haihachiro,
and Haiachiro says, all right, the attack that we're doing,
you know, the thing about these sneak attacks and the
shocking aw stuff is it kind of only works once,
so we have to figure out something.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Else, that's right, Awamiral Togo pivoted to a less flashy
approach and more of like, let's wade them out, let's
smoke them out of their holes, or starve them out
of their holes. They decided to blockade the city, which
is pretty effective strategy, but it is sort of more
of a long game, right.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's a long game, partially because the
people on the boats have to eat too. So the
Russian Navy could not break through this Japanese blockade, which
meant that they couldn't stop Japanese forces from invading Korea
in nineteen oh four. By the end of the month,
(23:53):
Japan's troops were crossing into Manchuria, and then they were
defeating Russians on land, especially in the Battle of the
Yalu River on May one. Now at this point, if
you go to our friends at Brilliant Maps, you'll find
a quote that stood out to doctor Z and to
us as well.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
That's right. I think this does a fine job of
summing up the situation at hand in nineteen oh four.
Russia in nineteen oh four was more of a paper
tiger than a sleeping giant. Japan benefited from much shorter
supply lines than Russia. Therefore, while the initial assault on
Port Arthur failed to achieve its goal, the Japanese were
able to quickly follow the attack with a blockade and
(24:33):
then a siege of the port. More of a paper
tiger than a sleeping giant.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
And Russia reinforcements do exist, the Russian reinforcements Russian to
the region.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Wow, yeah, alliterative.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
King Oh dude, that's a quote from our friends at
the collect So they say, look, we've got to stop
this Japanese advance. We cannot have them completely encircling Port
Arthur by sea and by land because we will never
get it back. And so on October fifteenth, nineteen oh four,
(25:20):
the Russian Baltic fleet sets out from Saint Petersburg and
they say, all right, we're going to reach the theata
of war here in the Far East. Can you guys
hold on for seven months?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Yeah? Sure, why not? We got snacks. So on its way,
the fleet in and of itself almost started another war
one with Great Britain by firing on some British fishing
vessels on October the twenty first, having accidentally clocked them
as enemy ships.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Again. Yeah, whoop.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
See, tensions are high, and the British government gets mad
about this and they say, you know what, since you
guys are being such pills and rascals, we're going to
close the Suez Canal to the Russian fleet. And this
is where, you know again, we see the Defensive Pact
that England and Japan had already signed back a few
(26:16):
years ago in nineteen oh two, and they said, look,
we're going to remain neutral in the event that either
of us getting a scrap with a third party. That's
why England doesn't enter the Free Well, Britain I should
say that's why they don't enter the fray because they cannot.
(26:38):
They cannot go to war with Russia just because Japan
is doing it, right, if everybody else is doing it,
why can't we, et cetera. So they have to fight
back in less direct ways. That's why they closed the canal.
And in either case, this means the Russian forces have
(26:59):
to now travel around the Cape of Good Hope, which
makes their journey even longer.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
It's such a positive sounding cape.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
It really is.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
It's like the pursuit of happiness. It sounds really good
till you think about it, like the Cape of Good Hope.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I hope this is going to be all right around
the court.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Yeah, and it wasn't always, was it.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
No, it wasn't always. But that's the nature of hope.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
And there's another thing Doctor Z points out that that
I think bears bears some cogitation. You would imagine, let's cogitate, Yeah,
you would imagine at this point, right that all right,
we're in the early nineteen hundreds, so people aren't People
are still using sailing ships, but people have also switched
(27:52):
to coal powered steamships and putting a coal powered ship
on the map is really great at this time, so
long as you have a constant supply of coal. Kind
of like how electric cars when they were getting mainstream,
they were really great, so long as you had a
(28:12):
way to plug your car in.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, like a really long extension car. That is the
rub there. And at this point, Japan has kind of
opened up to the rest of the Western world in
eighteen fifty three, and that's in part because the American
government wanted the Japanese to help them set up coaling
stations some of its ports that would then help facilitate
(28:36):
trade between China and the US.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yeah, and because this stuff that happened way back in
eighteen fifty three, now Russia's empire is is kind of screwed.
They don't have those coaling stations because they're largely a
land empire, right, And this means that the Second Pacific Squadron,
these Russian forces, when they leave Ussia, they have to
(29:01):
carry tons of coal, like literal tons of coal just
to keep the boats going. And the Suez Canal gets
cut off, so they're they're like literally I picture them
counting bricks of coal one by one going through the
Cape or going around the Cape of Good hope, and
they are only able to refuel when they reach Madagascar,
(29:24):
which is controlled by France.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
And the clock's taking away. With the Baltic fleet making
its way towards the Pacific, Theatah the Japanese Empire then
begins to kind of close that open hand into a
fists and tighten their grasp on Manchuria and that port
of Arthur. The Russian Navy at this point tries several
(29:49):
little skirmishes or what do you call these? Ben The
collector describes them as sorties. He has always sounded very
high follutant to me. What's a sortie versus a skirmish?
A specific type of attack? Aren't these kind of like
mini attacks?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:04):
A sorty is specifically an attack made from a made
when you're surrounded.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
So like an invasion. Yes, it's like.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
You're cornered, right, and then you say, all right, I'm
not going down without a fight.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Okay, got it?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
So these guys are Yeah, these guys are encircled by
the Japanese forces holding that blockade, and every so often
they go out there and do a little, but they
can't quite sink any of the Japanese ships. They're different
famous battles in this regard that you can read about,
but what you need to know is that none of
(30:45):
those sorties worked at all, and I sort of not
even sorty of yeah, not on land nor on sea.
And after multiple defeat, the Russian forces get knocked again
by the Japanese army, which sieges or besieges Port Arthur
(31:09):
from the ground. The last general in the city, anatotally Stecil,
surrenders to Japanese forces on January tewod nineteen oh five,
which means now Port Arthur and Manchuria are officially controlled
by the Japanese Empire. This is the end of that war.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Thank god took long enough.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I mean, imagine being those being those poor guys on
the Russian squadron who are just trying to get coal
and they're there for seven months and they don't really
know what's happening on the ground. Talked about showing up
late to the party, right, But wait, as Billy Mays
was wont to say there's more war ahead, we played
(32:02):
with this quote a little bit. I don't think he
ever said war as a product.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
No, he was known for that war. Warren never changes
Billy Mays.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yes, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
No, in fact check us, but do check back in
with us for part two on the one time Japan
rinsed Russia.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
We you know, this one's a little bit in the weeds,
but I think it's one for a lot of you
war wonks out there, and maybe we can kind of
set the stage a little bit about what's to come.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Yes, so we'll have a recap here too, because as
you pointed out, there is a lot of back and
forth here. The Japanese Empire is ready to call it
a day on this front and to expand further. Russia
now has a real act to grind because Japan has
(32:54):
yet to conquer Manchuria. Tune in for part two to
see what happens now. In the meantime, Thanks to the
ridiculous historians you all form our empire, we couldn't be
more happy that you're here. Thanks to Max Williams. Thanks
to Alex Tijuana Williams, who composed this.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Slap and bop.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Indeed, Baham Alex Tijuana Bahama Breeze Williams Wall, No, no, no,
it's a j Bahamas Jacobs. What am I doing here?
We've got the puzzler, aj Bahamas Jacobs the Quizzler Quizzler, Sure, yeah,
I like the Quizzler though.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
That's fun.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
That would be Jonathan Aloisious Strickland the third.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yes, yes, Ed of course.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
As always, if there are any criticisms, feedback or complaints,
please please do not hesitate to email us twenty four
hours day, seven days a week at our complaint department
Jonathan Strickland at iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
That's right, but if you want to say nice things,
you can find Ben and I's human individual people peopling
our way across the Worldwide Web. People don't really call
it that anymore. What I think it's fun. We like
a literally here on Ridiculous History. I am Instagram exclusive
at how Now Noel Brown. How about you Ben Bolin.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
If you can find me at Ben Bollen on Instagram
as well. You can also just drop by the website
benbollin dot com. And while you are on the Internet,
why not check out our colleagues, the rude dudes over
at Ridiculous Crime. If you like our show, you will
love theirs. Tell them we sent you.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
And you're on the internet. Someone is someone's on being
coy I suspect let's dead Internet theory turns out to
be true.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
You can check out our stuff.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
They don't want you to do episode on that big
thanks to our research associate, doctor Z. What a legend,
what an absolute mention and Noel Big thanks to you.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
And follow that guy on Instagram too. By the way,
he goes by Herbert Underscore Chill with seven Eyes, seven Eyes,
and two else. That dude is a good follow He's
a real handcrafted memester that guy. Check him out and hey,
in the meantime, we'll see you next time, folks. For
(35:17):
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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