As Japanese army troops moved silently into position around Russian positions at Port Arthur in mid-February 1904, one may have been justified in asking the question - “ How could a nation, whose army only forty years earlier had been an almost medieval and fractured collection of militant clans, mount an attack on one of the most powerful nations in the world?” The answer reveals one of the most stunning military transformations in history. The Japan of the early 1860s was a nation in chaos as the crumbling Tokugawa Shogunate, which had ruled for 265 years, was struggling to survive. The arrival of U.S. Commodore Perry’s ‘Black ships’ in 1853 had convinced reformers that Japan needed to modernize and quickly. When the new young Emperor succeeded to the throne in 1867 he was supported by a powerful alliance of forward thinking men and a new era known as “Meiji” or “Enlightened” began.
Within thirty years the new Japanese army and navy, created in 1868 had crushed the Shogunate and defeated the last of the powerful Samurai. They had ensconced themselves on the Korean peninsula and forced a war with China which had established a victorious Japan as a major regional power. Ten years later they had humbled the blundering Russian empire on both sea and land. Thus began an Imperial era for Japan that would come to a humiliating end in Tokyo Bay on September 2nd, 1945.
Moritz Ruhl’s study quite accurately depicts the Japanese army of the early 1900s. This was the last era of the Franco/Prussian influenced uniforms. After 1905, the Japanese adopted a more British style in Khaki with the blue uniforms reserved for officers and parades. Also included in the booklet is a brief account of the era along with organizational charts and orders of battle for the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War.
Within thirty years the new Japanese army and navy, created in 1868 had crushed the Shogunate and defeated the last of the powerful Samurai. They had ensconced themselves on the Korean peninsula and forced a war with China which had established a victorious Japan as a major regional power. Ten years later they had humbled the blundering Russian empire on both sea and land. Thus began an Imperial era for Japan that would come to a humiliating end in Tokyo Bay on September 2nd, 1945.
Moritz Ruhl’s study quite accurately depicts the Japanese army of the early 1900s. This was the last era of the Franco/Prussian influenced uniforms. After 1905, the Japanese adopted a more British style in Khaki with the blue uniforms reserved for officers and parades. Also included in the booklet is a brief account of the era along with organizational charts and orders of battle for the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War.