Japan's Enlightened War: Military Conduct and Attitudes to the Enemy during the Russo-Japanese War

FourdecadesaftertheoutbreakofthePacificWar,historianshavestartedtorevealthefullscaleofoneofthemostsalient componentsofthePacificWar,namelythestrongracialattitudes boththeJapaneseandtheAlliesheldtowardseachother (Shillony,1981;Dower,1986).OntheJapaneseside,onefinds notonlythedemonizationoftheenemy,butharshtreatmentof capturedcombatantsaswellascivilians(e.g.,Kerr,1985;Hicks, 1994;Daws,1995).ThePacificWarwasthesecondfull-scale warJapanwagedagainstaWesternstate.Earlier,in1904,Japan attackedtheRussianfortatPortArthurinasimilarfashionto thatofPearlHarbor.Inanefforttoprotectitsinterestsinthe KoreanPeninsulafromtheencroachingRussia,Japaneseforces landedinKoreaandattackedRussianpositionsinneighbouring Manchuria.Theensuingwarwasfoughtforayearandahalf withatotalmanpowerclosetotwomillionstrong(Nish,1985; Duus,1995).