In September 1904, after the outbreak of war, the Japanese had won victory after victory. Yet Japanese Prime Minister Katsura Tarō showed not the slightest excitement; instead, he looked weighed down with worry.
It was not just him. Every man of insight in Japan knew that if this war went on, the losses would outweigh the gains for Japan.
True, at the outset of the war, the Japanese army had advanced smoothly, and both its naval and land forces had achieved striking results. Setting aside the price they had paid, however, the Russo-Japanese War had now fallen into a stalemate.
Clearly, the Japanese government had realized that the cost of the war was far too high, and that it might not even achieve its aims.
History had reached another turning point. Influenced by the Balkan Wars, the Russians had recognized the importance of firepower, and the Russian army had been equipped with large numbers of machine guns and quick-firing artillery.
The Russian forces in the Far East had been less affected and remained poorly equipped. At the start of the war, they had been beaten down by the Japanese.
But by June, this situation had improved. Even as the Russians reinforced the Far East, vast quantities of weapons and equipment had arrived as well.
Machine guns and quick-firing guns had reached the Far East along with the reinforcements. Naturally, the arrival of these new weapons had also increased the logistical burden on the Russian army.
If not for logistical constraints, the Northeast China battlefield would likely no longer have been deadlocked; the Russian army would have already launched a counterattack.
"Find a way to make peace with the Russians!" Itō Hirobumi said with a bitter smile.
The thing he feared most had still come to pass. The Tsarist government was