The battle of Mukden resolved itself into a series of engagements lasting from the last day of February until the 16th of March, when Kuropatkin, acknowledging defeat, retreated up the railway to Tiehling with an estimated loss of 140,000 men and a vast quantity of war material. The Japanese losses were well under 50,000 killed and wounded.

The final episode of the war took place at sea some two months later. The fierce assaults delivered by the Japanese army besieging Port Arthur in the previous autumn had been hastened by the news that the Russian Baltic fleet was on its way to the Far East, having sailed on the 15th October, 1904. Delayed by coaling difficulties and the necessity of maintaining a uniform rate of progress, this fleet did not reach Japanese waters until May, 1905. On the 27th of that month it was met in the Tsushima straits by a Japanese fleet under Admiral Tōgō and completely defeated, only two vessels escaping to tell the tale of disaster.

The exhaustion of both combatants in the long and arduous struggle prepared the way for the termination of hostilities. Though she had been successful on land as well as at sea, the military reserves at the disposal of Japan were seriously depleted, and the people were tired of war. Russia, on the other hand, though free from anxiety on this score, was beset by internal difficulties of a kind which threatened grave trouble were the war to be prolonged. In these circumstances the overtures set on foot in the following June by President Roosevelt, acting of his own accord as peacemaker, were welcomed by both Powers. The negotiations, conducted at Portsmouth in the United States, resulted in the conclusion of peace on the 5th day of September, 1905. By the Treaty of Portsmouth, Russia acknowledged the preponderating interests of Japan in Korea, ceded to Japan the southern half of Saghalien, which the latter had exchanged in 1875 for the Kurile islands, and transferred to her the larger and more valuable portion of the rights in Manchuria acquired from China in connection with the lease of Port Arthur in 1898. No war indemnity, however, was paid by Russia, though she undertook to reimburse Japan for the cost of maintenance of the large number of Russian prisoners taken during the war. The absence of any provision for an indemnity caused considerable dissatisfaction in Japan, some slight disturbances occurring in the Capital. Japan had, indeed, no reason to be dissatisfied with the results of her success in the war, for it placed her at once in the position of a first-class Power in the Far East.

The conclusion of peace was followed by the signature in the Korean capital on the 17th of November of a Convention establishing a Japanese protectorate over Korea. The formal consent of China to the provisions of the Treaty of Portsmouth, ceding to Japan the lease of Port Arthur, and transferring to her the southern portion of the Manchurian Railway, was also obtained by a Treaty between China and Japan, which was signed in Peking on the 22nd of December. And in the following June a Japanese Imperial Ordinance was issued establishing the South Manchurian Railway Company, by which, thenceforth, the administration of the line, and of the strip of territory through which it passed, was conducted.

CHAPTER XXVII
Weakening of Cordiality with America—Causes of Friction—Expansion and Emigration—Annexation of Korea—New Treaties.

Attention has already been called to the very friendly relations existing for many years between Japan and the United States, relations so cordial as to be responsible for the distinction made between the British and American nations by the Japanese Press, which spoke of the former as “Our Allies,” and of the latter as “Our best friends.” The reasons for the friendly feeling of the Japanese people for America are not far to seek. It was from America that the first ideas of Western civilization came; it was her influence which was most felt in the earlier years of reopened intercourse with foreign nations; and her policy of diplomatic independence and isolation, illustrated strikingly by her behaviour in the crucial question of Treaty Revision, gave to her dealings with Japan an air of disinterested benevolence that contrasted favourably with the less complaisant attitude of other Powers.

The cordiality of American feeling towards Japan had of late years diminished in some degree owing to various causes. Amongst them were the unexpected disclosure of Japan’s military strength in the war with China; her apparent willingness to associate herself with other Powers in the aggressive policy in regard to China, which was one of the causes of the Boxer Rising, and drew forth the remonstrances addressed by the United States to the Governments concerned; her territorial expansion in Manchuria at the expense of Russia; and the protectorate she had assumed in Korea, which the United States Government had been inclined to regard in the light of a protégé. The Japanese people were seemingly unconscious of any change in the attitude of the American public; and no serious differences had occurred to disturb the harmony of relations. In 1906, however, what is known as the School Question of California gave rise to a troublesome controversy.

In the autumn of that year the San Francisco Board of Education issued an order excluding Japanese children from the ordinary public schools which they had hitherto attended, and providing for their segregation in the common Asiatic school established in 1872 in the Chinese quarter in pursuance of a State Law setting up separate schools for children of Mongolian or Chinese descent. The law had been enacted in consequence of the great increase of Chinese immigration. Welcomed at first owing to the demand for labour on the Pacific coast, this influx of Chinese was attended by obvious drawbacks, both social and moral, which were regarded by the people of California as detrimental to the interests of the community. In considerations of this kind Labour Unions in the State found their opportunity, and an agitation was fomented against “Chinese cheap labour,” with the result that steps were taken by the United States Government to reduce this immigration to comparatively small proportions.

Behind the question raised by the school authorities of San Francisco—which was a mere pretext—the same forces were at work. The segregation of Japanese school children produced serious resentment in Japan, the ill-feeling evoked thereby being aggravated by misunderstanding on the part of the public in both countries and by intemperate writing in the Press. The incident, which led to some diplomatic correspondence between the Governments concerned, was eventually closed through the intervention of President Roosevelt early in 1907. Apart from its international aspect, the difficulty had involved the troublesome issue of Federal and State rights. By a compromise arrived at between the President and the School Board it was agreed that all alien children—no mention being made of Japanese—above a certain age who, after examination, should be found to be deficient in the elements of English, might be sent to special schools; the President, at the same time, undertaking to secure some limitation of Japanese immigration. In accordance with this undertaking a clause, providing for the exclusion of certain classes of immigrants, was inserted in the Immigration Act of February, 1907, the right to legislate in such matters having been expressly reserved by the United States in the revised Treaty with Japan of 1894. Further negotiations between the two countries resulted in the conclusion in 1908 of what is known as the “Gentlemen’s Agreement”—effected by an exchange of confidential Notes—by which the Japanese Government consented to co-operate in carrying out the purpose of the Act by taking measures to restrict labour immigration from Japan to the United States. When, therefore, in 1911 a new Treaty of commerce and navigation between America and Japan was negotiated at Washington there was good reason to regard it as putting an end to the controversy. The United States Senate in ratifying it recorded the understanding “that the Treaty should not be deemed to repeal or affect any of the provisions of the Immigration Act of 1907”; and the understanding was confirmed by a Declaration—appended to the Treaty—stating the intention of the Japanese Government to maintain with equal effectiveness the limitation and control which it had exercised for the past three years in regulating the emigration of labourers to the United States.

The hope that nothing more would be heard of the difficulty was frustrated by the action of the Californian Legislature. In May, 1913, in spite of the opposition of the Federal Authorities, it passed a law giving the right of owning land only to “aliens eligible to citizenship.” The passing of this law caused renewed resentment in Japan, where, notwithstanding the form in which it was worded, it was correctly interpreted as being aimed at Japanese residents. The Japanese Government at once protested on the ground that Japanese subjects being debarred from naturalization in America the law in question discriminated unfairly against them, and was in effect a violation of Japan’s treaty rights. This view the American Government declined to accept, supporting the action of the State by the argument that every nation had the right to determine such questions for itself. The correspondence between the two Governments continued for some time without any settlement being reached. It was published at the request of Japan in 1914. This discrimination between the Japanese and other aliens, who, unlike them, are eligible for naturalization as American citizens, remains a sore point with the Japanese people, and is a stumbling-block in the relations between Japan and America.