The Tide at Sunrise: A History of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-05

This is how history should be written. The Warner's have perfected the historical narrative to a fine art. They have the perfect combination of the attention to detail, the global view, biographical details on the major participants, and proper attention to military and political events. There area also the explosion of a few myths: of course the Japanese were daring and intelligent, the Russians were largely incompetent and out-generalled by the Japanese. Basic trends in the Japanese descent in eventual barabarity in their treatment of prisoners was here as well. Japanese DID treat their prisoners well once they were captured, but in the heat of battle they were not so generousl. Many of these myths about the "gallant little Japanese" were purposefully fostered by the British press and butressed by interesting supportive stories from the British military liaison officers. Japan was not as efficient as she is often protrayed. There was serious lack of fast manuevre warfare in many cases. General Nogi was a pain to not only his troops, but the entire effective Japanese military hierarchy. Generals Oku, Kuroki, Kodama and even the plodding Oyama were much more effective in accomplishing their tasks and regarded Nogi as a pain to be disposed of. The Japanese did not really effectively bottle up the Russian Fleet in their initial attack. In fact no ships were sunk in the initial attack on Port Arthur. The Russians were really bottled up only in their own mind, but they still managed to effectively throw a continuous scare into the Japanese and Togo did avoid seriously pressing the Russians until he allowed the Army bombardment to effectively sink the Russian Far Seas Fleet. Togo found his backbone when the Baltic Fleet steamed to its doom at the straits of Tsushima. The Warner's dedicate a lot of time on the travels of the fleet: its firing on British fishboats at Dogger Bank, its time spent in Madagascar and its eventual journey to be seriously out-maneuvred and sank at Tsushima. The maps on this part of the battle are however sparse and I could not help but to have wished that they included more narrative on the sea battle. I very much enjoyed this book and looked forward to reading chapters every night. Very much a top-rated study on this war. Sources are balanced with very much original work translated from Japanese and Russian and Chinese. All done in a way that engages the reader with a lively and well-paced style.

It is hard to find a better one-volume history of ANY war than Denis and Peggy Warner's Tide at Sunrise. Superbly written and impeccably researched, it flows with ease of a novel and belittles the war's limited size with an epic scope. If the Russo-Japanese war seems distant and irrelevant to you, all the better reason to read this fantastic book. No reader can finish it without a profoundly better idea of what Japan was, what Russia is, and what future military encounters between the East and West will be like. I came across this book in the course of a military war college, and assigned it the typical ho-hum enthusiasm reserved for all the dry texts I had been reading for months. The first chapter started with a vivid and interesting description of a Japanese attack on the Russian Naval base at Port Arthur, the first triumph of an Asian land force over a European opponent in modern times. It chapter closed with an Admiral commenting on the then surprising and audacious Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor by saying "have they never heard of Port Arthur?" Apparently not, nor had I, really. The book briefly but concisely covers Japanese history up to the 1904 war, and the remarkable rise of the Xenophobic Island to an industrial and military force in a span of a generation. It also gives the reader a wonderful primer on the decrepit and terminal Romanov dynasty in Russia, extinct within a decade. Typically, Russia represented a dismissive European view on Asia, and so the book is framed. As a war, the Russo-Japanese war featured what was then the world's largest land battle, the introduction of full-scale modern weapons, and perhaps the most decisive Naval victory in world history at Tsushima straits. It was conducted by former Samurai, spoiled aristocrats, military geniuses, idiots, warriors and epileptics. It sowed the seeds of Marxist revolution by means of an interesting and unheeded subversion campaign by Japanese in Russia. Rather than being a static and unrecognized episode in world history, it is brought to life and given its proper significance. This alone is a testament to the ability of the Warners to write masterful history. So readable, so interesting, so significant. The Tide at Sunrise is History at its finest; no novel could tell such a meaningful and interesting story. Far more than any WWII book I have read (and I have read several), it tells a better tale of the Japanese Warrior ethos, which would be propelled by this war and die in the fires of Hiroshima. It is scholarship that is enjoyable, and perhaps the finest one-volume history book I have come across.

This is one of the best history volumes I have ever read; theclosest I can come in comparison is "The Washing of the Spears: The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation," by Donald Morris. It isa comprehensive account of the conflict, packed with details andanalysis, and almost impossible to put down once started. It isof special interest with the centennial of the conflict and thefates of the nations involved over the past century. An almostunbelievable tale of heroes, scoundrels, soldiers, and politicians. You will treasure this book....

Denis and Peggy Warner's The Tide at Sunrise: A History of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5 is an excellent history of this pivotal event in Asian, and world, affairs. Drawing on the histories of two distinct antagonists, Russia and Japan, as well as military, political, and diplomatic events, it is vividly descriptive, balanced, and prophetic. The Warners start with the assumption, that readers wrongfully would dismiss the brief war as insignificant, and convincingly prove, how this little war changed the world. From the evocation of Pearl Harbor in the first chapter, the book still resonates today, post 9/11.The Russo-Japanese War, along with the American Civil War and World War One, showed how much technology had changed military science. Additions, such as machine guns and naval plating, made traditional tactics obsolete and deadly. Japanese officers also outperformed their Russian opponents, and fortune persistently favored the Japanese, in the form of freak weather patterns and unforeseen logistical planning. The book provides a useful introduction to the unfortunate journey of the Russian Baltic Fleet defeated at Tsushima. Appalling descriptions of the interactions of bodies and modern weapons, as well as the effects of the Manchurian winter, add color to dry tactics. The narrative structure of the writing, alternating from the Japanese to the Russian side, highlights the flow of events and the errors in judgment in a war before modern communication and satellites, but with torpedoes and siege guns. There is also the discussion of the Japanese use of irregular forces. From the intelligence activities of Colonel Akashi in St. Petersburg, which facilitated revolution, to the indigenous, Manchurian Chunchus cavalry and secret society agents acting as agents provocateurs, the Japanese excelled at efficiently marshalling their limited resources. On the other hand, the Russian armies never realized the true loyalties of their Chinese laborers. The crass anti-Semitism of many Russian leaders also rebounds to the Japanese advantage, when Jewish financiers loan money for a cash-strapped Japan.On the diplomatic front, the book delineates the consequences of the war for the rest of the century. The Japanese, who considered the peace brokered at Portsmouth humiliating, resented the United States. Not appeased by gaining territorial control of Korea, Japan continued to dream of a Manchurian empire and control of China. The United States lost influence in the entire region, not just diplomatically, but economically as well. And, Korea ceased to exist. A new generation of Asian leaders raised Japan as a beacon for their own anti-colonial dreams.Although the first introductory section is excellent, the epilogue chapter is dated. However, the book is well annotated, with a good index, maps, bibliography, and photographs.Along the way, the book presents poignant portraits of various leaders and lesser characters on both sides, from Count Witte to Marquis Ito.

Fine introduction to the Russo-Japanese War. Covers the political origins of the war as well as the naval and military engagements. Mr. Warner does a splendid job of characterizing the participants and describes places and events in terms that are graphic, memorable, and instructive.My copy contains over 600 pages of text, scores of contemporary photographs, a useful index, and an extensive bibliography.