page_title: Military attachés and observers in the Russo-Japanese War
section_title: Japanese Imperial Army
hierarchical_section_title: Military attachés and observers in the Russo-Japanese War / Selected military attachés serving with Japanese forces / Japanese Imperial Army
caption_attribution_description: Japanese General Kuroki and his Staffs, Foreign Officiers, War Correspondents after the Battle of Shaho.
context_page_description: Military attachés and observers in the Russo-Japanese War were historians creating first-hand accounts of what was arguably the world's first modern war. They helped to create primary-source records of this war between Imperial Russian forces and Imperial Japan forces, which has been characterized by some as a rehearsal for the First World War.
context_section_description: United States of America observers
  1Lt. Granville Roland Fortescue, USA
  Maj. Joseph Kuhn, USA
  MG Arthur MacArthur, Jr., USA  Chafing at the bit at his headquarters in Fort Mason, San Francisco, MacArthur requested that he also be assigned as a military observer upon hearing of the outbreak of war between Russia and Japan in 1904. He finally secured the appointment, but arrived in Manchuria in mid-March, 1905, just after the major fighting had ended with the Japanese triumph at the Battle of Mukden. When the Portsmouth Peace Conference was convened in August, MacArthur was sent to Tokyo as military attaché to the American legation.
  Capt. Peyton C. March, USA
  Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee
  Capt. John J. Pershing, USA  Captain John Pershing arrived in Tokyo as an attaché to the Japanese Army on March 5, 1905.  At that time he claimed the outcome of the war was uncertain, as both sides were bogged down after months of indecisive fighting.  During his first days in the country, the Japanese achieved a pivotal victory at the Battle of Mukden.  According to his memoirs, the way the Japanese celebrated led him to believe they had actually expected defeat at the hands of the Russians.   Pershing's observations as an attaché were significant because they provided a first-hand account from the perspective of a company grade officer who had previously seen combat during the Indian Wars and the Spanish–American War.
  According to Captain Pershing, the military attachés assigned to the Japanese were treated like royalty when possible.  When not in the field, servants were provided and they were given the best provisions available.  When they were embedded with the army, the Japanese exercised due diligence in ensuring their safety from battlefield dangers.  Eventually Pershing complained of the overprotective measures employed by his hosts.  When he attempted to write to his Army superiors about his dissatisfaction, the Japanese intercepted his correspondence and responded by allowing him more freedom to move about with Japanese troops.  On occasion Pershing was present with Japanese cavalry reconnaissance patrols during minor skirmishes with Russian forces.
  In his memoirs, Pershing noted that most American observers were surprised at the tactical success experienced by the Japanese during the war.  He explained that the world military minds held the Russian Army in high regard ever since its defeat of Napoleon's Grande Army almost a century earlier.  Though he praised the Japanese for their achievements, he felt they were not as significant as future history books might claim.  In his estimation, the Japanese had defeated one of the poorest armies in Europe.  The Russians lacked the proper equipment and organization to achieve victory against a modern power.  He believed these shortfalls were compounded by the lack of motivation in the Russian ranks, caused by internal domestic strife.  The war ended with both the Japanese and the Russians eager to seek peace.  Pershing felt that if the war had continued, the Russians may have gained an upper hand as resupply of Japanese troops in Manchuria had become more difficult at the end of hostilities. 
  Louis Seaman wrote a book entitled The Real Triumph of Japan describing the Imperial Japanese Army Medical Department's success in preventing infectious diseases, especially in relation to casualties sustained. Seaman later wrote, "The supreme test of an army's medical organization comes, of course, in time of battle.  The severer the clash of arms, the greater is the strain made upon the medical organization.  In no great battle in history has the medical organization proven adequate to the demands made upon it; but the best record ever made in that direction, embodying as it did an approach to perfection, was that of the Japanese in the war with Russia."   Seaman's praise, intended to push reforms of the U.S. Army Medical Department, overlooked the reasons for the apparent success by the Japanese Medical Department. Seaman noted that although wartime soldiers throughout the nineteenth century were ge
caption: Japanese General Kuroki Tamemoto and his staff were photographed with Western military attachés and war correspondent observers after the Battle of Shaho (1904).  The most senior of the military attachés, Gen. Sir Ian Hamilton, center, stands with left hand in a coat pocket and a stick tucked under his right arm.
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