Arizona republican., 1904-05-08
PHoENIx. ARIZONA, MAY Sth, 1s(
The Strategy of Japan.

the Russian policy will be defensive one for a long time to come, and so the military experts at Washington ana at the European capitals have been writing and giving forth profound ar ticles and interviews on the strategy of Japan-many of these articles and interviews being so profound that mo- body could comprehend them. But while everybody has been making a mystery of Japan's operations, events of the past few days have developed 70 plainly the present strategy that even a layman has no difficulty in uh- derstanding it.
 It Is nov clear. that after the occu- patton of Korea, Japan's immediate objective has been the capture of Port Arthur, and there is no difficulty in understanding why such an immense force was thrown against the Russians on the Yalu It is also made manifest why Admiral Togo has made such des- perate efforts to close the entrance of the harbor at Port Arthur.
 As The Republicans readers do not make a habit of keeping a map at the elbow it is worth while to note some elementary facts in the geography of the situation. From the Manchurian mainland there are two peninsulas. running south. The chief peninsula Is Korea; and the empire of Japan. which comprises a series of islands in the oF Korea. Korea is separated from Japan by the narrow Japan sea, and from the mainland of China by an arm of the Yellow sea. The second and smaller peninsula running southerly from Manchuria is called the Liaotung pen insula. It lies parallel with Korea and is separated from that empire by the Korean bay, an upper reach of the same arm from the Yellow sea. The distance between the two peninsulas is about 200 miles. Between the Liaotung peninsula and the Chinese mainland still farther west. is the northwestern reach of the Yellow sea, the IIaotung gulf. The distance across this stretch of water to China is about 200 miles.
 The Liaotung peninsula dwindles to a small point and at this point is Port Arthur, the southern terminus of the trans-Siberian railroad, and Russia's principal seaport and fortress In the far east. The railroad runs from Port Arthur in a northerly direction to Har- bin, 600 miles distant. Harbin is the junction where the Port Arthur line intersects the 5,OOO-mile transcontinent- al line from Moscow to Vladivostok. 4 few miles north of Port Arthur, on the eastern shore of the Liaotung penin- sula, is the new port of Dalny, connect ed with the Port Arthur Harbin line by a little branch railroad. Russia ac- quired these seaports from China be- cause she found that Vladivostok, the original terminus of the ns-Siber-. ian railroad, is ice bound half the year. Vladivostok is 1.2OO miles to the northeast of Port Arthur.
 Where the penipsulas of Korea and Liaotung leave the Manchurian main land they are separated by the Yalu AANGA, "L4Ih llOhS SOulHcTly lnlO lnG Korean gulf
 The first great land battle between the Japanese and the Russians was fought for the control of the Yalu. In crossing the north bank of the river from Korea and in driving the Rus sians from their Notifications, the Ja. panese threw such an overwhelming force against the Russians that the victory became a rout. This thor oughly demoralized the Russian forces, and enabled Japan to gain strong foothold above the Liaotung peninsula. Then. between the new ground occupied and Port Arthur 200 miles to the south, there were only scattered regiments of Russians The Japanese army of the Yalu having thus shown it's ability to hold the main Russian army in check, the road was left open for a second army of the mikado's soldiers to be directed against Port Arthur
 It seems that a landing was effect ed on both sides of the peninsula on Thursday, where the distance is not more than 100 miles from shore to shore, and In a few hours Japanese soldiers had swarmed across the pen insula from sea to sea and had seized the railway-for the time being at least
 Thus at a stroke Port Arthur was isolated, and it will shortly be under siege by land as we'll as by sea. It appears that Viceroy Alexiefr and Grand Duke Boris received news of the Japanese landing, and were able to es- cape by rail before the line was seiz- ed.