Ōyama Iwao
On 6 June 1904, Kodama was promoted to full general. However, he was asked by Marshal Ōyama Iwao to be Chief of General Staff of the Manchurian Army during the Russo-Japanese War. This was a step down for him in terms of rank, but he nevertheless chose to take the position; it was a sacrifice which elicited much public applause. Throughout the Russo-Japanese War he guided the strategy of the whole campaign, as General Kawakami Sōroku had done in the First Sino-Japanese War ten years previously. The postwar historian Shiba Ryōtarō gives him complete credit for Japan's victory at the Siege of Port Arthur, although there is no historical evidence for this, and Kodama kept quiet about his role in the battle. Following the war, he was named Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, but he died soon afterwards.