Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War

**Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War** (明治天皇と日露大戦争, *Meiji tennô to nichiro daisenso*) is a 1957 Japanese war film directed by Kunio Watanabe and produced by Shintoho. it depicts the Russo Japanese War of 1904-05 over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea.

## Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War

### Starring

Kanjūrō Arashi
Kusuo Abe
Minoru Takada

### Cinematography

Takashi Watanabe (Cinemascope version)
Tadashi Nishimoto (standard version)

### Distributed by

Shintoho (Japan)
The Museum of Modern Art (United States)

### Release date

April 29, 1957
January 23, 1958

## Plot

In 1897, Japan, which felt threatened by Russia's policy of invading the Far East, tried to put the situation under control through negotiations, but due to Russia's unfaithful attitude, Japan should fight Russia for self-defense. The voice of the Emperor Meiji, who had been cautious considering the impact on the people's lives of the conflict, was finally decided to start the war. The Imperial Japanese Army, which was escorted by the Combined Fleet, landed in Inchon and began their advance to Manchuria.

On the other hand, the Imperial Japanese Navy blocked the Russian fleet at Port Arthur and formed a gunboat squadron to seize control of the Sea of ​​Japan, and finally succeeded in the first and second blockades, but Major Hirose Takeo, Warrant Officer Magoshichi Sugino and many other staffs sacrificed themselves as their cargo vessel Fukui Maru was hit and destroyed by Russian coastal artillery.

Then under Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō & Dewa Shigetō, they defeat Pavel Ukhtomsky's fleet at the Battle of Yellow Sea and Wilgelm Vitgeft was killed by a shell. Similar to the remarkable activity by the Navy, about 100,000 troops began pushing back the enemy at the battles of Motien Pass & Tashihchiao.

As the Russian army retreated, General Anatoly Stessel ordered his forces to set up a fortress of Port Arthur, but after a five month long siege, General Nogi Maresuke managed to gather up his remaining troops and launched an all out attack on the Russian defense.

Despite his victory, he lost his son, Yasusuke Nogi, who fought and died while attacking the fortress.The first attack was unsuccessful, with 15,000 casualties by machine guns and artillery firing. Meanwhile, another corps led by Marshal Oyama Iwao made a total attack on Liaoyang, losing both Captain Mejiro Sekiya and Major Tachibana Shūta, but the troops manage to occupied the city and drive the Russians out of Manchuria. During this time, the siege of Port Arthur continued and on November 3 (Emperor Meiji's birthday), Nogi's Third Army carried out an attack on the important highland hill called 203 Hill.

Although it was temporarily seized, the following units did not continue, and finally General Nogi called off the offensive after losing his eldest son Katsusuke Nogi in combat. However, after many fierce battles, 203 finally fell in January 38, 1905 and Stessel order his men to surrender, ending the five month long battle. During the Manchuria campaign, Russian Minister of War Aleksey Kuropatkin began mobilized 300,000 soldiers to retake the lost territory, but was defeated by Marshal Iwao at the Battle of Mukden, ending the Russian advance and the Japanese occupied the whole southern Manchuria.

Meanwhile, the Baltic Fleet under the command of Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky and the Combined Fleet led by Commander Tōgō Heihachirō battled each other in the Tsushima Strait, and the Russian fleet was wiped out by the first 180-degree turn operation, making this one of the most decisive battle in the history of naval warfare. Meiji was was watching the lantern procession celebrating the victory and the people cheering. Back in Russia, the Revolutionaries revolted against the government with the battleship Potemkin crew attack their officers for better treatment and peace protesters where shot down by the Russian Army.

After the revolution, Russia signs a peace treaty with Japan known as Treaty of Portsmouth, held by US President Theodore Roosevelt. Russia had to gave up Manchuria and Japan take Korea until 1910.

## Cast

* Kanjūrō Arashi as Emperor Meiji

Ministers

* Kusuo Abe as Itō Hirobumi
* Minoru Takada as Yamagata Aritomo
* Shin Takemura as Matsukata Masayoshi
* Susumu Fujita as Inoue Kaoru

Cabinets & Chamberlains

* Yôji Misaki as Tarō Katsura
* Ureo Egawa as Yamamoto Gonnohyōe
* Tsunemi Hirose as Terauchi Masatake
* Hiroaki Kurahashi as Sone Arasuke
* Jun Mihara as Sukehiro Hinonishi

Imperial Headquarters & Samurai Veterans

* Nobuo Eiichi as Ōyama Iwao
* Arata Shibata as Kodama Gentarō
* Kôji Hirose as Nagaoka Gaishi
* Akira Nakamura as Itō Sukeyuki
* Yoichi Numata as Ijuin Gorō
* Toshio Hosokawa as Kuwashi Okazawa

Combined Fleet Commanders

* Jun Tazaki as Tōgō Heihachirō
* Yōnosuke Toba as Kamimura Hikonojō
* Mikio Nanino as Uryū Sotokichi
* Tetsurō Tamba as Shimamura Hayao
* Ryutaro Amagi as Katō Tomosaburō
* Hiroshi Ogasawara as Kōichi Fujii
* Jūzaburō Akechi as Akiyama Saneyuki

Blockade Headquarters and others

* Saburo Sawai as Fleet Staff
* Teruo Wakatsuki as Fleet Staff
* Yukio Obama as Deputy Minister of the Sea
* Tatsuhiro Oka as Arima Ryōkitsu
* Ken Utsui as Takeo Hirose
* Shinji Arima as Magoshichi Sugino
* Fumi Katō as Shotaro Narikawa

Flagship Mikasa

* Satoshi Komori as Kataoka Shichirō
* Den Kunikata as Mikasa Deputy Director
* Sozaburo Kikuchi as Mikasa Captain
* Shin Matsukata as Mikasa Gunner
* Yozo Takamura as Mikasa Gunner
* Toru Chiba as Mikasa Measurer
* Fumiya Nakamura as Ensign Candidate

Third Army Command

* Hiroshi Hayashi as Nogi Maresuke
* Tadao Takashima as Nogi Yasusuke
* Shōji Nakayama as Ijichi Kōsuke
* Kyoji Murayama as Jiro Shirai
* Shuntarô Emi as Kumaharu Yamaoka
* Hiroshi Izumida as Hansaku Yoshioka
* Yutaka Sanaki as Adjutant
* Kyoji Mimura as Toshitsune Kawakami

Shizuoka Regiment

* Tomohiko Otani as Meijiro Sekiya
* Tomisaburō Wakayama as Tachibana Shūta
* Asuka Minoru as Major General Nakayama
* Hiroshi Ayukawa as Seiichi Uchida
* Yonosuke Akiyama as Ōshima Ken'ichi
* Mikijiro Nakamura as Major General Nakamura
* Akio Shirakawa as Grand Master of Artillery

Army Staffs & Soldiers

* Tadashi Iketsuki as Staff Officer 1
* Yukio Sayama as Staff Officer 2
* Tagashi Yamaguchi as Staff Officer 3
* Gen Funabashi as Artillery Officer A
* Kazuki Nishi as Artillery Officer B
* Keinosuke Wada as Camp Guard A
* Masaru Kodaka Camp Guard B
* Asao Matsumoto as Soldier

Russian Army & Baltic Fleet

* Sabel Jameel as Anatoly Mikhaylovich Stessel
* Jack Altenbay as Zinovy Rozhestvensky

Civilian

* Ichiro Ryuzaki as Dr. Hirondo Tomizu
* Masao Takamatsu as Dr. Kiheiji Onozuka
* Eijiro Kawai as Dr. Sakuye Takahashi
* Unpei Yokoyama as Old Man
* Shûji Kawabe as Moderator
* Kôtarô Sugie as Member of the House of Representatives
* Shinsuke Mikimoto as Member of the House of Representatives
* Shigeru Amachi as Member of the House of Representatives
* Tsukiji Hiroshi as Newspaper Delivery Man A
* Sakutaro Yamakawa as Newspaper Delivery Man B

(Although the actresses are not credited in the title, they appear in the role of a family sending expeditionary soldiers.)

* Misako Uji as wife of the expeditionary soldier
* Akemi Tsukushi as wife of the expeditionary soldier
* Noriko Kitazawa as wife of the expeditionary soldier
* Kikuko Hanaoka as wife of the expeditionary soldier

## Staffs

* Producer: Mitsugi Ōkura
* Planner: Kazuma Nosaka
* Director: Kunio Watanabe
* Assistant Director: Masaki Mori
* Screenplay: Kennosuke Tateoka
* Cinematographer: Takashi Watanabe
* Photographer: Tadashi Nishimoto
* Production Designer: Yoshizō Kaji, Yasushi Kurosawa
* Lighting Technician: Yoshiya Sato
* Recordist: Isamu Suzuki
* Set Photographer: Sadao Uemura, Takeichiro Kuroda
* Props: Yuzo Yamano, Yuji Yoshioka
* Background Artist: Kensaburo Murakami
* Music Composer: Seiichi Suzuki
* Narrator: Eiji Okada

## See also

* Emperor & Empress Meiji and the Sino-Japanese War (天皇・皇后と日清戦争, 1958)
* The Pacific War and the International Military Tribunal (大東亜戦争と国際裁判, 1959)
* The Battle of Port Arthur (二百三高地, 1980)
* Battle of the Japan Sea (日本海大海戦, 1969)