100 years ago today...

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2004-02-08 12:35pm

...The Japanese attacked the Russian fleet in Port Arthur, begining the Russo-Japanese War.
The Japanese attack was carried out by torpedo boats, without a declaration of war, to a great extent echoing the attack on Pearl Harbor some 37 years later. In contrast to Pearl Harbor, however, only the Russian battleships Tsarevitch and Retvizan were torpedoed, and survived. The protected cruiser Pallada was also struck, and survived.
Interestingly, the Russians during war games the previous year predicted that the Japanese would begin the war in exactly this manner, in exactly that place.
Those war games showed Port Arthur to be practically indefensible, on top of that it was already known to be wildly impractical as a base to heavy warships, and it was proposed for them to transfer to Vladivostock before war broke out. They didn't try until it was too late.
Japan handed Russia an incredibly humiliating defeat in this war, and it established Japan as recognised great power.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2004-02-08 01:21pm

Cool...the stuff your learn on this board is many times hilarious but sometimes something of history that's just fun to know.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2004-02-08 03:08pm

I like reading about little tid bits of history like this, even if a week later I dont remember any of it.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2004-02-08 06:00pm

Shit and there was me expecting a birthday thread for Frank.

*Ducks*

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2004-02-08 06:33pm

Lord Pounder wrote:Shit and there was me expecting a birthday thread for Frank.

*Ducks*

Ducking will not avail you!

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2004-02-08 08:47pm

Well, here's to celebrating Japan's eventual rise and fall...

PrinceofLowLight · Post by **PrinceofLowLight** » 2004-02-08 08:50pm

Xenophobe3691 wrote:Well, here's to celebrating Japan's eventual rise and fall...

Fall? The 2nd largest economy on Earth is a fall?

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2004-02-08 09:03pm

PrinceofLowLight wrote:
Xenophobe3691 wrote:Well, here's to celebrating Japan's eventual rise and fall...
Fall? The 2nd largest economy on Earth is a fall?

They were occupied by the United States. Back in the 50's, anything made in Japan was crap. They fell quite a bit from right before WWII to right after...

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 2004-02-08 11:16pm

They will fall when we glass them to protect us from the Martians.

Bob McDob · Post by **Bob McDob** » 2004-02-09 05:47am

Wow, that was today? Shows how good my memory is ...

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-02-09 07:51am

Interesting information.