bsequently
cooperated heartily with Western powers in negotiating peace terms,
thus disarming the suspicions with which they had been regarded at
first.

WAR WITH RUSSIA

From the time (1895) when the three-power mandate dictated to Japan a
cardinal alteration of the Shimonoseki treaty, Japanese statesmen
concluded that their country must one day cross swords with Russia.
Not a few Occidental publicists shared that view, but the great
majority, arguing that the little Island Empire of the Far East would
never risk annihilation by such an encounter, believed that
forbearance sufficient to avert serious trouble would always be
forthcoming on Japan's side. Yet neither geographical nor historical
conditions warranted that confidence. The Sea of Japan, which, on the
east, washes the shores of the Japanese islands and on the west those
of Russia and Korea, has virtually only two routes communicating with
the Pacific Ocean. One is in the north, namely, the Tsugaru Strait;
the other is in the south, namely, the channel between the Korean
peninsula and the Japanese island of Kyushu. Tsugaru Strait is
practically under Japan's complete control; she can close it at any
moment with mines. But the channel between the Korean peninsula and
Kyushu has a width of 102 miles, and would therefore be a fine open
seaway were it free from islands. Midway in this channel, however,
lie the twin islands of Tsushima, and the space that separates them
from Japan is narrowed by another island, Iki. Tsushima and Iki have
belonged to Japan from time immemorial, and thus the avenues from the
Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan are controlled by the Japanese
empire. In other words, access to the Pacific from Korea's eastern
and southern coasts, and access to the Pacific from Russia's Maritime
Province depend upon Japan's good-will.

These geographical conditions had no great concern for Korea in
former days. But with Russia the case was different. Vladivostok, the
principal port in the Far East, lay at the southern extremity of the
Maritime Province. Freedom of passage by the Tsushima Strait was
therefore a matter of vital importance, and to secure it one of two
things was essential, namely, that she herself should possess a
fortified port on the Korean side, or that Japan should be restrained
from acquiring such a port. Here, then, was a strong inducement for
Russian aggression in Korea. When the eastward movement of the great
northern power brough