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36 Army Hist. 1 (1996)

handle is hein.milandgov/aryhsy0036 and id is 1 raw text is: ARMY H IST ORY THE PROPESSIONAL BULLETIN OF ARMY H ISTORY P1-20.96-1 (No. 36) Washington, D.C. 'inter 196 The U.S. Army Military Observers with the Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) John T. G reenwood Thispaper Initially derivesfrom Dr. Greenwood's doctoral dissertation, The American Miluiary Ob- servrs ,f the Riusso-Japanese War (19041905 (Kansas Sstte' i-versy', 19?!). as well as from stg- rticanr subseren: research. The original paper came complete with niney one foownotes, which are no reproduced here. Interested readers may contact the Editor for a c opy of the niotes. Foroveracentury, armiesha t,-died themselves and their perform ance in peacc and w arjust as much as they have probed their actual or potential enemies. Sophisticated lessons leamed systems have evolved to analyze performanceand corrcct deficiencies. Mim k lg the 19th century Prussian (eneral Staff model. official milihtry histoiy programy were also in-atd to povide the historical basis for organizational and doctrinal change. During Operations JUST CAUSE and DFEi SHIELD/DES E T STM, US. Army historian col lected the documentation needed for lalerhistorics and analyri studies. Working hies de tiin were teams Irom the Army's Center for Army Lessons Leamed (CALL) collecting data to support more immediate changes. While hie historians' involvement is of more recent originLeaming lessons fromitsownoperations as well as frm foreign wars, Is not new to the US. Army. Indeed, the Army has been about this business in a systematic manner since the Crimean War (1M53- 56), usually using officers detailed as military atch6 s or observers as the principal lesson learersV One of the US. Army's most significant and least known expeniences In learning lessons was in the Russo- Japanese War (February l9M September 190s), The Observers and American Iierest Teoutbreakof the warin Febrary l94tnggered Intense intermational diplomatic military, and nav al interest that attracted more foreign military observers than any previous war. Partly an outgrowth of the attache system of the 19th entury, milhtary observers were the product of the rapid advance of military technology coupled with the lack of extended general wars. The observer's task was really quite simple-to observe military maneuvers,campaigns. orwars and to extract tactical, strategic, doctrinal, and technical les- s for the use of his own army. TheR us-Japanese War was the most closely, extensively. and profession alyobrvedwaofhepre--1914erabecause it wasihe largest conflict between 1871 and 1914 to test the various theories that had been debated for years in military circles. From the outset, the United States had very sgnifli cant diplomatic and strategic interests in the clash between Russia and Japan. American commercial and diplomatic iterests in the Far East had grown through. out the ineteenth century. ut the acquisition in 1898 of the Phihppnelslard On uam from Span.dh advocacy of the Open Door Policy. had made the US. a nran-Pacific power. Now, with strategic and m ilitary interests in East Asia and the western Pacitic, the U.S. Army was vitally interested in the military lessons of the war between Russia and Japan Only hours alter learning of Admiral Togo Heihachiro's attack on the Russian heet at Porin Arthur, the War Deparnmnt asked the Department of State to secure permision for it to dispatch mnilitary observers to accompany the Russian and Japanese forces. The U.S. Army of 1944 was smal. but many of its officers had a remarkable degree of pofessional- ism, intellectual vitality, and knowledge of modem milhtary science, inview of theirlack ofhigher military education and the circumstances of their service in a largely frontier army. Within the Army, this was also a period of ftrmen and change as it digested the re forms of Secretary of War Ehhu Root, including the

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