Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/419



he Treaty of Portsmouth, which closed the Russo-Japanese War, made Japan one of the great powers of the world; therefore, this chapter is entitled "Greater Japan." This is not so much because Japan became larger, although she added half of Sakhalin, obtained Russia's lease of part of Manchuria, and has annexed Korea, but it is because she has become truly greater in many senses of the word. This will appear more evident as one reads carefully the following record of the principal events of the past seven years (1905-1912).

It is, perhaps, not strange that the Japanese nation was, on the whole, disappointed with the terms of the Treaty of Portsmouth. They had borne heavy financial burdens, and had confidently anticipated at least a partial compensation in the shape of an indemnity and the re-acquisition of Sakhalin, of which they considered themselves cheated by Russia, in 1875. To get only half of Sakhalin was not so much of a loss, because it was the better half; but to get not a single sen of indemnity was the bitterest kind of a pill, without even a coat of sugar. And, although most of the Japanese people, as is usual, quickly swallowed their disappointment, it is not strange that agitators utilized the occasion to stir up the rowdy element to break out in riots in Tōkyō early in September, 1905. And, after the destruction of considerable property, the city was placed under martial law until the excitement subsided.