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Alvey A. Adee informs President Roosevelt that he has spoken with Russian Secretary Hansen and he is amenable to the plan for disarming and docking the war ship Lena provided no Japanese officials are allowed to inspect the ship.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-15
Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, sits on a throne, wearing a large skull topped with a cross as a crown. A Japanese man offers him papers labeled “Peace ‘with Honor’,” and a Jewish man, holding bags labeled “Jewish Loans,” stands in a palace doorway in the background. A basket overflowing with papers labeled “Jewish Petition [and] Protest against Kishineff Massacres” is on the floor. A paper on a desk states “Cost of War to Russia $1,042,500,000.”
The bleak twin situations of the St. Petersburg court are laid bare in this stark double-page cartoon by Joseph Keppler, Junior. Even before its disastrous war with Japan in the Far East, Czar Nicholas’s Russia was crumbling in virtually all ways possible. It was nearly bankrupt, losing control of its client states and border peoples, beset by protests from serfs and the bourgeoisie, facing assassination attempts and intrigues among underground Socialist, Communist, and Anarchist groups, and worldwide condemnation over Czarist suppression of religious and Jewish minorities.
A tattered, but happy, Russian army returns home after the end of the war with Japan. In the background, the rising sun of Japan is visible on the horizon.
Carl Hassmann’s double-page cartoon in Puck at the end of hostilities in the Far East — where the bold symbol of Japan, the sun, clearly rises; it is not setting, as history learned — is a very sardonic portrayal of the international situation. If anything, his depiction of the defeated Russian army as happy, though sotted, as retaining riches and even singing and occasionally smiling, was scarcely true, even in a cartoonist’s metaphor.
A flotilla of ships sails with Theodore Roosevelt’s face on the lead ship. The figure of Peace, wearing armor and carrying a sword in one hand and an olive branch fashioned out of bayonets in the other, is sitting atop this ship. Two doves flying by her side are wearing armor and are armed as well.
This cartoon has had a long life since its original publication in 1905 in Puck magazine. In textbooks and dissertations, magazine articles and books, it has been reprinted as a representation of President Roosevelt’s brand of Pax Americana; and often as a commemoration of the Great White Fleet, America’s two squadrons of 16 battleships and escort ships that circumnavigated the globe. Painted a glowing white, the ships were ambassadors of peace, and assertions of America’s new naval prowess.
Meiji, the Emperor of Japan, peers over the top of a large globe from the east toward Europe where the rulers of several nations stand with Nicholas II, the wounded and crippled emperor of Russia. There is concern among the European leaders about where Japan will turn after defeating Russia.
“When?” The answer is 1941, as everybody knows. Or 1931, when the Japanese invaded Manchuria and established the puppet Manchukuo government. Or 1937, when the “Second” Sino-Japanese War was begun by the Japanese. There was the troublesome Japanese “sphere of influence” ongoing claim over Korea. And, in the 1930s, its military moves into Southeast Asia, then called Indo-China, over which it claimed hegemonic rights.
Vignette cartoon with a central image showing President Roosevelt sitting with Russian, Japanese, and possibly Chinese figures at his summer retreat at Oyster Bay; his personal secretary, William Loeb, is serving drinks. The vignette scenes suggest that the Russo-Japanese war, and the control of Manchuria and Vladivostok, be decided by competitions between the Russian leaders and those of Japan and China, such as a swimming race, a wood-chopping contest, a tennis match, and a contest of telling the tallest fish story.
Puck cartoonists L. M. Glackens and S. D. Ehrhart joined forces to draw the magazine’s semi-regular centerspread genre cartoon commenting on current events, this page on the upcoming negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese War. There was one month to go before commencement of talks. Approximately two months after this cartoon’s publication, a Treaty of Peace was signed.
Field Marshal Oyama Iwao, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese forces, stands at the top of a hill, holding binoculars, while troops move artillery up the hill behind him. A battle rages in the background.
Field Marshal Oyama Iwao was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War. His troops’ overrunning of cities (like Port Arthur) and lands were viewed as massacres, but he swept vast lands and rapidly routed Russian and native forces. Puck characterized the decisive warmaking gifts of General Oyama Iwao as providing the most decisive form of peacemaking.
A Japanese soldier trains a group of soldiers of various nationalities and ethnicities, including Koreans.
In 1867 radical reforms were untaken in Japanese society. The Meiji Dynasty was restored to power, and in a rapid-fire attempt to join the world (as Admiral Matthew Perry’s “opening” in 1852 had sought), the country underwent radical social, political, military, and even religious adjustments. For instance, the Shinto faith was recognized as prominent, and Buddhism was downplayed, but Confucianism and especially Christianity were respected. Democratic structures were instituted, and a conscious effort to adopt Western ways took place throughout society. A Japanese version of the Industrial Revolution commenced under Meiji.
A drunken Russian man holds a jug of vodka and wildly swings a bloody sword at a wasp representing Japan. John Bull and Uncle Sam sit in the background.
The context of this cartoon is the Russo-Japanese War, a conflict whose logic, or lack of same as with many wars, is represented by the flailing Cossack and the tiny insect. But the relative strengths of the opposing powers is not depicted accurately by cartoonist Keppler.
Mars, the Roman god of war, with bandages on his head, arm, and foot, sits in his tent with a map of “Manchuria” on the small table next to him; hanging on the wall behind him are his helmet and shield. “Peace” is standing at the entrance to the tent and is asking if she may come in to visit. Caption: Peace–May I come in?
What history knows as the Russo-Japanese War had dragged through 1904. Joseph Keppler’s brilliant cartoon presented the case simply: the war had run its course; and, it could be argued, the Russian Empire was as beat up as the figure of Mars was in this drawing.
At center, Father Knickerbocker, a symbolic figure for New York City, welcomes Santa Claus to the underground of New York City. The surrounding vignettes show Santa distributing Christmas presents and planning for next year. The “Angel of Peace” is hoping for an end to the hostilities between Japan and Russia.
At the center of Samuel Ehrhart’s collage of Christmas-themed gags is Uncle Sam and Father Knickerbocker (the New York City counterpart of Uncle Sam), rather overshadowed by a subway station resembling a palace. All of New York, and indeed the nation, was fascinated by the new subway system. It had opened its rail lines and station on the October 27, 1904, just before the presidential election. When the campaign was over, and the gaudy St. Louis World’s Fair closed in early December, the nation turned its eyes to a virtual Eighth Wonder of the World: miles of underground tracks in America’s biggest city.
Meiji, Emperor of Japan, and Nicholas II of Russia, kneel before the female figure of “Peace.” Caption: When, your Majesties?
Given the exigencies of magazine production — writing and drawing, editing, printing and distribution — we cannot be certain whether the events of Russia’s “Bloody Sunday,” the suppression of protesters on January 9, little more than a week of this cartoon’s cover date, prompted Nankivell’s cartoon. A crowd of petitioners, led by an Orthodox monk, were brutally massacred. The world, and much of Russia, reacted with revulsion, and the Revolution of 1905 began. It was ultimately unsuccessful, but formed a direct line to the Bolshevik Revolution a dozen years later.
A Jewish man dressed as Mars, the Roman god of war, and decorated with symbols of money, stands in the doorway of a munitions store labeled “Marsheim Bellonaberg & Co.” and “Ordnance Dept.” A notice posted on the side states “War Loans a Speciality” and a sign reads “By Appointment to H.I.M. the Czar & Mikado – Cash Vobiscum.”
Ehrhart’s cartoon smacks of anti-Semitism to contemporary eyes, but it uses the age-old stereotype of Jewish money-lenders as a stick with which to beat England and English banks. As Russia and Japan bled each other dry in their war, the English, as money-lenders to “the Czar and the Mikado” respectively, profited off both. The British made loans at high interest, and sold munitions similarly.
The Russian Bear, as a soldier with rifle, has been turned into a scarecrow. A crow labeled “Japan” bites its nose. Another crow labeled “England” is perched on its cap. A crow labeled “Germany” is flying around its head. A crow labeled “Turkey” is on the ground at its feet. A crow labeled “China” is perched on the rifle butt. All these crows, and several others on a fence nearby, are cawing with laughter at the scarecrow.
The term “Sick Man of Europe” has been applied through centuries of international diplomacy to several countries — the Ottoman Empire and Turkey during periods of decline, and Great Britain when parts of its empire fell away. In the years prior to World War I, Russia surely wore the mantle.
Two cats, one labeled “Japan” attacking the other labeled “Russia,” have their tails tied to a rope labeled “Manchuria” with a ribbon labeled “Neutrality.”
“Kilkenny cats” are parties whose disagreements are so strong that they kill and devour each other, with only their tails remaining on the ground. The term is derived from a legend about the querulous residents of County Kilkenny in Ireland.
A man representing Russia holds a cat-o’-nine tails labeled “Russia” with the lashes labeled “Absolutism, Persecution, [and] Tyranny.” Next to him, on the left, are several dead or wounded people with the word “Kish[i]neff” written on the ground, and in the background, clouds labeled “Finland” and “Poland” are hovering above large groups of people being persecuted by the Russians. The man is shielding his eyes against a burst of sunlight on the right in which is a Japanese woman labeled “Modern Japan” surrounded by the words “Justice, Progressiveness, Humaneness, Enlightenment, Tolerance [and] Religious Liberty.” The figure of a Japanese man labeled “Medievalism” lies on the ground, crushed by the light of “Modern Japan.”
With the commencement of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 in the month before this cartoon’s publication, Puck clearly chose sides, as seen in this cartoon by Keppler. The world learned that the failure of often harsh diplomatic exchanges was quickly followed by Japan’s overwhelming victory over the Russian fleet in Port Arthur (occupied Manchuria).
Mars, the Roman god of war, sits on a throne with his arms folded across his chest and a sword resting on his lap. He is illuminated by a ray of light beaming from above. At center a broken olive branch lies on the ground, and on the right a female figure labeled “Peace,” cradling a dove, flees storm clouds, representing Russia and Japan, about to clash, between her and Mars.
The first Hague Tribunal, an international conference on war, peace, negotiations, and armaments, was held in the Dutch city in 1899. In what subsequent history perhaps viewed as ironic, it was suggested by Czar Nicholas II of Russia. Many nations participated, and many agreements were reached — on weapons, settlement of international disputes, protection of hospital units on battlefields, etc.
Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, salutes a Japanese admiral on a gunboat. In the background are the ruins of a Russian naval fleet.
As the flames of battle were extinguished, and news filtered across the globe, the decimation of many Russian warships — a large percentage of the Czar’s fleet — by Japan, surprised observers. Even King Neptune, the mythical god of naval conflict and control, had to pay tribute in the eyes of cartoonist Joseph Keppler.
President Roosevelt standing in a room alongside men on the Mayflower.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1905-08-07
President Roosevelt begins his letter to Cecil Spring Rice discussing the presidential election and how Alton B. Parker and the Democratic Party chose to campaign. Roosevelt mentions his plans to send Ambassador to Italy George von Lengerke Meyer to St. Petersburg, and spends the rest of the letter discussing Japan and Russia. The Japanese government treats Americans well, while Russia has treated the United States, England, and Japan poorly. However, Roosevelt believes the Japanese Army groups all white men together and considers such men inferior to themselves, as evidenced by the experience of American military attachés in Japan. The president opines that Russia is the main enemy of Japan, as long as it focuses on China, Korea, and Manchuria. However, if Japan desires to become a maritime power, it could threaten the United States, England, and the Netherlands. Roosevelt concludes his letter by saying, “[W]e must trust in the Lord and keep our powder dry and our eyes open.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-27