About choosing places of stay for the Japanese prisoners of war in Russia during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905)

The article concerns the problem of prisoners of war during the Russo-Japanese war. The problem appears in the focus of modern researchers quite rarely: they usually write about political, military, and economic aspects of the war. The article describes the process of choosing the places of stay for the captured Japanese soldiers and officers in 1904–1905.

By the beginning of the war, Russia assumed a number of obligations, since, during the Conference in Hague in 1899, it signed the Convention with respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land, prescribing the treatment of prisoners based on humanistic ideals.

The sources used during writing the work represent the latest research materials and the archival documents. These documents are stored in the Russian State Military Historical Archive (RGVIA) in Moscow.

While determining the places for the Japanese stay, the Military department faced a severe problem, since it was necessary to take into account different factors: whether it would be possible to ensure guarding the prisoners of war, whether there was a suitable building for their accommodation, whether the Japanese soldiers and officers would have opportunities to commit sabotage. The latest issue was vividly discussed in the official documents of the period: there were concerns that the Japanese would destroy railways, as they did in Manchuria.

The idea that the place for the Japanese prisoners should be in the Far East was rejected almost immediately due to its proximity to the theater of operations. Siberia also did not fit, since a railway passed through it – the most important transport artery during the war, so it was decided to place the Japanese in European Russia. The city of Penza was chosen as a collection point, from where prisoners of war were distributed to the cities of the Kazan, Moscow, Kiev, and Saint Petersburg military districts.

However, in the autumn of 1904, Emperor Nicholas II issued a decree that the Japanese should not be stationed near the passage of the Russian troops. After that it was decided to accommodate all Japanese prisoners of war in one place: in the village of Medved, Novgorod province. The barracks located there were perfect for housing a small number of Japanese prisoners, where they stayed until the end of the war.

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2. Datsyshen, V.G. (2007). Deportirovannye i voennoplennye yapontsy v Sibiri v 1904–1905 gg. [Deported and Captured Japanese in Siberia in 1904–1905]. Yearbook Japan, 36, 240–248. (In Russian).

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