Sketches of the Battle off Chemulpo. Jinsen kaisen shaseicho = Zhin-sen kai-sen sha-shin jo

Jikemura Sakuhoku; Inouye Yoshio

Tokyo : Kinkodo Shoseki Kabushiki Kaisha, Meiji sanjushichi, 1904

[Russo-Japanese War] Oblong; 24 x 33 cm. Bound in publisher's blue cloth.  Gilt battleship on front, with portrait of Japanese admiral.  Japanese stab binding.  Clean, unmarked pages.  Text in English (as the work was intended to drive home the point of Japanese strength to foreigners) and Japanese.  Title page in English and Japanese, followed by 1 page in Japanese, 3 pages in English, 13 color lithographic illustrations.   

The battle of Chemulpo took place on February 9, 1904 near Incheon, Korea.  Chemulpo was the first battle of the Russo-Japanese war and directly paved the way for the annexation of Korea by Japan.  Russia's two ships were greatly outnumbered by a surprise attack of 15-21 Japanese ships.  Russia's forces had presumed that the presence of a number of neutral ships (Great Britain, France, Italy, United States), anchoring in a neutral port, would restrain the Japanese from attacking.  This assumption proved wrong.  Both Russian warships were destroyed, and the Japanese claimed a major victory.  From troop ships travelling with Japanese flotilla, 2500 troops landed in Korea, beginning the Japanese military conquest of that country.  Inouye Yoshio, the son of a Japanese admiral, observed the battle from the shore and drew the progression of the conflict.  His water-colored drawings of the battle were taken to the Japanese Imperial General Staff and reproduced here to provide a minute-by-minute progression of the conflict.  No doubt this publication had two objectives: to trumpet Japan's victory and to provide evidence to the legality of the attack to an international audience (Japan's attack on a neutral port, with neutral ships at anchor, was a violation of international law.)  Printed 1904 or 1905 c.