My thanks to Roger Wallsgrove, Editor-in-Chief of Mushroom Model Publications, who provided this review sample. I have had the pleasure of meeting him and his team at Nationals.
The Russo-Japanese War was the opening salvo in a series of conflicts that would dominate the first half of the 20thcentury and upend the status quo of the world’s great powers. Waged at the height of European colonial period, it would signal Japan’s entry onto the world’s stage and portend the demise of the Russian Empire 12 years later. Russia, like Turkey was a “sick man” of Europe and Japan was ready to wrest control of the Far East from Moscow’s influence. The series of Japanese victories and the decimation of the Russian Navy shocked the world and provided a stage for President Theodore Roosevelt to increase the stature of the United States. Much was written soon after the Treaty of Portsmouth but the war and these respective writings were overshadowed by the epic struggle of the World War of 1914-1918. One hundred years later it is refreshing to re-visit such an important conflict.