‘The Shadow in the East’

Abstract

The Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 captured the imagination of reading publics around the world and in Britain spawned a breadth of products aimed at a domestic audience, including cigarette cards, illustrated magazines and newspaper cartoons. This essay investigates the commentary on and interpretation of the war offered by cartoons appearing in the British Sunday paper the News of the World and the Welsh daily paper the Western Mail. Editorial cartoonist J. M. Staniforth drew over 70 cartoons documenting the war for both papers, and the degree to which these visual images complemented or diverged from the editorial line expressed in leader columns is considered. The importance of distinguishing between cartoons and editorials and of taking into account the identity and career of the cartoonist is stressed. The visual codes for communicating conflict are also investigated, revealing in the process something of the intellectual horizons of both cartoonist and audience.

KEYWORDS:

• Far East
• Japan
• Russia
• newspapers
• twentieth century
• cartoons

Acknowledgement

The Shadow in the East’ was the title of J. M. Staniforth's News of the World cartoon of 27 December 1903, depicting the Angel of Peace wringing her hands at the prospect of war between Russia and Japan. Like all cartoons referred to in this article, it may be found at the Cartooning the Road to War website (www.roadtowarcartoons.org). I thank Dr Ian Rapley of the School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University, for his advice on visual images of the Russo-Japanese war.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 For authoritative accounts of the conflict's origins and progress, see Nish, Origins; White, Origins; Westwood, Russia Against Japan; Jukes, Russo-Japanese War; and Connaughton, Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear.

2 Kowner, “High Road.”

3 For the context, see Nish, Anglo-Japanese Alliance.

4 See Hamilton, Staff Officer’s Scrap-Book; Ferris, “Turning Japanese”; and Neilson, “‘That Dangerous and Difficult Enterprise’.”

5 Wills, for example, issued two series totalling 150 cigarette cards. Others were produced by Anglo, Cohin Weehen, Glass, Godfrey Phillips, John Young, Muratti, Newbegin, Ogdens and Taddy. Hill, Picture Postcards, 26; Dower, “Yellow Promise/Yellow Peril.”

6 Sharf, “A Much Recorded War,” 2.

7 Wilkinson, Depictions and Images; “Literary Images”; “‘The Blessings of War’.”

8 Falt, “The Picture of Japan”; Lehner, “A Different View.” Also, see Bryant, “A Floating World at War.”

9 Brake, Kaul, and Turner, News of the World, 288.

10 Jones, Press, Politics and Society, 210.

11 Williams, “Staniforth, Joseph Morewood.”

12 Williams, “Passports to Oblivion,” 145.

13 The British P&O liner Malacca was commandeered by the Russian cruiser Smolensk in the Red Sea on 14 July 1904, an act described by the News of the World (31 July) as an ‘outrage upon our mercantile flag’. The other duplication was of ‘The Throne and its Shadow’, which appeared in the Western Mail on 30 July, and (unchanged) in the News of the World on 28 August 1904.

14 That nine cartoons on the war were reproduced in Staniforth's 1908 deluxe volume Cartoons is further indication of the war's prominence in his oeuvre.

15 A more extensive discussion of the methodological issues involved is in Williams, “‘Our War History in Cartoons Is Unique’.”

16 Staniforth had used the same title (but different image) to make the same point in the Western Mail, 23 February 1904.

17 See Williams, “‘Our War History in Cartoons Is Unique’.”

18 Other examples include the editorials and cartoons of 4 January, 15 February 1904, 3 January 1905.

19 Wilkinson, Depictions and Images, 5, 9.

20 Ibid., 129.

21 Bronkhurst, “Hunt, William Holman” and Melville, “Dicksee, Sir Francis Bernard.”

22 Wilkinson, Depictions and Images, 64, 75.

23 See Brake and Turner, “Rebranding the News of the World”, and Conboy, “Residual Radicalism.”

24 Discussed further in Williams, “Passports to Oblivion,” 150–2.

25 See Steinberg et al., The Russo-Japanese War in Global Perspective.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund [YH-12-00264].

Notes on contributors

Chris Williams

Chris Williams, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University, John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff CF10 3XQ, UK. ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6154-7347