January 7th is a big day for anniversaries in Japanese history.
Two Prime Ministers assumed their posts on this day - Prince Kimmochi Saionji in 1906 and Count Keigo Kiyoura in 1924.
Prince Kimmochi Saionji was in the midst of an interesting succession of Prime Ministers - he was Prime Minister twice, the 12th and 14th, and was both preceded and succeeded both times by Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Taro Katsura, the 11th, 13th, and 15th Prime Minister.
Saionji, not yet a prince, but still a marquis in 1906, took over the Prime Ministership from Katsura for the first time on January 7, 1906 when Katsura resigned due to controversy surrounding the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the Russo-Japanese War.
The controversy was primarily the disappointment of the Japanese public at the relatively modest rewards secured by Japan despite a decisive, resounding victory over Russia - the young modern Japanese state’s most significant military victory to that date and a major step towards getting the respect from the West that Japan sought. During the war, American visitors to Japan commented on the remarkable public enthusiasm for the war - women wore hair ornaments shaped like little battleships and kimono printed with patriotic and martial patterns, significant triumphs were met with exuberant public celebrations, and more.
The Russo-Japanese War was to that date the largest-ever clash between states (in terms of troop and ship numbers) and saw the first use of the telegraph, telephone, machine guns, barbed wire, illuminating star shells, mine fields, advanced torpedoes, and armored battleships in war. (Read on …)