War in the Pacific: In February, 1904, less than two years after the Boer War ended, war broke out again, this time in the western Pacific, between the Russian Empire and Japan.

Japan, an island kingdom, wanted to expand to the mainland in Korea and Manchuria and have an empire of its own. It quarreled over territorial rights with Russia.

In February, Japan launched a pre-emptive strike on Russia by invading mainland Korea and moving into Manchuria beyond. In April, the Japanese Navy destroyed the Russian Pacific Fleet in Port Arthur, Manchuria.

Czar Nicholas II ordered his powerful European Baltic Fleet to sail for the Pacific. In May 1905, Admiral Togo destroyed the pride of the Russian navy at the Straits of Tsushima, in one of the great naval victories of all time. Russia sued for peace which was signed in Sept. 1905 at Portsmouth, NH in the US.

It was the first time in modern times that an Asiatic race had defeated a white European power. And in the days when Britons - not just Germans - spoke of racial pride, this was really something.

Canada & the Russo-Japanese War: Canada did not fight in this war but many Canadians today are descended from people who did. Russian and Ukrainians across Canada have grandfathers or grand-uncles who fought in the Russian armies that were defeated by the Japanese.

After peace was declared and the armies demobilized some of these soldiers emigrated to Canada. Their descendants today remember their forbears telling them that they fought the Japanese in the Pacific.

One of these probably preserved this tapestry as a memento of those "thrilling" days of yore. The fabulous tapestry showed up at an estate sale in the small town of Milton, Ontario.

While I was looking at it, a woman approached me and said, "It's from the Russian War with the Japanese. My great- grandfather fought in it. He was Russian. I remember hearing stories when I was a child. They talked of it sometimes."

The tapestry is a wonderful symbol of the world so many Europeans sought to escape, in order to start a new, different life, in Canada.

This outcome shocked the world; an Asiatic people had annihilated the massed might of a major European power. It was unheard of. It taught the Japanese General Staff a valuable lesson; the European powers were not nearly as strong, superior, or invincible, as they liked to portray themselves. They could be beaten - soundly beaten. Japanese technological prowess was proved to be second to none in the world, and it could only get better. Clearly the Japanese General Staff believed they were invincible.

Before long they believed they could take on anyone and win. This delusion - taught in their military staff colleges - culminated in the fateful attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 - in fact the flagship aircraft carrier that launched the planes, mindful of history, proudly flew the same flag that Admiral Togo had flown on his flagship when he attacked the Russian fleet at Tsushima. This wrong-headed lesson from history would have disastrous consequences for Japan - and the world - in the years after.

These men looked at these tapestries in different ways...

Laurier & the Russo-Japanese War: The Russo-Japanese War created problems on the home front for Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier (right), even though Canada was not involved in the war, and did not send soldiers to fight.

Laurier had just finished shepherding Canada through its first military adventure in a foreign (the Boer) war, without overly hemorrhaging the country internally. But now only a year and a half later he was forced to find a Canadian solution to another foreign crisis.

Other countries - Britain, the US, Germany, France - were all sending military attachés to observe the fighting close up with the Japanese Army. (Attachés had followed around the British and Boer armies during the Boer War as well, just as journalists did, though they reported to their governments, not their newspaper publishers.)

French Canadians saw no need to send a Canadian attaché to, "Où est-ce que vous avez dit?...Asie!!!... Merde.."; Canadian nationalists wanted a top Canadian officer to go, "Of course, no question, we're a major power now, we should act like it!"; British Empire supporters wanted a minor Canadian sent, and preferably attached, in a subordinate role, to the British delegation which featured top Generals, including Boer War veteran Ian Hamilton, "Quite so! Imperial matters should, quite properly, be handled by the experts who know best, the British General Staff of course. Canadians should concern themselves with what they know best, cutting trees, hauling fish, or digging coal!"

Lord Minto, the Governor-General (above) and Earl Dundonald, Commander of the Canadian Militia (right), button-holed Laurier, expressing their view that a Canadian junior officer should be sent, perhaps one with artillery credentials to see how the technology and practice of war had evolved since the Boer War.

All the leading Boer War military names came up: Col. Otter suggested a top Canadian officer should go - himself - and appealed personally to the still grieving Minister of Militia Frederick Borden (left) who was a strong Canadian militia booster, then to Dundonald, and Minto directly, suggesting what a good choice he would be... Others promoted Capt. EWB Morrison DSO, of Leliefontein artillery fame. Some said the outspoken Canadian Col. Sam Hughes was the best choice, among others.

Laurier himself was not a militarist. He did not think Canada was in need of a "real army" at this point, that the militia was good enough to quell local disturbances, like the Riel Rebellion. It was, of course, of no use to defend the country, but there was no need for them to, since the Monroe Doctrine - meaning Uncle Sam - would defend Canada if there was outside aggression. He had told Dundonald that, when he had arrived in Canada, in 1902, to take up the post of Commander of the Militia.

In order to avoid a possible military controversy dividing the country, Laurier quietly agreed with Lord Dundonald and Earl Minto, to send a minor, low profile, Canadian officer with "British experience" to be attached to the British delegation, and spirited him off to Asia with as little fanfare as possible - none being preferable.

Borden, strongly Canadian, and strongly pro-Militia, was quiet about the issue, keeping his head down; he had bigger fish to fry, and wanted to avoid saying anything which might alienate British support for his Militia initiatives in Canada. The British Parliament was drafting new legislation regarding who had real control over the Canadian Militia. Borden wanted it to be the Canadian Government, not the Colonial Office in England, or a group of British staff officers. He kept quiet to win the bigger battle - get a Canadian to become head of the Canadian Militia, in place of Earl Dundonald...

Col. William Otter	Col. Sam Hughes	Col. TDB Evans
Four of Canada's famous Boer War personalities were proposed as being of the proper level to represent Canada as a military attaché to the Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War. Top left, Col. Otter, who led Canada's first Contingent to South Africa, lobbied hard for the posting, because he thought he was the best man. Others whose names cropped up were: the controversial Col. Sam Hughes, who had to return from the fight against the Boers in disgrace, Col. TDB Evans, who did two tours in South Africa, and led the Fourth Contingent, and Capt. EWB Morrison DSO, (right) probably Canada's top artillery man. But the last thing Laurier wanted was a high profile candidate, perhaps prone to speechifying and stirring up the home front with another controversy about Canada's proper posture in dealing with foreign wars.

The Japanese seemed to be on Laurier's side too. They were not overly helpful in getting any attachés to the front to show them what the Japanese army was doing. Which Laurier liked just fine. The less news from there in the Canadian papers, the better. Then the Canadian attaché got sick and was sent home, thereby missing the biggest battle of them all. He came back to Canada as quietly as he had left.

In 1908 Borden's wish came true. The Commander of the Canadian Militia would henceforth be a Canadian officer. And the first to hold the post, was Col. William Dillon Otter, who had failed to get the attaché job in 1904. Now he was the top general in the Canadian Army.

The tapestries now bear silent testimony to a group of passionate players in a Canadian crisis that never happened, thanks to the skillful political stick handling of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.