The Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) pitted Russia's powerful navy against the outmatched Japanese. As this bundle shows, Japan fought doggedly. One cavalry lieutenant traveled unthinkable distances in terrible conditions to gather vital reconnaisance behind enemy lines. His heroics inspired a novel and film. The Japanese persisted for five months in the violent Siege of Port Arthur. Finally, the Japanese prevailed in the Battle of Tsushima, winning the war and diminishing Russian strength in East Asia. Japanese optimism came through even in the name of the stomach medicine soldiers received; the kanji meant "pills to conquer Russia"!

Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) prompted Japanese militarism and imperialism to surge in the late Meiji and Taisho eras (1905–1924, collectively). As this bundle shows, Japan developed its munitions industry to spectacular new heights and designed battleships that would dwarf those of Britain. (The efforts to build massive battleships inspired words that Japanese advertisers still use!) In those years Japan's economic and political interest in Manchuria also grew, setting the stage for colonizing that territory. And from 1918 to 1922, Japan occupied Siberia, which cost the Japanese dearly in terms of casualties, finances, and internal strife.

The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 defined the Taisho era (1912–1924). As this bundle shows, the quake destroyed Japan's earliest Western-style skyscraper, a 12-story structure housing the country's first electric elevator. A firestorm sparked by the quake burned the famous willows of the Ginza area in Tokyo. The devastation also produced some unexpected outcomes. A doctor discovered "crush syndrome," an affliction befalling victims trapped under masonry. And the earthquake disaster inspired a haircut that enabled men to comb their hair quickly. Efficiency with that task gave them extra time to assist in the Kanto recovery! That hairstyle still exists!