Denis and Peggy Warner's The Tide at Sunrise: A History of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5 is an excellent history of this pivotal event in Asian, and world, affairs. Drawing on the histories of two distinct antagonists, Russia and Japan, as well as military, political, and diplomatic events, it is vividly descriptive, balanced, and prophetic. The Warners start with the assumption, that readers wrongfully would dismiss the brief war as insignificant, and convincingly prove, how this little war changed the world. From the evocation of Pearl Harbor in the first chapter, the book still resonates today, post 9/11.

The Russo-Japanese War, along with the American Civil War and World War One, showed how much technology had changed military science. Additions, such as machine guns and naval plating, made traditional tactics obsolete and deadly. Japanese officers also outperformed their Russian opponents, and fortune persistently favored the Japanese, in the form of freak weather patterns and unforeseen logistical planning. The book provides a useful introduction to the unfortunate journey of the Russian Baltic Fleet defeated at Tsushima. Appalling descriptions of the interactions of bodies and modern weapons, as well as the effects of the Manchurian winter, add color to dry tactics. The narrative structure of the writing, alternating from the Japanese to the Russian side, highlights the flow of events and the errors in judgment in a war before modern communication and satellites, but with torpedoes and siege guns.

There is also the discussion of the Japanese use of irregular forces. From the intelligence activities of Colonel Akashi in St. Petersburg, which facilitated revolution, to the indigenous, Manchurian Chunchus cavalry and secret society agents acting as agents provocateurs, the Japanese excelled at efficiently marshalling their limited resources. On the other hand, the Russian armies never realized the true loyalties of their Chinese laborers. The crass anti-Semitism of many Russian leaders also rebounds to the Japanese advantage, when Jewish financiers loan money for a cash-strapped Japan.

On the diplomatic front, the book delineates the consequences of the war for the rest of the century. The Japanese, who considered the peace brokered at Portsmouth humiliating, resented the United States. Not appeased by gaining territorial control of Korea, Japan continued to dream of a Manchurian empire and control of China. The United States lost influence in the entire region, not just diplomatically, but economically as well. And, Korea ceased to exist. A new generation of Asian leaders raised Japan as a beacon for their own anti-colonial dreams.

Although the first introductory section is excellent, the epilogue chapter is dated. However, the book is well annotated, with a good index, maps, bibliography, and photographs.

Along the way, the book presents poignant portraits of various leaders and lesser characters on both sides, from Count Witte to Marquis Ito. The book really begins in Japan with the Meiji Restoration and the failed reforms in Russia. The war highlights the condition of two countries in a situation brewing for generations. Tide At Sunrise demonstrates, how an excellent book can make much out of a little war.

Fine introduction to the Russo-Japanese War. Covers the political origins of the war as well as the naval and military engagements. Mr. Warner does a splendid job of characterizing the participants and describes places and events in terms that are graphic, memorable, and instructive.

My copy contains over 600 pages of text, scores of contemporary photographs, a useful index, and an extensive bibliography.

The authors' primary goal is the rehabilitation of the Royal Australian Air Force pilot who sighted and reported the Japanese force enroute to the invasion area at Guadalcanal. The pilot has been falsely vilified, accused of delaying his report until returning to base, and many accounts even manufacture a spurious tea break taken before bothering to mention his sighting. To this end the Warners succeed most convincingly, however from that point they bog down. Unable or incapable of accepting the thesis that bureaucratic inertia, service rivalry, faulty intelligence evaluation, and most of all complacency lead to this report's significance being missed, they go on to hint at shadowy conspiracies, during and after the disastrous battle. Eventually one gets tired of the sinister hysteria and expects references to the grassy knoll and Area 51 to crop up. Who planned and carried out this weird conspiracy (hint: the hatchet man's initials are S. E. M, and he was a Rear Admiral), and to what end aside from the discrediting of an RAAF reconnaissance pilot? The fact is that mistakes are made in all areas of human endeavor, and in wartime such blunders cost lives and affect the destiny of nations. A far better work on the subject is Commodore Loxton's The Shame of Savo, which exhaustively organizes and reconciles track charts and battle reports and does reach a startling and uncomfortable, yet compelling, conclusion about the battle, in particular the likely true fate of HMAS Canberra.

Having read the previous review of this book I only wish to say that I felt this book was well presented and researched. Only the final three chapters out of 17 cover in detail why this disaster happened. Most of the book deals with the lead up to the battle and what happened during the battle. I have no problems with the authors trying to present facts that show that the RAAF crew flying the Hudson were not to blame. Isn't it about time that they got a fair shake and their reputations rehabilitated?

How many other authors have continued presenting this incident as the main cause for the allied defeat when in reality it was numerous other little things that combined to cause the disaster. I also agree with the previous reviewer in relation to another great book on this battle 'The Shame of Savo' written by Bruce Loxton and Chris Coulthard-Clark.

Overall 'Disaster in the Pacific' was a good book to read and I found it well researched and presented.