18 Ë The Russo-Japanese War
Fig. 2.2.Motojiro Akashi (c. 1904). ̄
was burdensome enough to hinder his intelligence work, he was relieved of his posi-
tion to allow him to engage fulltime in his secret work throughout Europe.¹⁸
Initially, Akashi had much di culty connecting with Russian revolutionaries.
What if any contacts Tanaka passed on to Akashi is unknown.¹⁹It is quite possible
that Tanaka’s story about his connections with revolutionaries was in fact exagger-
ated. It was likely di cult for anyone, let alone a foreigner, to become acquainted
with underground revolutionaries in Russia at the time. Whatever the case, Akashi
familiarized himself with the anti-Tsarist forces in the country and recruited a few
spies within Russia, including at least one Russian army captain. It is known that
when the war ended in September 1905, Akashi had been operating seven “spies”
(kancho ̄, six inside Russia and one in France), who were assisted by another ve
(all outside Russia). Some of them he deployed along the Trans-Siberian Railway –
in Samara, Cheliabinsk, and Irkutsk. At rst he used those introduced to him by his
friends and colleagues, but he found that in the end those who worked for money were
the most useful.²⁰Indeed, he went through a lot of money, but in fact he appeared
more successful in his work with those who worked for political reasons.
18 On Akashi’s work, see Chiharu Inaba,Akashi k ̄osaku: boryaku no nichiro sens ̄ o ̄(Tokyo: Maruzen,
1995), and Motojir ̄o Akashi,Rakka ryusui: Colonel Akashi’s Report on His Secret Cooperation with the ̄
Russian Revolutionary Parties during the Russo-Japanese War, tr. by Inaba Chiharu and ed. by Olavi K.
Fält and Antti Kujala (Helsinki: Societas Historica Finlandiae, 1988).
19 Tanaka’s biographer suggests that Tanaka introduced Akashi to his contacts but gives no details.
SeeTanaka Giichi denki, 181.
20 Motojir ̄o Akashi, “Rakka ry ̄usui,”Gaiko jih ̄ o ̄, no. 1030 (1966), 97. This part of Akashi’s report is not
included in the English translation published in Helsinki in 1988.