The squadron then turned towards Possiet
Bay, but seeing nothing of the enemy, retired.Despite the Japanese losses, Kamimura followed
the Russian ships to Ulsan, off the coast of Vladivo-
stok, and during the battle there (14 August 1904), he
sank the Russian ship Rurik and severely damaged the
Rossiya, flagship of the Russian admiral Bezobrasov. At
Tsushima, the strategic battle of the entire conflict, Ka-
mimura, overseeing a fleet of eight ships from aboard his
flagship, the Idzumo, backed up Togo, who completed
wiped out the Russians; the loss for them was 34 of 37
ships sunk, 4,830 dead, 5,917 captured, and an ad-
ditional 1,862 held by neutral countries in detention.
Japanese losses were light: three torpedo boats sunk, one
armored cruiser and two light cruisers damaged, 110
men killed in action, and 590 wounded. Although Togo
was the hero of the battle and of the war, Kamimura had
made up for his defeat at Vladivostok.
Following the end of the war, Kamimura was made
commander of the naval base at Yokosuka, serving from
1905 to 1909, and he was commander in chief of the
first fleet (1909–11). He was styled as Baron Kamimura
in 1907 and raised to the rank of admiral in 1910. In
1911, he was named councillor of the navy. He died on
8 August 1916 at the age of 66, and in the years since he
has been all but forgotten by scholars for his role in the
Russo-Japanese War.
References: “Kamimura, Hikonojo,” in Kodansha En-
cyclopedia of Japan, 10 vols. (Tokyo, Japan: Kodansha,
1983), 4:127; Chant, Christopher, Richard Holmes,
and William Koenig, “Tsushima: 1905,” Two Centuries
of Warfare: 23 Decisive Battles that Changed the Course of
History (London: Octopus Books, 1978), 208; Pleshakov,
Konstantin, The Tsar’s Last Armada: The Epic Journey to
the Battle of Tsushima (New York: Basic Books, 2002).
Karl XII See charles xii.
Khaled ibn al-Walid (Khalid ibn al-Walid,
Chaledos) (584–642) Muslim military leader
Khaled ibn al-Walid was born in 584 near what is now
the holy city of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, to a clan known
as banu-Quraysh, or a tribe of the Prophet Muhammad.
According to several sources, Khaled’s father did not
agree with the burgeoning movement of Islam begun
by Muhammad, and his son soon came to accept his
father’s beliefs. In 625, Muhammad and his Muslim fol-
lowers fought a major battle with so-called “nonbeliev-
ers” at Badr and defeated them. Khaled, taking charge
of a group of men from Mecca—also known as “Mec-
cans”—marched to Badr and confronted the Muslims.
In a pitched battle, Khaled’s army lost, but his military
skill and bravery made him a force to be reckoned with.
About 627, after the Truce of Hudaibya, Khaled
joined Muhammed and went on to defeat the rival
forces holding onto Mecca in 629, again, demonstrat-
ing his military genius. Following Muhammed’s death
in 632, a series of revolts occurred against his successor,
the caliph (from “caliphet,” literally “successor of the
prophet of God”) Abu Bakr. In order to reestablish con-
trol over the rebels, Abu Bakr initiated a riddah, or war,
with 11 armies. One of the leading commanders of these
armies was Khaled, who displayed such ferocity and lack
of compassion for his enemies, slaughtering them at
will, that he shocked even Abu Bakr himself. Khaled put
down the rebellion led by Mosailima at Akraba (633),
the battle that ended the so-called “War of Apostasy.”
In the final years of his life, Khaled led a jihad (holy
war) against border raiders in Mesopotamia, now mod-
ern Iraq. In 633, he invaded the city of al-Hira and, in
an attempt to head off an invasion of the region by the
Byzantine emperor Heraclius, marched from Mesopota-
mia to the city of Palmyra in just 18 days. In spring 634,
his army defeated the Byzantine forces at Marj Rahit,
and with the Muslim warrior Amr ibn al-As, Khaled
again defeated this army, at Ajnadayn in July 634. In
January 635, he captured Fihl, near the Jordan River,
and after a six-month siege, he forced the surrender
of Damascus, now the capital of Syria, on 4 Septem-
ber 635. Heraclius saw Khaled as a major threat, and
he formed an additional army of some 50,000 men to
march on Damascus. Khaled retreated from that city
to an area now near the Sea of Galilee. The Byzantines,
under Theodorus (also known as Theodore), with an
army totaling 110,000, marched on them and attacked
the Muslims near the River Yarmuk, a tributary of the
Jordan River, on 20 August 636. According to historian
George Bruce, “The Muslim attack was thrice repulsed,
but they returned to the charge and after a long and
bloody engagement drove their opponents from the
field with enormous loss. The Muslims lost 4,030 killed
and went on to attack Jerusalem.” The Byzantines left 0 kARl xii