The Akashi Operations Ë 19
Fig. 2.3.Motojir ̄o Akashi (probably in the 1910s).
In the course of the war, the General Sta gave Akashi 1 million yen (amounting to
as much as ten million in today’s dollar values), of which he used 730,000 yen.²¹It was
not easy for Akashi to extract this much money from Tokyo, which, and especially the
Ministry of Foreign Aairs, feared that if Japan’s secret funding of opposition move-
ments in Russia became known, it would be a diplomatic disaster on a global scale.
Tokyo therefore repeatedly rejected Akashi’s requests for large-scale funding. It was
only in the spring of 1905, more than a year after Akashi had initiated contact with
leaders of the opposition movements, that Tokyo decided to meet his requests. Eager
to force Russia to make peace under conditions favorable to Japan, Tokyo nally con-
cluded that it would be politically expedient to fund subversive Russian forces on a
massive scale.
21 Hisao Tani,Kimitsu nichiro senshi(Tokyo: Hara shob ̄o, 1966), 258.