Sarah Paine

He's working in the Japanese legation in Stockholm, and he's busy cutting checks to Finnish and Polish revolutionaries who are part of the Russian empire and want out.

trying to stir things up there to have Russia have to be forced to pull the troops out of Asia.

And then the Japanese have this gentleman in there employing a lot of other people, Yuan Shikai.

He is key in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and becomes China's first president.

But back in the day, he's running reconnaissance missions for the Japanese, telling them what the Russians are up to.

And when little detachments of Russian troops try to go out and about, these people are harassing them, which doesn't help Russian morale.

Also, the Japanese are being really good about purchases from Manchurians.

They aren't just taking things from people.

They're actually paying.

So they're triggering an economic boom in Manchuria, which means locals like them.

And then the Japanese also figure how to tap into Russian fleet communications so they know where the Russian fleet is most convenient.

So this is the information element of national power.

And then there's economics.

Two-fifths of this war...

for the Japanese side is paid for with loans.

So if they don't get the loans, they can't wage the war.

In fact, one of the reasons Russia has to call it quits at the end of the war is when it tries to raise a final loan, it failed, no one will pay for it.

But the Japanese loans depend on battlefield success as do interest rates.

So if you are successful in the field, the interest rates go down.

So Japan is doing quite well with all of this.