The role of Japan in supplying weapons to the army of the Russian Empire during the First World War

In the historiography of Russian-Japanese relations during the First World War, there is a discussion about the role of Japan in supplying the Russian army with weapons. Some historians insist that Japan, unlike other allies, fulfilled contracts on time and efficiently. Others point to the poor technical qualities of the weapons supplied by Japan. The material presented in the article shows that the Japanese government during the First World War enthusiastically took up the supply of the Russian army and Navy with the necessary weapons and equipment. In the field of armaments, the Japanese army ceded to the Russian almost half of its arsenal stock of small arms (rifles) and a significant part of its artillery. In addition, the Japanese authorities undertook to produce 2 million rifles for the Russian army. But the weakness of Japan's industry at the beginning of the twentieth century did not allow to fulfill this military order earlier than 1917-1920. At the same time, the hundreds of thousands of Japanese rifles delivered to Russia demanded appropriate ammunition and the Russian military authorities constantly asked the Japanese military and economic elites to assist them in supplying both ammunition and shells. It was the manufacture of ammunition for the Japanese armament of the Russian army that formed the bulk of the diplomatic correspondence between Tokyo and St. Petersburg. On the question of the state of Japanese artillery I would like to note that part of the delivered heavy artillery, namely guns with a caliber of 203, 240 and 305 mm, were worn out, as previously used by the Japanese in the Russian-Japanese war and during the siege of Qingdao. At that time, the Japanese side could not supply Russia with new heavy artillery for technical reasons.

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