As Takahashi came to know Schiff better—struck by his “keen sense of justice which…went to the verge of severity”—he eventually understood why Schiff had taken a gamble on Japan. “He had a grudge against Russia on account of his race,” Takahashi said. Schiff, he noted, wanted to “admonish the ruling class of Russia by an object lesson,” and the country’s war with Japan offered an opportunity to do so.
