Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land

by Walter R. Borneman

Shortly before midnight on the evening of February 8, 1904, ten Japanese destroyers quietly slipped into the Russian naval base at Port Arthur (now Lüshun, China) and unleashed a devastating torpedo attack on battleships and cruisers of the Russian fleet. It was a stunning Japanese victory. It was also the result of a surprise attack. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were strained and in the process of being terminated, but no state of war yet existed. Shortly afterward, Alaska’s chief game warden, Alfred H. Dunham, speculated on the ensuing Russo-Japanese War in an article about the development of Nome. Dunham wondered “what Alaska would be if it had remained in Russia’s hands to the present day. Would Japanese fleets now be bombarding Sitka, Nome, and other Alaskan ports?”