The battles of the russo japanese war in which machine guns and artillery took a heavy toll on russian and japanese troops were a precursor to the trench warfare of world war i a german military advisor sent to japan jakob meckel had a tremendous impact on the development of the japanese military training tactics strategy and organization. Poor russian diplomatic practices and treatment of japan provided japan with the national will to start a war with russia as well as justification and need to develop the ultimate instrument of russias defeat the japanese navy. Poor russian diplomatic practices and treatment of japan provided japan with the national will to start a war with russia as well as justification and need to develop the ultimate instrument of russias defeat the japanese navy the russo japanese war how russia created the instrument of their defeat descriptive note and need to . Poor russian diplomatic practices and treatment of japan provided japan with the national will to start a war with russia as well as justification and need to develop the ultimate instrument of russias defeat the japanese navy