It was not until some hours later that this Russian diarist at the naval base of Port Arthur discovered that what he and other men like him had believed to be target practice was in fact a surprise attack by the Japanese against the Russian Far East Squadron.
The Japanese government granted Togo a big advantage in the form of potential surprise. While the Russians were still deluding themselves that a severance of diplomatic relations did not necessarily mean war, the Japanese Commander in Chief was vested with the invaluable secret that in this case it did. Admiral Togo also knew that the declaration was not to issue on paper but from his magazines, just as it had with the Chinese in 1894.
Togo's initial plan was to swoop down upon Port Arthur and deliver a crushing blow to the Russian squadron lying in the outer roads. Unfortunately he received false information from local spies in and around Port Arthur that the garrisons of the forts guarding the port would be fully alert and prepared for just such an attack, and that several of the Russian battleships had sortied. He therefore devised tactics calculated to withhold his precious capital ships from the reach of those forts and any possible minefields while still guarding the Japanese troop transports now at Chemulpo.
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