But Japan's interests were precisely the reverse of Russia's--that is, Japan's interests demanded that Russia should not do those things that Russia wanted to do.

Japan felt that Russia's movement toward the East was bringing her entirely too close to Japan.

Russia was too powerful a country, and too aggressive, to be trusted so close.

Japan had the same feeling toward Russia that any man might have on seeing another man, heavily armed, gradually coming closer to him in the night.

Japan especially wished that Russia should have no foothold in Corea, feeling, as she expressed it, that the point of Corea under Russian power would be a dagger directed at the heart of Japan.