the discrepancy between popular sentiment and government policy is due to the fact that the japanese government adopted a stringent policy of secrecy to keep any information that could reveal national weaknesses from falling into russian hands; the media including newspapers used the example of the japanese victory in the sino-japanese war to fan the flames of war without regard to national sentiment , and inadvertantly built up jingoistic mood which could not be easily reversed; and finally , the majority of citizens were not aware of the true nature of japan ' s national strength and erroneously believed that japan easily defeated russia in battle . これは、ロシア側へいかなる弱みともなることをも秘密にしようとした日本政府の政策に加え、新聞以下マスコミ各社が日清戦争を引き合いに出して戦争に対する国民期待を否応なしに煽ったために修正がきかなくなっていたこともあり、国民の多くは戦争をしている国力の実情を知らされず、目先の勝利によってロシアが簡単に屈服させられたように錯覚した反動から来ているものである。
