Quote Originally Posted by gaelic cowboy View Post
They whipped them in maritime Russia at a time when they were probably one of the weakest large European powers and crucially they beat them in Asia not Europe.

As discussed already China was behind in development and shut itself off leaving itself ripe for an aggressive power like Japan.
They beat Russia on land just as well. And while the battles took place in Asia, those were the same Russian soldiers as the ones that were stationed in European Russia.