What happens
The Pacific Story presents a history of Port Arthur on the Liaodong Peninsula, the southern tip of Manchuria. The episode first follows Sergei Witte, a Russian minister, as he helps shape Russia's ties with China in the 1890s. Russia gains access to the harbor at Qingdao, and after Germany seizes that port, Russia moves into Port Arthur and Dalny. The program describes how Russia later secures a lease on the peninsula, how the port developed, and how Japan took it after the Russo-Japanese War. The episode then outlines Japan's growing control of Dairen and the peninsula in the years that follow.
Port Arthur, Dairen, and the Liaodong Peninsula in southern Manchuria, with scenes in St. Petersburg and Tokyo, late 19th and early 20th century
Characters: Sergei Witte, Count Muravyov, Baron Hayashi, Ashima, Kuropatkin
Listen for: The shifting control of Port Arthur and the Liaodong Peninsula between China, Russia and Japan, and how the powers' rival interests led to the Russo-Japanese War.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.