《纽约时报》创办于1851年，是美国历史最悠久的报纸之一。作为一份综合性日报，《纽约时报》发行于美国全境，主张新闻翔实，报道客观，言论平和，南北战争时已成为美国杰出的日报。因其客观公正的报道，在美国的政界、知识界以及工商金融界的精英人士中具有重要地位,是传达美国社会公众舆论的重要载体。一些研究政治经济或者国际关系的学者认识到这一点之后，常常选择《纽约时报》作为研究的基本材料，借以考察政府的政治倾向和民众的舆论风向。
近代以来，日本通过明治维新走上了独立发展之路。1894-1895 年的中日甲午战争使日本一跃成为亚洲强国。1904-1905 年的日俄战争中，日本取得了历史性胜利，奠定了其世界军事强国的地位。本文以《纽约时报》为研究材料，选取了日俄战争时期《纽约时报》关于战争以及日本国内情况的相关报道，分析报道中所呈现出的日本形象，考察形象形成的原因以及影响。这一研究不仅可以探究近代以来美日关系的发展,从某种程度上也可以观察近代美国对于东方国家近代化的反应。
本文通过绪论、正文与结语三个部分进行论述，以期达到上述研究目的。绪论部分阐述了选题对象及其研究意义、国内外研究现状、研究方法、思路创新与不足等问题。正文部分按照时间顺序展开，一共分成三章。第一章关注战争爆发初期，即 1904 年2月的相关报道，第二章关注战争最为激烈的时期，即 1904 年3月-1905年5月的相关报道，第三章关注两国和谈阶段，即1905年6-9月的相关报道。三个章节通过对《纽约时报》在日俄战争不同阶段报道的分析和解读总结了日俄战争中《纽约时报》笔下的日本形象。
通过对《纽约时报》相关报道的研究，可以发现战争期间美国主流舆论普遍支持日本谴责俄国，这也反应了美国政府的对日政策。美国政府为了实现在中国的“门户开放”政策，支持日本以战争形式打破俄国对中国东北地区的垄断。战争期间，美国政府不仅为日本提供低息贷款，支援日本的战争费用，在外交上同样声援支持日本。在开战之初,美国总统西奥多·罗斯福(Theodore Roosevelt Jr.)就曾向法、德等国发出警告，表示绝不允许 1895 年三国干涉还辽事件重演。随着日本在战场上节节获胜，取代俄国成为美国在东亚利益的新任威胁者，美国政府也逐渐调整了对日友好政策,美日关系从战争时期的甜蜜期走向战后的对抗期。
总结来看，日俄战争时期的《纽约时报》在塑造日本形象的过程中表现出了一定的倾向性、时效性与导向性。美国公众心目中的日本形象作为一种被建构的形象，其建构的过程一直处于变化之中，且深受美国国家利益的影响。

Founded in 1851, The New York Times is one of the oldest newspapers in the United States. As a comprehensive daily newspaper, the New York Times is distributed throughout the United States, advocating informative news, objective reporting, and peaceful discourse, and had become the preeminent daily newspaper in the United States by the time of the Civil War. Because of its objective and fair reporting, it has an important position among the elites in the political, intellectual and industrial and financial circles in the United States, and it is an important carrier for conveying the public opinion of the American society. Recognizing this, some scholars of political economy or international relations often choose The New York Times as the basic material for their research, in order to examine the political tendency of the government and the trend ofpublic opinion.

In modern times, Japan embarked on the road of independent development through the Meiji Restoration, and the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 made Japan a power in Asia, while the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 gave Japan a historic victory and established its status as a military power in the world. This paper takes The New York Times as the research material, selects the relevant reports of The New York Times about the war and Japan's domestic situation during the Russo-Japanese War, analyzes the image of Japan presented in the reports, and examines the reasons for the formation of the image as well as its influence. This study not only explores the development of U.S.-Japanese relations in the modern era, but also observes, to some extent, the reaction of the United States to the modernization of Eastern countries in the modern era.

This paper is discussed in three parts: introduction, body and conclusion, with a view to achieving the above research objectives. The introductory part describes the object of the selected topic and its research significance, the current status of research at home and abroad, the research methodology, and the innovations and shortcomings of the idea. The main part unfolds chronologically and is divided into three chapters. The first chapter focuses on the early period of the war, i.e. February 1904, the second chapter focuses on the most intense period of the war, i.e. March 1904-May 1905, and the third chapter focuses on the phase of the peace talks between the two countries, i.e. June-September 1905, respectively. The three chapters summarize the image of Japan in the Russo-Japanese War as written by the New York Times by analyzing and interpreting the New York Times' reports in different stages of the war.

Through the study of the relevant reports of the New York Times, it can be found that the mainstream American public opinion during the war was generally in favor of Japan's condemnation of Russia, which also reflected the American government's policy towards Japan. In order to realize the "open door" policy in China, the American government supported Japan to break Russia's monopoly over the northeast region of China by war. During the war, the U.S. government not only provided low-interest loans to Japan to support Japan's war expenses, but also supported Japan with diplomatic solidarity. At the beginning of the war, American President Theodore Roosevelt warned France and Germany that the 1895 incident of the intervention of the three countries in the return of Liao would never be allowed to repeat. As Japan won successively on the battlefield, replacing Russia as the new threat to American interests in East Asia, the American government gradually adjusted its policy of friendship toward Japan, and the U.S.-Japanese relationship moved from the sweet period ofthe wartime to the confrontational period ofthepostwarperiod.

To summarize, the New York Times during the Russo-Japanese War showed a certain tendency, timeliness and orientation in the process of shaping the image of Japan. As a constructed image, the image of Japan in the minds of the American public is always in a process of change and is deeply influenced by the national interests ofthe United States.