When Japan won the Russo-Japanese War, which had broken out while Yamada stayed in Istanbul, the people in the Ottoman Empire went wild with joy at the news, regarding it as a brilliant achievement by a small eastern country Japan, since they had long suffered the pressure from Russia and therefore grown affinity with Japan, the country which also had been troubled by the pressure from Russia.
山田がイスタンブルに滞在中に起こった日露戦争が日本の勝利に帰すと、長らくロシアから圧力を受け続けて、同じくロシアの南下圧力にさらされる日本に対する親近感を高めていたオスマン帝国の人々は、東の小国日本の快挙としてこれに熱狂した。