Taiwan Expedition of 1874

Imperial Japanese Army (3600 led by Saigô Tsugumichi) vs. Taiwanese aborigines (number unknown)
Date: 1874/5/2 to 1874/6
Location: Taiwan
Japanese: 台湾出兵 (Taiwan shuppei)

The Taiwan Expedition of 1874 was a punitive expedition sent by the Meiji government to punish Taiwanese aborigines for killing 56 Miyako Islanders who had been shipwrecked on Taiwan in 1871. The Miyako Islanders were perceived to be Japanese subjects, or at least people subordinate to Japan, and since it was believed by the Japanese government that Taiwan was outside of Chinese authority, it was felt that the Japanese had a responsibility to exact retribution for the killing of their people.

The expedition was led by Saigô Tsugumichi. Japanese troops first landed on Taiwan on May 2nd, and fighting ended the following month.

Background

The Miyako Islanders were shipwrecked and killed in the last month of 1871. Roughly six months later, Yanagiwara Sakimitsu, a Japanese official in Shanghai at the time, returned to Tokyo and reported the incident to the government. Shortly afterwards, various figures from Satsuma (now Kagoshima prefecture), especially Kabayama Sukenori, a former samurai retainer to the Shimazu clan of Satsuma han, and now commander of the second Kyushu outpost garrison, pressured Tokyo to send some sort of punitive military expedition to Taiwan.

The Expedition

Japanese troops first landed on Taiwanese shores on May 2nd, 1874. On the 22nd of that month, they fought the Battle of Stone Gate, which would be the chief battle of the conflict. Saigô himself first arrived within the next week or so, and the fighting ended in June.

Aftermath

In October 1874, a treaty was signed in which China admitted less than total sovereign control over certain areas of southern Taiwan (i.e. areas dominated by aboriginal control), recognized the Ryukyuan peoples as Japanese subjects, and agreed to pay an indemnity to Japan.

The issue of Chinese and Japanese claims to Taiwan and Ryûkyû was not settled, however, and would almost lead to outright war in 1879. That year, Ulysses S. Grant brokered a peace, though China ultimately did not sign the formal document, and Japan fully abolished the Ryûkyû Kingdom, annexing its territory as Okinawa Prefecture, over Chinese objections. War between China and Japan eventually broke out less than 20 years later, in 1894. Japan defeated China and took Taiwan as a formal colony, though whether or not this can be considered to have "settled" the matter remains a matter of interpretation or debate.

References

Uemura Hideaki. "The Colonial Annexation of Okinawa and the Logic of International Law: The Formation of an 'Indigenous People' in East Asia." Japanese Studies 23:2 (2003). pp107-124.