Changes

==Aftermath==

==Aftermath==

[[Yanagihara Sakimitsu]], Japanese Diplomatic Minister in China, traveled to Tokyo and related these events roughly six months afterwards. Then, in June [[1873]], he was present when [[Foreign Minister]] [[Soejima Taneomi]] visited Beijing. Yanagihara mentioned the incident to the Chinese; Chinese Foreign Minister [[Mao Changxi]] responded that the Taiwanese aborigines were beyond Chinese control, and that those killed were Ryukyuans, not Japanese.

[[Yanagihara Sakimitsu]], Japanese Diplomatic Minister in China, traveled to Tokyo and related these events roughly six months afterwards. Then, on June 21 [[1873]], he and [[Foreign Minister]] [[Soejima Taneomi]] met with Chinese authorities in Beijing. The Japanese suggested that if the Qing did not claim to exercise effective control over these aboriginal regions (and thus had no responsibility for the aborigines, and should not be expected to pay reparations), then surely the Qing wouldn't mind if Japan launched an expedition to punish the aborigines for their transgression against Imperial Japanese subjects. Chinese Foreign Minister [[Mao Changxi]] responded that though he had heard of the massacre already, those killed were Ryukyuans, and thus Qing vassals, not Japanese subjects.

Various voices, especially from [[Kagoshima prefecture]], pushed for a military expedition to be sent to Taiwan to exact retribution against the aborigines for killing Japanese subjects. In February [[1874]], Tokyo decided to do just that, and in May that year, an expedition was launched.

Various voices, especially from [[Kagoshima prefecture]], pushed for a military expedition to be sent to Taiwan to exact retribution against the aborigines for killing Japanese subjects. US Resident Minister in Japan [[Charles DeLong]] and former US consul in [[Amoy]] [[Charles LeGendre]] assured the Meiji oligarchs that under Western systems of international law, the Chinese had surrendered any claims of sovereignty in those aboriginal regions, and that Taiwan (or at least parts of it) was thus ''terra nullius'' and free for the taking.

 

Tokyo decided to organize a military expedition in February [[1874]], and the expedition was launched in May of that year.

==References==

==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.

*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.

[[Category:Meiji Period]]

[[Category:Meiji Period]]

[[Category:Ryukyu]]

[[Category:Ryukyu]]

[[Category:Events and Incidents]]

[[Category:Events and Incidents]]