Taiwan Incident of 1871

• Japanese: 台湾遭難事件 (Taiwan sounan jiken)

In late 1871, a ship returning to Miyako Island after paying tribute in Shuri was caught in a typhoon and shipwrecked on the southeastern coast of Taiwan, where many of the Miyako Islanders were killed by Taiwanese aborigines. An international incident ensued, in which China and Japan clashed over control over, and responsibility for, both Taiwan and the Ryûkyûs, eventually leading to the deployment of Japanese troops in Taiwan in 1874, very nearly leading to the outright break out of war between China and Japan, and ending with the Japanese annexation of the Ryûkyûs in 1879.

Details

Of the 69 Miyako Islanders on board the ship, three drowned, and 54 were killed by Taiwanese aborigines. Yanagiwara Sakimitsu, a Japanese official in Shanghai, reported the incident to Tokyo roughly six months later. That same year (1872), some months after being shipwrecked, the twelve survivors rescued by the Chinese returned home to Miyako via Fuzhou, and King Shô Tai sent his official thanks to the Chinese emperor and authorities for rescuing and returning his subjects.

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.