*1872/9/23-27 [[Foreign Minister]] [[Soejima Taneomi]] meets with [[Charles DeLong]], US Diplomatic Minister resident in Japan, and with [[Charles LeGendre]], legal and policy advisor to the Meiji government, and is advised that since the Chinese do not exert effective (''de facto'') control over certain sections of [[Taiwan]] - those dominated by aborigines - the territory is essentially ''terra nullius'', and if Japan were to occupy the territory, under Western/modern international law, it could be rightfully Japan's. | *1872/9/23-27 [[Foreign Minister]] [[Soejima Taneomi]] meets with [[Charles DeLong]], US Diplomatic Minister resident in Japan, and with [[Charles LeGendre]], legal and policy advisor to the Meiji government, and is advised that since the Chinese do not exert effective (''de facto'') control over certain sections of [[Taiwan]] - those dominated by aborigines - the territory is essentially ''terra nullius'', and if Japan were to occupy the territory, under Western/modern international law, it could be rightfully Japan's. |