Changes

==Aftermath==

==Aftermath==

[[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.

[[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.<ref>This meeting remains a matter of some debate, as it seems no Chinese record of the meeting was made or kept, leaving the Japanese account the only surviving record of what was said. However, records of British meetings with Chinese officials the following year seem to corroborate the Qing position regarding its lack of control over, and responsibility for, certain regions of Taiwan. Walker, 214n21.</ref>

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.  

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.  

*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.

*Jordan Walker, "Archipelagic Ambiguities: The Demarcation of Modern Japan, 1868-1879," ''Island Studies Journal'' 10:2 (2015), 214.

*Jordan Walker, "Archipelagic Ambiguities: The Demarcation of Modern Japan, 1868-1879," ''Island Studies Journal'' 10:2 (2015), 214.

[[Category:Meiji Period]]

[[Category:Meiji Period]]

[[Category:Ryukyu]]

[[Category:Ryukyu]]

[[Category:Events and Incidents]]

[[Category:Events and Incidents]]