The importance of Taiwan’s geographical location meant that Western powers were constantly coveting the island, and the newly emerging nation of Japan in the East was no exception, eyeing Taiwan with ill intentions. In November $1871$ (the $10$th year of the Tongzhi reign, the $4$th year of Meiji), sixty-nine people from Miyako Island in Ryukyu, a tributary state of China, encountered a storm at sea and were shipwrecked at Bayao Bay (now Manzhou Township, Pingtung County) near Langqiao, Taiwan. Three people drowned, and sixty-six came ashore. These sixty-six people entered the territory of the Mudan She and were killed by the Indigenous Paiwan people of Mudan She, with fifty-four casualties. Twelve people managed to escape and were rescued by locals Liu Tianbao, Yang Youwang, and Song Guolong from Sheliao, after which they were transferred by the Taiwanese officials to Fuzhou. In June $1872$, the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang, Wen Huang, and the Governor of Fujian, Wang Kaitai, jointly petitioned and obtained approval to send the twelve survivors back to Ryukyu.
At the time, Ryukyu was still a Chinese tributary state. Under Japan’s long-term policy of national isolation (sakoku), Ryukyu had no previous connection with Japan. After the Meiji government took power, it broke the isolation policy. Emperor Meiji saw the killing of Ryukyuans in Taiwan as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Consequently, in September $1872$ (the $11$th year of Tongzhi, the $5$th year of Meiji), he conferred upon the Ryukyu King, Shō Tai, the title of its feudal lord (han shu), forcibly establishing a Japan-Ryukyu relationship. Concurrently, Japan notified all foreign envoys, asserting that Ryukyu belonged to Japan, using this as a pretext for invading Taiwan, and deliberately spread rumors that the Japanese military would attack Taiwan.
In $1872$ (the $11$th year of Tongzhi, the $5$th year of Meiji), the Japanese consulate in Fuzhou dispatched Army Major Kabayama Sukenori (who would later become the first Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan) and Kodama Gentarō (who would become the fourth Governor-General of Taiwan), as well as Mizuno Jun (who would become the first Chief of Civil Administration of Taiwan), Kurooka Kibi, and Fukushima Kyūsei, to Taiwan. They departed from Japan in June, first went to Beijing, then transferred to Hong Kong, disguised themselves as merchants, and then took the Guangdong steamship from Fuzhou to Taiwan. Upon arriving in Taiwan, they received assistance from the British Consul in Tamsui and toured various parts of Taiwan separately. The arduous effort to come to Taiwan was to conduct intelligence work prior to the attack on Taiwan. This group secretly investigated local customs, scouted defenses, and measured the depth of coastal waters.
Image: The 1874 Japanese invasion of Mudan She, Pingtung, Taiwan.
Following this investigation, in March $1873$ (the $12$th year of Tongzhi, the $6$th year of Meiji), Japan specially appointed Vice Foreign Minister Soejima Taneomi as Plenipotentiary Ambassador and Senior Foreign Affairs Officer Yanagihara Maemitsu as Deputy Envoy. They traveled aboard the Ryūjō warship to Beijing. Soejima ordered Yanagihara to meet with Grand Council Minister Dong Xun and Minister of Personnel Mao Changxi to commence negotiations regarding the Mudan She Incident.
Mao Changxi replied: “The ‘savage tribes’ (shengfan) are outside the bounds of [Chinese] civilization, much like your country’s Ainu people. They do not submit to Imperial rule, and the majority of the world’s barbarians are like this.”
Yanagihara responded: “Since the shengfan murdered people and your country has neglected to manage them, our country will dispatch troops to demand accountability. However, the savage territories adjoin your government’s jurisdiction like dogs’ teeth. If we do not notify your country before commencing the action, and if it accidentally affects your territory, it could cause suspicion and hurt the harmony between our two nations. Hence, I inform you in advance.”
Mao Changxi replied: “Since the shengfan are outside our civilization, whether to demand accountability or not is for your country to decide.”
Yanagihara then added a final caution: ”…This is only an announcement made for the sake of the friendly alliance between our two nations.”
The negotiations broke down. Soejima reported by telegraph to his home government’s Grand Minister Sanjō Sanetomi. Soejima and Yanagihara returned to Japan in July of the same year. During the negotiations between Japan and the Qing Dynasty, four more Japanese subjects from Akita Prefecture also drifted to the eastern coast of Taiwan and were robbed again.
!Color print of the Japanese invasion of Taiwan Province Image: A contemporary color print from a Japanese newspaper, publicizing the great feat of Japan’s attack on Taiwan (Image source / Waseda University Library).
Consequently, based on the memorial submitted by Grand Minister Sanjō Sanetomi, Emperor Meiji announced military action to the outside world and dispatched troops to Taiwan. Other nations also declared their positions at this time. The U.S. Minister to Japan, George Bingham, and the British Minister, Harry Parkes, issued statements maintaining neutrality.
Japanese Army Lieutenant General Saigō Tsugumichi (younger brother of Meiji Restoration hero Saigō Takamori) embarked on the Takasago warship, leading over $3,600$ Japanese troops from Nagasaki directly toward Taiwan.
Li Hefang, the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang, the highest official overseeing Taiwan, was only alerted to the situation upon receiving Lieutenant General Saigō Tsugumichi’s declaration to the Qing government, realizing that troops had already been dispatched. He was greatly alarmed and immediately wrote a letter to stop them. However, Saigō ignored him. On March 22, $1874$ (the $13$th year of Tongzhi, the $7$th year of Meiji), the Japanese forces landed at Langqiao Bay (Checheng Bay, now Sheliao Village). Although the local official Wang Maogong and the military commander Guo Zhan’ao had dispatched troops to Langqiao, they did not stop the Japanese upon seeing them land, allowing the Japanese forces to come ashore openly and unscathed.
The Qing army at the time had a complete lack of understanding of international law and essentially no concept of national territory.
Subsequently, on June 2, the $3,600$ Japanese troops began their attack on the Mudan She in three columns. They acted like pirates, essentially declaring war on Taiwan without warning, which aligned with the statement of Qing official Mao Changxi: “Since the shengfan are outside our civilization, whether to demand accountability or not is for your country to decide.”
The Indigenous people in Taiwan knew that the modernized equipment of the Japanese army was no match for them, but their land needed protection. They were willing to sacrifice their lives to make the enemy suffer. The Indigenous Paiwan people entrenched themselves in Shimen, holding the dangerous choke point and fighting bloody battles from ambush. However, the Japanese military’s artillery fire was fierce, and they were eventually defeated and retreated. The Japanese army captured Shimen, then advanced to attack the Mudan She, launching a disproportionate retaliation by burning down villages and carrying out a large-scale massacre to establish authority. Fifty-seven nearby villages were forced to surrender one after another.
The Japanese army suffered heavy casualties due to fighting in the treacherous terrain. The mountain roads were narrow, rendering heavy equipment unusable, and logistics were difficult. Although only twelve soldiers died in combat, five hundred sixty-one died of disease, accounting for one-sixth of the original invasion force. The Japanese were forced to abandon the front lines and retreat to Guishan. To save the honor of the Japanese army, they could not retreat without a victory, so they settled in for a long stay, building camps and cultivating land. The Japanese government, realizing it had not achieved a military victory, decided to seek a resolution through diplomatic channels instead.
!Japanese attack on Taiwanese Indigenous Peoples Image: Japanese attack on Taiwanese Indigenous Peoples.
Upon receiving the report, the Qing government in Beijing immediately dispatched Shen Baozhen as Imperial Commissioner to Taiwan to deal with the situation. Although negotiations followed diplomatic channels, the Japanese side insisted that the “shengfan did not belong to the Chinese domain,” leading to back-and-forth debates. The Qing court then ordered martial law along the coast. Grand Minister of the Yamen of General Administration and Prince Gong, and the Governor-General of Zhili, Li Hongzhang, successfully petitioned for Shen Baozhen, the Minister of Naval Administration, to be specially commissioned as Imperial Commissioner to Taiwan to monitor the Japanese military’s movements, while seeking to negotiate the Japanese withdrawal as quickly as possible. Shen Baozhen was ordered to lead the Fujian Navy to Taiwan on June 31 of the same year ($1874$). He also ordered Fujian Army Commander Tang Dingkui and Governor of Fujian Wang Kaitai to prepare $25,000$ troops for departure. After Shen Baozhen arrived in Taiwan, he established his headquarters in the Prefectural City and dispatched the Circuit Overseer of Taiwan’s Military and Civil Affairs, Xia Xianlun, to meet with Saigō Tsugumichi in Langqiao.
Simultaneously, internationally, disputes had arisen between Japan and Russia over the Sakhalin Island issue. Also, the U.S. and the U.K., who paid close attention to Taiwan, publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the Japanese invasion. The British Consul in Taiwan sent a British warship to Langqiao to inspect the situation. The British Minister to Japan questioned Japan and submitted a note of protest. The U.S. ordered its Minister to Japan to forbid American citizens and ships from participating in the Japanese invasion of Taiwan.
The Japanese government, seeing the poor military situation of its forces in Taiwan and fearing the conflict might escalate and lead to total annihilation, urgently dispatched Plenipotentiary Minister and Privy Councilor Ōkubo Toshimichi to Beijing. Ōkubo arrived in Beijing on September 10 of the same year and held seven rounds of negotiations, initially demanding $3$ million taels for military expenses.
The utterly inept Qing government ultimately agreed to pay $500,000$ taels in indemnity, but the greater loss was the inclusion of a clause in the treaty stating that “China does not hold as wrong Japan’s action of dispatching troops to Taiwan this time for the stated purpose of protecting the Ryukyu people.” This essentially acknowledged Japan’s right to protect Ryukyu, and China implicitly lost its suzerain status over Ryukyu. Furthermore, this demonstrated to the world that the Qing Empire was willing to pay indemnity but dared not fight.
The treaty was concluded on October 31, mediated by the British Minister to Beijing, Thomas Wade. The Japanese forces erected a monument at Guishan, their landing site, and then withdrew from Taiwan. The episode of Japan invading Taiwan under the pretext of the Mudan She Incident, which cost the Qing government both the “lady and the troops” (suffering both loss of face and financial costs), thus came to an end.
However, Japan’s military action in Taiwan, which cost little but yielded substantial actual gains, further intensified its ambition to annex Taiwan and became the first step toward its later occupation of the island. The Mudan She Incident clearly shows that it was the Indigenous Taiwanese, not the Qing government or the Han Taiwanese, who picked up weapons and forced the enemy to withdraw from Taiwan.