Japan: From the Japanese Government History

by Unknown

After the capture of Chiulien-cheng, the First Army Corps divided itself into two bodies, one under the command of Lieutenant General Katsura following the Chinese troops that had fled toward Ta-ku-shan on the coast, and the other pointing toward Mukden. Katsura's army took Ta-tung-kau and Ta-ku-shan in succession, the latter on November 5, and then turned northward and defeated the Chinese at Siu-yen on the 17th. Tomu-cheng was captured on December 12, and Hai-cheng on the next day, while Kang-wa-seh, where 10,000 Chinese had entrenched themselves, was carried on the 18th. Meanwhile, the second division of the First Army Corps had swept the enemy from Sai-ma-tsi and other points, and marched toward Mukden in the depth of a severe Manchurian winter.

By this time a part of the Second Army Corps, commanded by Marshal Count Ōyama and consisting of the First Provincial Division from the district of Tōkyō, under Lieutenant General Baron Yamaji, and of the Twelfth Brigade of the Sixth Provincial Brigade of the Kumamoto district, had already captured the great Port Arthur. Having landed at a point near Pi-tse-wo, about ninety miles northeast of Port Arthur, on October 24, the First Division had taken Kin-chow on November 6 and Ta-lien-wan on the following day. The entire section then, soon after midnight of October 21, as soon as the moon rose, opened an assault from the rear upon Port Arthur, which was defended by a magnificent physical position and strengthened by the powerful forts and guns that had made the port celebrated as an impregnable stronghold. After severe onsets under terrific fires, all the important landward defenses, including the Itsu-shan (Chair Hill) forts, had been carried by the Japanese by noon. Among the shore forts, those on Hwang-chin-shan (Golden Hill) resisted most stoutly, and did not fall till 5 P. M. During the night the Chinese deserted all the other forts, leaving behind 57 large-caliber and 163 small-caliber guns. When the Japanese troops entered the city they were treacherously fired upon from the houses, where many Chinese soldiers had hidden themselves and put on civilian dress, so as to be able to shoot the enemy unawares. The Japanese, on their part, retorted by an indiscriminate search of the houses and killing of many adult males who offered resistance, so that the number of the Chinese slain amounted to almost 4000. The Japanese lost 29 killed and 233 wounded. At the same time, the harbor not being defended by Chinese war vessels, the Japanese men-of-war removed mines and entered Port Arthur on the night of October 24.

The Chinese made two successive attempts, on the 21st and 22d, to recover Kin-chow, but were repulsed. A part of the Second Army Corps then joined Lieutenant General Katsura's division of the First Army Corps at Kai-ping, on December 10, and carried that town by charging it over the slippery ice of the Kai-ping River.

The remainder of the Second Army Corps, consisting of the Second Provincial Division from the Sendai district under command of Lieutenant General Sakuma and of the Sixth Provincial Division from the district of Kumamoto (excepting the Twelfth Brigade, which had already gone to the Liao-tung peninsula) under Lieutenant General Kuroki, landed, without resistance, at Yung-cheng in the Shan-tung province, between January 20 and 24, 1895. The object of this expedition was to effect a concerted attack with the navy upon Wei-hai-Wei, where the Northern Fleet of the Chinese navy had been concentrated. Leaving Yung-cheng on the 26th, the Japanese army marched along two routes, expecting to converge at Wei-hai-Wei early in February. The two divisions met vigorous resistance from the Chinese on the way, particularly at Mo-tien-ling on the northern route, opposite the strongly fortified Liu-kung Island, where the enemy poured fire upon the assailants from the 68 guns planted on twelve land forts and from the war vessels anchored only 2000 meters away from the forts. Major General Ödera fell in this battle, and the forts were carried only after nine hours of ceaseless fusillade. The town of Wei-hai-Wei was deserted by the Chinese, and was occupied by the invaders on February 2. This completed the work of the army, for the task of reducing the forts on Jih and Liu-kung Islands, as well as of dealing with the Chinese fleet, had been assigned to the navy.

The Chinese fleet at Wei-hai-Wei consisted of 15 war vessels including the iron-clad battleships Ting-yuen and Chen-yuen, besides 13 torpedo boats, as against 25 men-of-war and 16 torpedo-boats on the Japanese side. The Japanese forces not only possessing a numerical advantage on the sea, but also having captured the land forts from which the army could coöperate with the fleet, a Chinese defeat appeared a foregone conclusion. Under these circumstances, Admiral S. Itō, commanding the Japanese fleet, sent to Admiral Ting Ju-chang, his personal friend, who held supreme command of the enemy's squadron, a touching letter in which former expressed his regret that the old acquaintances had been obliged to meet each other in hostility, appealed to the latter's enlightened patriotism by pointing out the retrogressive policy which Ting had been called upon to defend and which could only end in disaster, and then counseled him to prevent a certain defeat and unnecessary loss of life by capitulating. Itō further advised Ting to become Japan's honored guest till the end of the war, and then return to his native land in order to aid China in setting her policy on a sound basis. When Ting read this message he was visibly moved, and said to his attendants: "Kill me," meaning probably that he wished to die alone and let all others surrender. Then he again remarked: "I am thankful for the admiral's friendship, but I cannot forsake my duties to the state. The only thing now remaining for me to do is to die." The Japanese fleet, which made Yung-cheng Bay its headquarters, began to attack the forts of Jih and Liu-kung Islands on January 30, 1895, continuing with frequent interruptions till February 7, when a steady general attack began. During this time, the daring night attacks made by Japanese torpedo boats had succeeded in sinking the Ting-yuen and three other vessels, and the thirteen torpedo boats of the Chinese fleet which tried to escape toward Chifu had had six destroyed and all the others captured by the Japanese. The Ching-yuen was sunk on the 9th; soon afterward Jih Island fell and the eastern forts of Liu-kung Island were silenced. On the morning of the 12th Ching, commander of the Kwang-ping, approached the Japanese flagship Matsushima in a small gunboat flying a white flag, and delivered a letter from Admiral Ting, containing a formal surrender of all the war vessels in the harbor and the forts and stores of Liu-kung Island. Ting requested that the Chinese and foreign officers, troops, and civilians on land and sea around Wei-hai-Wei be allowed to depart unmolested, and proposed that the commander of the British China squadron should guarantee the faithful performance of the conditions of surrender on the part of the Chinese. On receipt of this letter Admiral Itō held a council of his officers, in which many of the latter advised, as was later seconded by the army officers, that the men should not be allowed to leave, but be taken prisoners. The admiral, however, had so high an estimate of Ting's personality and service to his country and so deep a sympathy with his difficult position that he insisted that Ting's request should be cheerfully granted. In his reply, therefore, Itō again advised Ting, for the sake of his own safety and of the future good of China, to become Japan's guest, agreed to release all the men on parole, and declined to accept the proposed guarantee by the British commander as unnecessary, for Itō rested confidence in Ting's honor as a soldier. The admiral also sent a present to Ting and Commander Liu of the Ting-yuen. The next morning Ching again visited the Matsushima, this time with the Chinese flag at half-mast, and brought a reply from Ting, who, Ching sorrowfully announced, had declined to accept Itō's present, and, with Liu and Commander Chang of the Liu-kung Island, had committed suicide. All the arrangements regarding the capitulation were then made with the utmost honor to the deceased admiral, and his body was taken ashore in one of the captured Chinese cruisers. The soldiers in the army and navy who were released on parole aggregated 5124 men. The Japanese flag was hoisted on the surrendered battleship Chen-yuen, cruisers Ping-yuen, Tsi-yuen, and Kwang-ping, and six gunboats. With this pathetic fall of Wei-hai-Wei the Japanese navy completely annihilated the Northern Chinese Fleet, and gained an absolute control of the Gulf of Pechili. Admiral Itō returned to Hiroshima on March 3.

With the expulsion of the Chinese from Korea and the capture of Port Arthur and Wei-hai-Wei, Japan had accomplished the major part of the work which she had proposed to herself. The remainder of the story of the war may be briefly told. Hai-cheng was taken by the Third Division (of the First Army Corps) on December 13, and the Chinese made in January and February three unsuccessful attempts to retake this important walled city. The First Division (of the Second Army Corps) advanced from Kin-chow on February 10 toward Ying-kow, or the treaty port of "Niu-chwang," while the First Army Corps in two bodies pressed northward and then westward with the town of Niu-chwang as its objective point, whence it intended to join the First Division at Ying-kau. Niu-chwang was seized on March 4 after a sanguinary fight on the streets in which more than 1880 Chinese lost their lives. Two days later, the First Division captured Ying-kau without the coöperation of the First Army Corps and with no effective resistance from the enemy. The two armies then joined in the cannonading of Tien-chwang-tai on the other side of the Liao River, which was razed to the ground in order to prevent the Chinese from returning to it.

Toward the end of March a column of Japanese troops seized the Pescadore Islands near Formosa.

The Chinese government, which had already twice sent abortive peace envoys with insufficient powers, now ordered Viceroy Li Hung Chang to sail to Japan and sue for peace. He arrived at Shimonoseki on March 19, where he was met by the Japanese peace commissioners, Premier Count (soon to be Marquis) Itō and Foreign Minister Viscount (soon to be Count) Mutsu. Li was later joined by his son-in-law, Li Ching Fang, as plenipotentiary. Li Hung Chang proposed an armistice, but the conditions demanded by Japan appeared to him too onerous to accept. On the 24th, as he was returning from a conference to his lodging, a fanatic, R. Koyama, who had led himself to believe that Li was the disturber of the peace of the East, shot at him with a revolver and wounded him on the left cheek—an incident which plunged the entire nation into profound regret. The emperor now almost unconditionally granted an armistice for three weeks. Li soon recovered from his wound, and resumed negotiations on April 10. The Japanese terms for peace had on his request been shown to him April 1, and these with various amendments became the basis of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, signed on April 17 and ratified on May 8. By this treaty the absolute independence of Korea was at last assured; China agreed to cede to Japan the Liao-tung peninsula, Formosa, and the Pescadores, and to pay 200 million taels as indemnity; and Kang-chow, Su-chow, Sha-shi, and Chung-king were opened to foreign trade, and the foreigners were granted the right of engaging in manufacturing enterprises in China. The war, which had lasted for more than seven months and cost Japan nearly 200 million yen and the loss of 1005 killed and 4922 wounded (besides 16,866 deaths from disease), now came to an end. Japan had placed on the field 120,000 men in two armies and five columns, and carried out the campaign in all its complexity with remarkable success.