Ruifang and Keelung

Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa and his staff at Audi during the Japanese landing

Meanwhile, the Japanese were making their preparations for occupying Taiwan in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The task of securing Japan's new colony was entrusted to the Imperial Guards Division, which had seen no action during the fighting in Manchuria. 7,000 guardsmen, under the command of Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa, left Port Arthur on 22 May, on board fourteen transports. The preparations for the expedition were made in such haste that there was no time to issue the guardsmen with summer uniforms, and they left for the hot and humid climate of Taiwan in the heavy winter clothes they had been wearing against the bitter cold of Manchuria. On 26 May the transports, escorted by the warships Matsushima and Naniwa, reached the Japanese-owned Ryukyu Islands to the northeast of Taiwan and anchored off the port of Nakagusuku on the eastern coast of Okinawa.^[11]

On 27 May the recently appointed governor-general of Formosa, Admiral Kabayama Sukenori, joined the expedition from Tokyo. In view of the reports that had reached Japan that the leaders of the self-styled Republic of Formosa were making preparations to resist a Japanese landing, Kabayama felt that there was no time to lose. In consequence, he ordered the ships to set sail for Taiwan at noon the same day. On 29 May the first troops of the Imperial Guards Division went ashore on the northern coast of Taiwan at Samtiao Point near the village of Audi (a small village in Gongliao), several miles to the east of Keelung. The Japanese had originally intended to land at Tamsui, but finding the town strongly defended changed their plans at the last moment. The landing marked the beginning of the war. The first major engagement took place on 2 June at Ruifang. The defending Chinese forces were defeated.^[12]

On 3 June the Japanese captured the port city of Keelung. Following a preliminary bombardment of the city's coastal defences by the warships Matsushima, Oshima, Naniwa, Takachiho and Chiyoda, the Imperial Guards attacked the Keelung forts from the rear. The main struggle took place around the Shiqiuling battery (Chinese: 獅球嶺砲台). Eleven years earlier, during the Sino-French War, Chinese forces had bottled up a French expeditionary corps in Keelung for seven months during the Keelung Campaign, and the Shiqiuling battery had been held against the French for most of the war. Now, in 1895, the Japanese routed the fort's garrison and captured the fort with little loss. Keelung was occupied on the afternoon of 3 June, after the Qing commanders fled the city and left the garrison force leaderless. Japanese casualties in the battle for Keelung were 2 dead and 26 wounded.^[13][14]

Transfer of sovereignty

While the fighting raged ashore at Keelung, sovereignty over Taiwan was formally transferred from China to Japan at a ceremony held on the morning of 3 June aboard one of the Japanese warships in Keelung harbour. Japan and China were represented at this ceremony by two plenipotentiaries, Governor-General Kabayama for Japan and Li Jingfang (the adopted son of Li Hongzhang) for China. Li Hongzhang's numerous enemies had arranged that the obnoxious task of presiding over the surrender of Taiwan to the Japanese should be thrust upon his son's shoulders. The occasion was profoundly humiliating for Li. The Japanese had hoped to stage the handover ceremony ashore, in the capital Taipei, but Li soon discovered that he would be lucky to escape with his life if he set foot on Taiwanese soil. As the negotiator of the Treaty of Shimonoseki that handed over Taiwan to Japan, Li Hongzhang was detested by the islanders, and they were now furious to learn that his son had been entrusted with the task of formally ceding Chinese sovereignty over the island. Placards were posted up in towns all over Taiwan vowing eternal hatred to Li Hongzhang and his family, and Li Jingfang was forced to beg the Japanese to hold the transfer ceremony at sea rather than ashore. The Japanese granted this request.^[15][16][17]

Tang Jingsong's flight

When the news of the defeat at Keelung reached Taipei on 4 June, the republican leaders promptly abandoned ship. During the night of 4 June President Tang and General Chiu fled to Tamsui, and from there sailed for the mainland on the evening of 6 June aboard the steamship Arthur. Their departure was delayed for a day because of disorder in Tamsui (see below).^[18]

Japanese occupation of Taipei

Japanese troops occupy Taipei, 7 June 1895

Leaderless and without pay, the troops of the Taipei garrison abandoned their posts and began looting the city. The city's powder magazine was fired, and there were several fatal shootings. Alarmed at the growing chaos, a number of local businessmen, including the influential Koo Hsien-jung, decided to invite the Japanese in. On Koo's initiative, three representatives of the city's foreign community left Taipei, intending to make contact with the Japanese forces in Keelung and urge them to enter Taipei to restore order. The foreign envoys met a Japanese force at Xizhi on 6 June, and when he learned of the growing disorder in Taipei the Japanese commander immediately ordered an advance to occupy the city. The first Japanese troops entered Taipei at dawn on 7 June, and during the next two days put down the riots. Most of the Chinese soldiers in Taipei surrendered their weapons without resistance.^[19][20]

Japanese occupation of Tamsui

Hobe Fort, Tamsui

During the first week of June, while the Japanese were securing Keelung and advancing on Taipei, law and order broke down in Tamsui. On 5 June Tang Jingsong and several senior ministers boarded the steamship Arthur at Tamsui, intending to escape to mainland China, and it was rumoured that they had with them large sums of money owed in pay to the Chinese garrisons of the northern towns. Large numbers of Chinese soldiers in flight from Keelung had poured into Tamsui on 4 June, and on 5 June a party of soldiers boarded the steamship and extorted $45,000 from its passengers. The money was distributed among the various infantry units present in Tamsui. On the evening of 5 June the gunners of Tamsui's Hobe Fort, indignant that they had been left out of this distribution of spoils, threatened to fire on the steamship unless a suitable bribe was found. The European employees of the Maritime Customs raised the sum demanded ($5,000) during the night and handed it over to the gunners in return for the breechblocks of the fort's four Krupp cannon. The Hobe Fort, the 'lock and key of the northern gate' (北門鎖鑰) as the Chinese called it, had been built only a few years earlier at great expense by the Chinese governor Liu Mingchuan. It was now effectively disarmed before it had even fired a shot at the Japanese. During the afternoon of 6 June Arthur got up steam and attempted to leave Tamsui, as her captain believed that it was now safe to do so, but was fired on several times by a Chinese field battery. Around fifty Chinese soldiers aboard the steamship were wounded by the exploding shells and several soldiers were killed, including the captain of Tang Jingsong's bodyguard. The German gunboat Iltis, which had been sent to Tamsui to protect the town's European residents, immediately replied, putting the Chinese battery out of action. Arthur left Tamsui that evening with Tang Jingsong and most of the senior officers of the republic on board. The Chinese troops in Tamsui now began to loot the town, singling out the wealthy foreign residences for immediate attention, but the presence of Iltis and the British gunboat Redbreast deterred them from making physical attacks upon the foreigners. Order was only restored with the arrival of the Japanese. On 7 June two Japanese warships entered Tamsui harbour, and their appearance immediately put an end to the looting. On 8 June eighteen Japanese cavalry troopers advanced northwards from Taipei and occupied Tamsui without firing a shot, taking the surrender of several hundred Chinese soldiers.^[21][22]

Political developments

On 14 June, Admiral Kabayama arrived in Taipei, and announced the establishment of Japanese administration in Taiwan. With northern Taiwan now firmly under their control, the Japanese repatriated the thousands of Chinese soldiers captured at Keelung, Taipei and Tamsui during the brief campaign. Japanese transports ferried them across the Formosa Strait and landed them in the Fukienese port of Amoy.^[23][22]

The first phase of the campaign had seen the flight of the Republican president Tang Jingsong, the Japanese occupation of Keelung, Taipei and Tamsui and the surrender of the Republican garrisons in northern Taiwan. It was generally expected, both by the Japanese and by foreign observers, that resistance to the Japanese occupation of Taiwan would now evaporate. The American war correspondent James W. Davidson commented:

At 2 a.m. on 5 June the yellow Republican Tiger gathered in his long tail and laid down and died for lack of nourishment.^[24]

Hopes for an early end to the war proved to be premature. By the end of June it was clear that all the island's main towns would have to be occupied forcibly before opposition to the Japanese invasion collapsed. Popular resistance to the Japanese invasion gradually grew, slowing the pace of their advance south from Taipei, and on 26 June the presidency of the Formosan Republic was assumed by Liu Yongfu in Tainan. This gesture, which effectively transferred the republican capital from Taipei to Tainan, prolonged the Republic's life for another five months.^[25]

Japanese capture of Hsinchu

On 11 June the Imperial Guards Division left Taipei and began to advance south. Its immediate objectives were Tokoham and Hsinchu. The Japanese captured Hsinchu with little trouble on 22 June. The Chinese troops of the Hsinchu garrison removed their uniforms and handed over their weapons to the Japanese as soon as they entered the city.^[26][27]

Formosan militia operations around Hsinchu

So far, the Japanese had been fighting Qing regular troops, most of whom wanted merely to leave the alien soil of Taiwan and return to mainland China as soon as possible. They had little stomach for fighting the Japanese, and made no attempt to defeat them when they did fight. James Davidson, who had seen their qualities for himself at Keelung, Taipei, Tamsui and Hsinchu, was scathing in his criticism of their performance:

The Chinese troops equipped with good weapons or bad, without drill, and unskilled in foreign tactics, protected by magnificent forts with big modern guns, or behind mudwalls with jingals, conducted themselves always with scarcely a redeeming feature. Their forces never advanced to make an attack unless they were confident that their position permitted of an easy retreat and that they greatly outnumbered their opponents. I know of hardly a single instance where, in the clearing, they have held their own against an approaching force, under anywhere near equal conditions. It is a usual manoeuvre for the Chinese to draw themselves up in mighty splendour on some open plot of ground in full view of the enemy, and should the latter advance towards them, to commence to fire off every available firearm, although they may be entirely out of range. This continues until the enemy has advanced sufficiently near to make his bullets felt in the Chinese ranks, and then there is a scatter and a scramble for a safer position, where their forces rally again to repeat the same tactics as before.^[28]

After the fall of Hsinchu, however, locally recruited Formosan troops began to take the lead in the fighting against the Japanese. In particular, Hakka militia units led by the youthful commanders Jiang Shaozu, Wu Tangxing and Xu Xiang put up a stubborn resistance to the Japanese advance. Between 24 and 26 June the Japanese had to turn back to An-ping-chin and fight a major engagement to capture the heights of the Eighteen Peaks. The Japanese, with superior training and better weapons, eventually succeeded in throwing the Formosans off the mountain. But although defeated, the Formosans remained for several days in the vicinity of Hsinchu, demonstrating on more than one occasion against the city.^[22]

On 10 July the Japanese again confronted the Hakka militias, this time on the heights of Jianbishan near Miaoli. The Formosans were entrenched, but had no modern artillery. The Japanese attacked from two sides and defeated them. Japanese casualties were only 11 killed or wounded, while the bodies of 200 dead Formosans were recovered from the battlefield. The Japanese also took 110 prisoners, one of whom was the 19-year-old militia leader Jiang Shaoxu. On 11 July, Jiang committed suicide by eating raw opium. Wu Tangxing thereupon assumed command of the Hakka militias, and on 23 July led them back in retreat to Miaoli.^[29]

Guerrilla operations behind Japanese lines

In June and July 1895, while Formosan militia units disputed the Japanese advance on the battlefield, groups of Formosan insurgents began to attack isolated couriers and small groups of Japanese soldiers on the routes between Taipei and Hsinchu, behind Japanese lines. The attackers were often villagers who had formally submitted on the approach of Japanese columns, and foreign observers severely condemned their abuse of the white flag:

The greatest obstacle that the Japanese encountered was the smiling villagers who stood in their doorways, over which they had flown a white flag, watching the troops pass by. For these natives the Japanese had at first a kind word and a smile. But scarcely were the troops out of sight before guns were brought out through the same doorways and shots fired at the first unfortunate party whose numbers were sufficiently small to make it appear safe to the treacherous occupants. Troops now return and find the mutilated bodies of their companions in the streets; while at the doors and windows of the houses near, are the same grinning fiends and the same little white flag, an emblem of peace, still floating over their guilty heads.^[30]

The Japanese took brutal reprisals whenever such incidents occurred, shooting suspected villagers and burning down whole villages.

A Japanese triptych woodblock print depicting a native fighter attacking a Japanese officer with a halberd.^[31]

One of the most successful insurgent attacks was made on 11 July on a party of 35 Japanese infantrymen who were conveying supplies by boat from Taipei to Tokoham. The Japanese were ambushed, and although they fought bravely, all but one of the party were either killed or so badly wounded that they committed suicide rather than fall alive into the hands of the enemy. The Japanese pursued the insurgents and defeated them on 12 July in an engagement at Long-tampo.^[32]

During the last week in July the Japanese twice despatched coordinated expeditions from Taipei, Tokoham and Haisoankau to clear Formosan guerrillas away from their supply lines, engaging large insurgent forces at Sankakeng (modern-day Sanxia) on 22 and 23 July and at Sinpu on 2 August. During both sweeps the Japanese inflicted heavy losses on the insurgents and suffered relatively few casualties in return.^[33]

Japanese capture of Miaoli

On 6 August the Imperial Guards Division left Hsinchu and advanced towards Miaoli. On 6 and 7 August two Japanese columns drove Formosan insurgent forces away from Hsinchu, occupying the resistance centre of Beipu.^[34] On 8 and 9 August the Japanese fought a major battle to drive a large force of insurgents from a series of strong positions on the heights of Cha-pi-shan, to the north of Tiongkang.^[35] On 11 August the Japanese occupied Aulang. On 13 August they fought another battle, against stubborn Formosan resistance, to dislodge a force of insurgents from the hilltop position of Chenkansoan.^[36] On 14 August the Japanese entered Miaoli county. There was no resistance, as most of the population had fled.^[37][38]

Japanese victory at Baguashan and capture of Changhua

The next major Japanese objective on the route south was the walled city of Changhua. The Formosans were reported to have massed their forces there to fight a major defensive battle, and Liu Yongfu was said to have reinforced the Formosan militia with a number of elite Black Flag units from his southern army. The capture of Changhua was a formidable proposition for the Japanese. The heights of Baguashan, to the north of the city, were fortified, and defended by a strong artillery position, the Bagua battery (Traditional Chinese: 八卦砲台). During the third week of August the Japanese brought up supplies and made preparations for what they expected to be the decisive battle of the campaign.

The Japanese resumed their advance from Miaoli on 24 August, occupying the large village of Koloton on 24 August. On 25 August, continuing their advance towards the Toa-to-kei river to the north of Changhua, the Japanese were ambushed by a large insurgent force in the fortified village of Tokabio. The Japanese fought all day to clear the insurgents from their line of advance, but the village was not completely cleared until the morning of 26 August. During the evening of 26 August the Japanese closed up to the Toa-to-kei river and prepared to assault the Formosan positions around Changhua.^[39][38]

During the night of 26 August, the Japanese crossed the Toa-to-kei river under cover of darkness, and at dawn on 27 August separate Japanese columns made a surprise attack on the Bagua battery and Changhua. In a short and sharp early morning engagement generally known as the Battle of Baguashan, the Japanese stormed the Bagua battery and occupied Changhua. The Formosans suffered heavy casualties in this battle, and two of their commanders, Wu Tangxing and Wu Pengnian, were killed. The Formosan forces fell back to Chiayi and Lukang. The battle of Baguashan, the largest pitched battle ever fought on Taiwanese soil, was the decisive engagement of the invasion, and its loss doomed the Formosan Republic to early defeat. Subsequent engagements merely postponed the end.^[40][38][41]

The battle was an impressive Japanese victory, and foreign observers praised the courage and skill with which the Japanese troops had captured such a strong position so quickly. For the Japanese, the opportunity to defeat the Formosans in the open field was welcomed after the weeks of guerrilla fighting they had experienced since the start of their march south from Taipei. The battle put an end to organized resistance against the Japanese in central Taiwan. However, the Japanese declined to follow up their victory immediately. After securing the coastal port of Lukang and the town of Perto at the end of August, the Imperial Guards temporarily halted their advance. During September they consolidated their positions around Changhua and awaited the arrival of substantial reinforcements from Japan at the beginning of October. During this lull in the campaign, a severe outbreak of malaria at Changhua ravaged the Japanese forces, killing more than 2,000 men.^[42][38]

Japanese capture of Talibu

The only significant military action in central Taiwan during the weeks following the Japanese capture of Changhua was a series of engagements in early September around Yunlin. On 3 September the insurgents attacked the small Japanese garrison of the village of Toapona, to the south of Changhua. Japanese reinforcements came up, and the insurgents were defeated and retreated towards Yunlin. A Japanese infantry company in the vicinity attacked the retreating insurgents and during the evening of 3 September pursued them as far as the walled city of Talibu, whose defences it scouted. Three days later, during the night of 5 September, the Japanese returned and made a surprise night attack on Talibu. The Japanese vanguard scaled the city walls and opened the gates for its comrades, who poured into the city firing volleys. The Chinese garrison fled in confusion, and by 5 a.m. on 6 September Talibu was securely occupied by the Japanese. Chinese and Formosan losses during these few days of fighting amounted to 130 killed, while Japanese losses were only eight men killed and wounded.^[42]

A three-pronged advance

Liu Yongfu (1837–1917)

The Japanese resumed their advance on Tainan in the second week of October. The arrival of strong reinforcements (the 2nd Provincial Division, transferred from the Japanese 2nd Army in Manchuria, and part of the 4th Provincial Division, from Osaka) allowed them to approach Tainan from three directions at once. On 10 October two task forces sailed from the Penghu Islands. The smaller task force, 5,460 troops under the command of Prince Fushimi Sadanaru, landed at Budai, 28 miles (45 km) to the north of Tainan. The larger task force, 6,330 troops under the command of Lieutenant-General Nogi Maresuke, landed at Fangliao, 25 miles (40 km) to the south of Takow and well to the south of Tainan. Its first objective was to capture the port of Takow. Meanwhile, the Imperial Guards Division, then at Changhua, was ordered to continue to press forward towards Tainan. The division, 14,000 strong when it landed in Taiwan at the end of May, had been so reduced by sickness that it could now only with difficulty put 7,000 men into the field. Nevertheless, the Japanese now had the numbers to make an end of the campaign. Just under 20,000 Japanese troops would now close in on Tainan simultaneously, from the north, the northeast and the south. Liu Yongfu could probably field a larger force, but the Chinese and Formosans were by now fighting merely to stave off defeat. They had little hope of stemming the Japanese advance on Tainan.^[38]

Japanese capture of Yunlin and Chiayi

The Imperial Guards Division commenced its march south from Changhua on 3 October. On 6 October the division's advance guard defeated a force of 3,000 insurgents at Talibu. On 7 October the division fought an important action with the insurgents at Yunlin, driving them from a series of fortified positions. On 9 October the division fought the second-largest battle of the campaign, the Battle of Chiayi, to storm the walled city of Chiayi, where the insurgents had decided to make a determined stand. According to report, the Chinese and Formosans numbered 10,000 men and included both regular and volunteer units. The true figure was probably around 3,000 men, but the insurgents were stiffened by a force of 600 Black Flags, who now fought the Japanese for the first time during the campaign, and also deployed cannon and machine guns on the city walls. After a preliminary bombardment with their mountain artillery the Japanese scaled the walls and broke into the city. The insurgents were defeated, leaving over 200 dead on the field. Total casualties in the Imperial Guards Division in the engagements fought between 3 and 9 October were 14 killed and 54 wounded. The division was ordered to halt at Chiayi and wait until Prince Fushimi's northern expedition went ashore at Budai before resuming its advance.^[43]

Liu Yongfu's conditional surrender offer

On 10 October, discouraged by the news of the fall of Chiayi, Liu Yongfu made an offer of conditional surrender to the Japanese. He asked that no Formosan should be punished for having taken up arms against the Japanese, and that all Chinese soldiers still in Taiwan should be treated hospitably and repatriated to Canton or Amoy. The surrender offer was conveyed to the Japanese headquarters at Magong in the Penghu Islands by the British warship HMS Pique, and the Japanese replied that they would send a warship to Anping, the outport of Tainan, on 12 October to discuss Liu's proposals. On 12 October the Japanese cruiser Yoshino arrived off Anping, but Liu Yongfu refused to go aboard, perhaps fearing treachery. The Japanese subsequently informed him that they would accept only unconditional surrender.^[44][45]

Japanese victory at Shau-lan

Fleet Admiral His Imperial Highness Prince Yorihito Higashi-Fushimi

Meanwhile, the other two Japanese columns were making their presence felt. Prince Fushimi's northern column, which included the 5th and 17th Infantry Regiments, landed at Budai on 10 October. The division fought several brisk actions during its advance southwards. These included an action at Kaw-wah-tau on 12 October, in which Japanese casualties were slight, and an engagement near Kiu-sui-kei on 16 October to disengage a company of the 17th Regiment which had been surrounded by the insurgents, in which the Japanese suffered casualties of 9 dead and 10 wounded and the enemy at least 60 dead. On 18 October the 5th Infantry Regiment, supported by a battery of artillery and a troop of cavalry, routed the insurgents at Ongo-ya-toi. Japanese casualties were 3 dead and 14 wounded, while the enemy left 80 dead on the battlefield. On the same day the 17th Regiment met the Formosans at Tion-sha and inflicted a heavy defeat upon them. Formosan losses were computed at around 400 killed, while on the Japanese side only one officer was wounded. Meanwhile, the brigade's advance guard dislodged an insurgent force numbering around 4,000 men and armed with repeating rifles from the village of Mao-tau, to the south of the So-bung-go River, but suffered relatively high casualties in doing so. On 19 October, in a battle to capture the fortified village of Shau-lan, the Japanese took a striking revenge. The 17th Regiment trapped a force of 3,000 insurgents inside the village and inflicted very heavy casualties on them when they stormed it. Nearly a thousand enemy bodies were counted after this massacre. Japanese losses were only 30 men killed or wounded, including 3 officers.^[46]

Japanese capture of Takow

Lieutenant-General Nogi's southern column, consisting of 6,330 soldiers, 1,600 military coolies and 2,500 horses, landed at Fangliao on 10 October, and engaged a force of Formosan militiamen at Jiadong on 11 October. The Battle of Jaidong was a Japanese victory, but the Japanese suffered their heaviest combat casualties of the campaign in the engagement—16 men killed and 61 wounded. Three officers were among the casualties. On 15 October Nogi's column closed in on the important port of Takow, but discovered that the Japanese navy had beaten it to the punch. Two days earlier, on 13 October, the Takow forts had been bombarded and silenced by the Japanese cruisers Yoshino, Naniwa, Akitsushima, Hiei, Yaeyama and Saien, and a naval landing force had been put ashore to occupy the town. Foiled of their prize, Nogi's men pressed on, and captured the town of Pithau on 16 October. By 20 October they were at the village of Ji-chang-hang, only a few miles south of Tainan. There, on the night of 20 October, they received an offer of unconditional surrender from the Chinese merchants of Tainan.^[47][48]

Liu Yongfu's flight

All three Japanese columns were now within striking distance of Tainan, and on 20 October, realising that the war was lost, Liu Yongfu disguised himself as a coolie and fled to Amoy in mainland China aboard the British merchant ship SS Thales. The ship was pursued by the Japanese cruiser Yaeyama and boarded by Japanese sailors, who did not recognise Liu Yongfu but arrested him and several of his companions on suspicion. The British captain protested vigorously at this illegal search, and when the merchant ship reached Amoy the detainees, including Liu Yongfu, were released. Admiral Arichi Shinanojo, the Japanese fleet commander in the invasion of Taiwan, was forced to resign as a result of a subsequent British complaint to Japan. Only later did the Japanese realise how close they had come to capturing Liu.^[49][48]

Capitulation of Tainan

Tainan capitulated to the Japanese on 21 October. Its capture put an end to serious Formosan resistance and effectively inaugurated the era of Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan.^[50][48] Historian and politician Takekoshi gave the following account of the surrender of Tainan:

After General Liu's flight, the remains of his party wandered about the city not knowing what to do, until the foreigners, afraid that they would begin plundering, managed to persuade them to lay down their arms. This operation took the whole of one day, between 7,000 and 8,000 rifles being eventually placed in secure custody. Then two English missionaries, Messrs. Fergusson and Barclay, went to the Japanese headquarters a few miles south of the city, bearing a letter from the Chinese residents saying that the soldiers had all laid down their arms and disappeared, and asking the Japanese to come quickly and enforce order. General Nogi entered the city on 21 October and the rest of the army soon followed. Thus Formosa came into our possession in reality as well as in name.^[48]