Series of military engagements in 1863?1864 between Japan and Western Powers
Shimonoseki campaign
|
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Part of the
Bakumatsu
conflicts and the
American Civil War
|
Capture of a Choshu battery at Shimonoseki by British sailors and marines; picture taken by
Felice Beato
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Date
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- 20 July ? 14 August 1863
(3 weeks and 4 days)
- 5?6 September 1864
(1 day)
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Location
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Result
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Allied victory
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Belligerents
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Ch?sh? Domain
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Commanders and leaders
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Strength
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Land:
2,000
Sea:
28
warships
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Land:
1,500
100
artillery pieces
Sea:
6 warships
40
war-junks
|
Casualties and losses
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---|
12 killed
50 wounded
|
18 killed
29 wounded
2 ships destroyed
1 ship damaged
60 cannons captured
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17th century
18th century
19th century
20th century
|
The
Shimonoseki campaign
(
Japanese
:
下???/馬???
,
Hepburn
:
Shimonoseki Sens?/Bakan Sens?
, "Shimonoseki War")
was a series of military engagements in 1863 and 1864, fought to control the
Shimonoseki Straits
of Japan by joint naval forces from the
United Kingdom
,
France
, the
Netherlands
, and the
United States
, against the
Japanese
feudal domain of
Ch?sh?
, which took place off and on the coast of
Shimonoseki
, Japan.
[1]
Background
[
edit
]
Despite efforts of appeasement by the
Tokugawa shogunate
to establish an atmosphere of peaceful solidarity, many feudal
daimy?s
remained bitterly resentful of the shogunate's open-door policy to foreign trade. Belligerent opposition to European and American influence erupted into open conflict when the
Emperor K?mei
, breaking with centuries of imperial tradition, began to take an active role in matters of state and issued on March 11 and April 11, 1863, his "
Order to expel barbarians
" (攘夷?行の勅命 ?
J?i jikk? no chokumei
).
The Ch?sh? clan, under the
daimy?
M?ri Takachika
, began to take action to expel all foreigners after the deadline of the 10th day of the 5th month, according to the traditional
Japanese calendar
. Openly defying the shogunate, M?ri ordered his forces to fire without warning on all foreign ships traversing
Shimonoseki Strait
. This strategic but treacherous 600-meter waterway separates the islands of
Honsh?
and
Ky?sh?
and provides a passage connecting the
Inland Sea
with the
Sea of Japan
.
Even before tensions escalated in Shimonoseki Strait, foreign diplomats and military experts, notably U.S.
Minister
to Japan
Robert Pruyn
and U.S. Navy
Captain
David McDougal
had been aware of the precarious state of affairs in Japan. McDougal wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Navy,
Gideon Welles
, dated June 12, 1863, stating, "General opinion is that the government of Japan is on the eve of revolution, the principal object of which is the expulsion of foreigners."
"Revere the Emperor and expel the barbarians!"
[
edit
]
The Ch?sh? clan was equipped with mostly antiquated cannons firing cannonballs, but also some modern armament, such as five 8-inch (200 mm)
Dahlgren guns
, which had been presented to Japan by the United States, and three steam warships of American construction: the
bark
Daniel Webster
of six guns, the
brig
Lanrick
, or
Kosei
, with ten guns, and the steamer
Lancefield
, or
Koshin
, of four guns.
[2]
The first attack occurred on June 25, 1863, soon after the Imperial "
Order to expel barbarians
" came into effect. The U.S. merchant steamer SS
Pembroke
, under Captain Simon Cooper, was riding at anchor outside Shimonoseki Strait when it was intercepted and fired upon by two
European
-built warships belonging to the rebel forces.
The crew of one enemy vessel taunted the frantic American seamen with a loud and unnerving cry: "Revere the Emperor and expel the barbarians!" (
尊皇攘夷
sonn? j?i
). Under incessant cannon fire,
Pembroke
managed to get underway and escape through the adjacent
Bungo Strait
with only slight damage and no casualties.
Upon arrival in
Shanghai
, Cooper filed a report of the attack and dispatched it to the U.S. Consulate in
Yokohama
, Japan. The next day, the French
naval dispatch steamer
Kien Chan
was also riding at anchor outside the strait, when rebel Japanese
artillery
atop the bluffs surrounding Shimonoseki opened fire on her.
Kien Chan
sustained damage to its engine and suffered four casualties before escaping to the open ocean.
On July 11, despite warnings from the crew of the
Kien Chan
, the 16-gun Dutch warship
Medusa
cruised into Shimonoseki Strait. Her skipper, Captain
Francois de Casembroot
, was convinced that Lord M?ri Takachika would not dare fire on his vessel due to the strength of his ship and longstanding relations between the Netherlands and Japan.
However, M?ri did just that, pounding
Medusa
with more than thirty shells and killing or wounding nine seamen. De Casembroot returned fire and ran the rebel gauntlet at full speed, fearful of endangering the life of the Dutch Consul General, who was on board. Within a short time, the Japanese warlord had managed to fire on the flags of most of the nations with consulates in Japan.
Battle of Shimonoseki Straits
[
edit
]
In the morning of July 16, 1863, under sanction by Minister Pruyn, in an apparent swift response to the attack on the
Pembroke
, the U.S.
frigate
USS
Wyoming
, under Captain McDougal, sailed into the strait and single-handedly engaged the U.S.-built but poorly manned local fleet for almost two hours before withdrawing.
[3]
McDougal sank two enemy vessels and severely damaged another one, along with inflicting some forty Japanese casualties. The
Wyoming
suffered a significant amount of damage, with four crew dead and seven wounded, one later dying of his injuries. The two Japanese steamers sunk by the
Wyoming
were raised again by Ch?sh? in 1864 and attached to the harbor of
Hagi
.
Campaign
[
edit
]
First battle, July 20, 1863
[
edit
]
On the heels of McDougal's engagement, on July 20, the
French Navy
retaliated for the attack on their merchant ship. The French force consisted of
marines
and two warships, the
aviso
Tancrede
and the Admiral's flagship,
Semiramis
. With 250 men, under Captain
Benjamin Jaures
, they swept into Shimonoseki and destroyed a small town, together with at least one artillery emplacement.
The intervention was supported by the French
plenipotentiary
in Japan,
Gustave Duchesne de Bellecourt
, but the French government, once informed, strongly criticized their representatives in Japan for taking such bellicose steps, for the reason that France had much more important military commitments to honour in other parts of the world, and could not afford a conflict in Japan.
[4]
Duchesne de Bellecourt would be relieved from his position in 1864.
Jaures was also congratulated by the shogunate for taking such decisive steps against anti-foreign forces, and was awarded a special banner.
[5]
Diplomatic negotiations
[
edit
]
Meanwhile, the Americans, French, British and Dutch feverishly opened diplomatic channels to negotiate the reopening of the passage to the Inland Sea. Months dragged by with no end in sight to the growing dilemma. By May 1864, various bellicose Japanese factions had destroyed thousands of dollars in foreign property, including homes, churches and shipping. This wanton destruction included the U.S. Legation in
Edo
, which housed
Minister
Robert Pruyn.
Throughout the first half of 1864, as Shimonoseki Strait remained closed to foreign shipping, threats and rumors of war hung in the air, while diplomatic efforts remained deadlocked. Then the British Minister to Japan,
Sir
Rutherford Alcock
, discussed with his treaty counterparts such as
American
Minister Robert Pruyn and Dutch Minister
Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek
, the feasibility of a joint military strike against M?ri.
They were soon making preparations for a combined show of force. Under the wary eyes of the Japanese, fifteen British warships rode anchor alongside four Dutch vessels, while a British regiment from
Hong Kong
augmented their display of military might. The French maintained a minimal naval presence, with the bulk of their forces in
Mexico
trying to bolster Emperor
Maximilian
's unstable regime.
The U.S., engaged in its
Civil War
, limited itself to demonstrate diplomatic and minimal military support for the allies. In the meantime, M?ri procrastinated in negotiations by requesting additional time to respond to the Allied demands, a response unacceptable to the treaty powers. The allies decided that the time for united action had arrived.
Despite retaliatory action from the treaty powers, another attack occurred in July 1864 when the rebel forces fired upon the U.S. steamer
Monitor
after she entered a harbor for coal and water. This provoked further outrage, even after a British squadron delivered a multi-national ultimatum to M?ri, threatening military force if the strait was not opened.
Final battle, September 5?6, 1864
[
edit
]
On August 17, 1864, a squadron consisting of nine British (
Euryalus
,
Conqueror
,
Tartar
,
Leopard
,
Barrosa
,
Perseus
,
Argus
,
Coquette
, and
Bouncer
), four Dutch (
Djambi
,
Metalen-Kruis
,
Medusa
, and
Amsterdam
), and three French warships (
Tancrede
,
Semiramis
, and
Dupleix
), together with 2,000
soldiers
, marines and sailors, all under the command of
Admiral
Sir
Augustus Leopold Kuper
of the
Royal Navy
, steamed out of Yokohama to open Shimonoseki Strait.
The U.S. chartered steamer
Ta-Kiang
accompanied the operation in a token show of support. The two-day battle that followed on September 5 and 6 did what the previous operations could not; it destroyed the
Ch?sh? Domain
's ability to wage war on the Western powers. Unable to match the firepower of the international fleet, and amid mounting casualties,
Takasugi Shinsaku
negotiated peace with the four Western powers and Ch?sh? forces finally surrendered two days later on September 8, 1864.
Allied casualties included 72 killed or wounded; although Ernest Satow describes only 8 killed and 30 wounded for the British and two damaged British ships. A full account of the battle is contained in
Ernest Satow
's
A Diplomat in Japan
. Satow was present as a young interpreter for the British admiral, Augustus Kuper on the British flagship
HMS
Euryalus
, commanded by Captain J. H. I. Alexander. It was also the action at which
Duncan Gordon Boyes
won his
Victoria Cross
(VC) at the age of seventeen. Satow described Boyes as receiving the award "for conduct very plucky in one so young." Another VC winner at Shimonoseki was
Thomas Pride
, and the third was the first American to win the medal,
William Seeley
. De Casembroot wrote his account of the events in
De Medusa in de wateren van Japan, in 1863 en 1864
.
The stringent accord, drawn up in the wake of the ceasefire and negotiated by U.S. Minister Pruyn, included an indemnity of $3,000,000 from the Japanese, an amount equivalent to the cost of about 30 steamships at that time.
[6]
The Tokugawa shogunate proved unable to pay such an amount, and this failure became the basis of further foreign pressure to open Japanese ports; Japan was forced to choose between paying compensation of three million piastres and opening another port on the Inland Sea.
[7]
The harbor of
Hy?go
was opened to foreign trade, and customs tariffs were lowered uniformly to 5%.
[8]
In 1883, twenty years after the first battle to reopen the strait, the United States quietly returned $750,000 to Japan, which represented its share of the reparation payment.
[
citation needed
]
Aftermath
[
edit
]
Right after the foreign interventions, the Shogunal government also launched its own preparations for a
punitive expedition
against Ch?sh?, the
First Ch?sh? expedition
. The expedition was aimed at punishing the 1864
Kinmon incident
in which Ch?sh? forces attacked Shogunal forces in
Kyoto
. The expedition was however cancelled after a compromise was brokered, involving the
beheading
of the leaders of the rebellion.
At the same time as this campaign, the British Royal Navy engaged
Satsuma
samurai at the
Bombardment of Kagoshima
, one of the several engagements of the Japanese conflict of 1863 and 1864.
Historical significance
[
edit
]
Closely resembling the series of little conflicts fought by the European powers in Asia, Africa and elsewhere during the nineteenth century, the troubles in Japan seemed to exemplify their
gunboat diplomacy
, a prevalent tool in imperialism. Bitter resentment against foreign influence made the Ch?sh? clan feel justified in engaging in acts of military provocation in defiance of their own government.
While it was bitterly embroiled in the
American Civil War
, President
Abraham Lincoln
's government was carefully watched by the world for signs of weakness and indecision. The actions of
USS Wyoming
made it the first foreign warship to offensively uphold treaty rights with Japan; this fact coupled with the possibility that the events would mire the U.S. in a foreign war made the battle of Shimonoseki a significant engagement.
[
citation needed
]
While the battles of Shimonoseki Strait were mere footnotes in the histories of the European powers, an interesting aspect of the affair was the resourcefulness displayed by the Japanese. The feudal Japanese had not set eyes on a steam-powered ship until Commodore Perry's arrival only a decade before
USS Wyoming
'
s battle. Yet they had rapidly advanced in such a short period of time.
[9]
The Shimonoseki city government in 2004, in recognition of the importance of the bombardment in Japanese history, placed several life-size replicas of the guns used by Ch?sh?. The replicas are made of hollow steel and include coin-operated sound effects and smoke from the barrels.
[10]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Stephen A. Royle (21 April 2017).
Anglo-Korean Relations and the Port Hamilton Affair, 1885-1887
. Taylor & Francis. p. 17.
ISBN
978-1-351-73787-6
.
- ^
The Battle of the Straits of Shimonoseki
- ^
"Wyoming I (Sloop of War)"
.
NHHC
.
- ^
Medzini, p.44
- ^
Medzini, p.46
- ^
Satow, p86
- ^
Paul Akamatsu (November 2010).
Meiji 1868: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Japan
. Routledge. p. 111.
ISBN
978-1-136-92827-7
.
- ^
Satow, p145
- ^
Chris J. Magoc (14 December 2015).
Imperialism and Expansionism in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection [4 volumes]: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection
. ABC-CLIO. p. 242.
ISBN
978-1-61069-430-8
.
- ^
Yoda, Hiroko (2 September 2010).
"Ghosts of battles past in Shimonoseki"
. CNN. Archived from
the original
on 7 September 2015
. Retrieved
2 March
2019
.
References
[
edit
]
- Denney, John.
Respect and Consideration: Britain in Japan 1853?1868 and beyond
. Radiance Press (2011).
ISBN
978-0-9568798-0-6
- Medzini, Meron.
French Policy in Japan during the Closing Years of the Tokugawa Regime
. Harvard University Press, 1971
- Polak
, Christian. (2001).
Soie et lumieres: L'age d'or des echanges franco-japonais (des origines aux annees 1950).
Tokyo:
Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie Francaise du Japon,
Hachette
Fujin Gah?sha (アシェット婦人?報社).
- Satow, Ernest
, "A Diplomat in Japan", 2006 Stone Bridge Press,
ISBN
978-1-933330-16-7
- __________. (2002). 絹と光: 知られざる日?交流100年の?史 (江戶時代-1950年代)
Kinu to hikari?: shirarezaru Nichi-Futsu k?ry? 100-nen no rekishi (Edo jidai-1950-nendai).
Tokyo: Ashetto Fujin Gah?sha, 2002.
ISBN
978-4-573-06210-8
;
OCLC
50875162
This article incorporates text from OpenHistory.
External links
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Coups, rebellions, and revolts in Japan
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Attempted
coups and
rebellions
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Riots and
civil disorder
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17th
century
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18th
century
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19th
century
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20th
century
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