Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/206

The Formosan expedition was decided upon in the beginning of April, 1874, and Lieutenant-General Yorimichi Saigo, nephew of the great Saigo, was appointed commander of the expeditionary force by land and sea. Major-General Tani and Rear-Admiral Akamatsu were his associates. Shigeomi Okuma was appointed chief of the newly-formed Bureau of Formosan affairs, and Nagasaki was chosen as the base of operations.

A detachment of 3,655 men was embarked in an American steamer chartered for the purpose, and an American gentleman by the name of Mr. Lysander was engaged as adviser; but the United States Minister in Tokyo having protested against the measure as conflicting with the neutrality of his Government, the ship had to be given back and the adviser dismissed.

But as soon as the fact became known to China, she began to prepare actively for the protest. It is to be remembered that the assurance obtained from the Yamen Ministers by Soyejima while on his mission in Peking, to the effect that the Formosan barbarians were outside the reach of China’s influence and culture, was only verbal, so that they could always assert with right that they had never officially admitted it. Grave complications were feared, and the Imperial Government, coming back on its own decision, sent Okubo to Nagasaki to stop the departure of the expedition. But Yorimichi Saigo would not listen.

He feared still graver complications at home, amongst others that the military tendency might be stopped through fear of diplomatic difficulties. He proposed to take all responsibility upon himself, and urged that, if the Chinese protestation came to anything serious, the Japanese Government might answer that Yorimichi Saigo was acting without authorization, and even against the will of the Imperial Government. So the expedition went off, and from the 6th to the 22nd of May, 1874, the work of chastisement was carried out under great difficulties, owing to the geographical conditions of that part of the island, when the savages took up their position amongst insurmountable rocks and mountains.

China now protested louder than ever, the Yamen Ministers addressing themselves to our Minister Yanagiwara, then staying in Shanghai, and the Governor of Fokien to our Consul in Amoy. On Yanagiwara’s arrival in Peking, the Yamen Ministers repeatedly sent him notes accusing Japan of the ‘invasion of Chinese territory,’ of ‘burning and plundering the Formosan people,’ of ‘the violation of the treaty of peace and