Port Arthur Massacre (China) - Background

Background

As part of its wartime strategy during the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan had advanced through Korea, engaging Chinese troops at Asan near Seoul and then Pyongyang in September 1894, winning decisive victories on both occasions. Following the victory at Pyongyang the Japanese Second Army under Marshal Oyama Iwao (1842-1916) moved northward towards Manchuria, the plan being to seize Port Arthur, headquarters to China's Beiyang Fleet and a highly fortified city that dominated the sea passage from Korea to northeast China. In September the Japanese navy heavily damaged the Beiyang Fleet at the Battle of the Yalu River, though the Chinese troopships were successful in landing their troops not far from the Sino-Korean border. With the Beiyang Fleet eliminated, the Japanese navy began a siege of Port Arthur while the Japanese Second Army advanced on the city through Manchuria and the Japanese First Army crossed the Yalu River to form another advance by land. After a series of battles on the Liaodong Peninsula the First Division of the Second Army led by General Yamaji drew up around Port Arthur in late November. On November 18, 1894 the Japanese movement down the peninsula was temporarily frustrated and returned to find that their abandoned wounded troops were horribly mutilated with hands and feet cut off. Others had been burned alive. The city was evacuated with residents fleeing westward by land or sea into China. The Chinese had mutilated several Japanese bodies and displayed them at the entrance of the city, infuriating the Japanese. After only token resistance the city fell to Japanese troops late on the morning of November 21. What followed was a massacre of the remaining inhabitants of Port Arthur by the Japanese troops, though the scale and nature of the killing continues to be debated.