Battle of Lushunkou

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Lüshunkou
partof=the First Sino-Japanese War


caption=Japanese troops storming the citadel of Lushunkou.
date= 21 November 1894
place= Lüshunkou, Manchuria
result=Japanese victory
combatant1=flag|Empire of Japan
combatant2=flag|Qing Dynasty|name=Qing China
commander1=Lieutenant General Yamaji Motoharu
commander2= General Li Hongzhang
strength1=15,000
strength2=13,000
casualties1=29 (killed), 233 (wounded)
casualties2=4,500 (killed)

The Battle of Lüshunkou (Japanese:旅順攻囲戦) was a major land battle of the First Sino-Japanese War. It took place on 21 November 1894 in Lüshunkou, Manchuria (later called Port Arthur, in present day Liaoning Province, China) between the forces of Meiji Japan and Qing China. It is sometimes referred to archaically in western sources as the Battle of Port Arthur.

Background

Following the defeat at the Battle of Yalu, and subsequent minor engagements in the Liaodong Peninsula the Chinese troops of the Beiyang Army retreated to the heavily-defended and strategically important port of Lüshunkou, known in the West as Port Arthur. Lüshunkou was defended by its hilly terrain and strengthend with fortification and powerful artillery, and was widely considered to be an impregnable stronghold.

The Battle

A portion of the Imperial Japanese Army’s Second Army, commanded by Field Marshal Oyama Iwao and consisting of the 1st Provincial Division (Tokyo) under Lieutenant General Baron Yamaji Motoharu, and the 12th Brigade of the 6th Provincial Division (Kumamoto) had landed at Pi-tse-wo (present day Pikou, Laioning Province, China) on 24 October 1894. The Japanese forces advanced rapidly towards Lushun, capturing the walled town of Kinchow (modern Jinxian, Laioning Province)] on 6 November 1894, and the port town of Dalian on 7 November 1894.

The assault on Lüshunkou began after midnight on 21 November 1894. Under heavy fire, the Japanese forces had stormed all of the important landward defenses by noon the following day. The shore fortifications held out a bit longer, but the final one fell to the Japanese by 1700 hours. During the night of 22 November 1894, the surviving Chinese defenders deserted their remaining positions, abandoning 57 large-caliber and 163 small-caliber artillery pieces.

When the Japanese forces entered the city, they were fired upon from houses where Chinese soldiers had hidden themselves and had put on civilian dress so as to better blend in with the local population. The Japanese responded with a house-to-house search, killing many adult males who offered resistance.

Chinese casualties were officially estimated at 4000 killed. The Japanese lost only 29 men killed, 233 wounded.

Aftermath of the battle

A Western newspaper correspondent present in Lüshunkou relayed an account of a widespread massacre of the Chinese inhabitants of the city by victorious Japanese troops, allegedly in response to the murderous treatment the Chinese had shown Japanese prisoners of war at Pyongyang and elsewhere. The reporting was highly controversial, as numerous other correspondents present completely denied that such an event had occurred. In any event, the story of a massacre soon spread among the Western public, damaging Japan's public image and nearly torpedoing ongoing effort by Japan to renegotiate the unequal treaties with the United States. The alleged event came to be popularly known as the Port Arthur massacre.

References

* Chamberlin, William Henry. "Japan Over Asia", 1937, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, 395 pp.
* Kodansha "Japan An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1993, Kodansha Press, Tokyo ISBN 4-06-205938-X
* Lone, Stewart. "Japan's First Modern War: Army and Society in the Conflict with China, 1894-1895," 1994, St. Martin's Press, New York, 222 pp.
* Paine, S.C.M. "The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perception, Power, and Primacy," 2003, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, 412 pp.
* Warner, Dennis and Peggy. "The Tide At Sunrise", 1974, Charterhouse, New York, 659 pp.