ON THIS DAY ·
Port Arthur massacre
21–24 Nov 1894 — Japanese troops took the fortress from China, then killed captured soldiers and many civilians in the town. About 2,600 deaths in the town are documented; estimates that also include soldiers and the surrounding countryside reach 20,000 or more. The journalist James Creelman’s reports brought an international outcry.
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The moment in context
Japanese leaders saw Korea as a question of security. A rival established on the peninsula would be close enough to threaten Japan itself; the image of Korea as a dagger pointed at Japan was later attributed to the Prussian adviser Jakob Meckel. In 1894 a peasant rebellion led by the Donghak religious movement prompted Korea to ask China for troops. Japan sent a larger force, seized the royal palace in Seoul and declared war on Qing China in August.
From Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, chapter 6 of Remaking the State: Meiji Japan 1600–1912 and Post-Soviet Russia 1964–2000 (1910).
The place: Port Arthur massacre — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — Korea sat between three empires. Korea’s kingdom was weak and divided at court, and had traditionally been a tributary of China. Russia approached from the north; Japanese…
- The turn — Tsushima, 27–28 May 1905. At Tsushima on 27–28 May 1905, Japan destroyed Russia’s Baltic fleet and decided the war. The victory demonstrated that the new state could defeat a…
- What it changed — Japan joined the great powers. The last clauses of the 1858 treaties had been undone by 1911, when Japan regained full control of tariffs and renewed its alliance with Britain. It…
Then ask the room: To what extent was Japan’s transition a success by 1912, and for whom? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
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