Punishing the “Savages”

Abstract

This chapter explains the organization of the Japanese military force sent to southern Taiwan in the spring of 1874, how it established military control over the area through a combination of negotiations with local leaders and battles with indigenous villagers, and how it began preparations for expanding Japanese control over the indigenous territory. The expeditionary force experienced many problems of organization, and it proved highly vulnerable to disease. These problems demonstrate the practical limits to the projection of Japanese military force overseas in the 1870s.