Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1616)

Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1616)
	Part of the Sino-Japanese Wars
	; A Japanese Red seal ship
Date	1616–1617
Location	Taiwan, Southeastern coasts of China, South China Sea, Vietnam
Result	Japanese defeat
Belligerents
Ming dynasty; Chinese garrisons of Taiwan; Taiwanese indigenous peoples	Tokugawa (Edo) shogunate
Commanders and leaders
Unknown	Murayama Tōan
Strength
Unknown	4,000
Casualties and losses
1,200-2000	Unknown Possibly several hundred - Several thousand (Many of which presumably by way of typhoon & mass suicide known as "seppuku")

The Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1616) was a conflict between the Tokugawa shogunate and the Ming dynasty because of the domination over Taiwan.^[1]

Japanese magistrate of Nagasaki Murayama Tōan launched the invasion against Taiwan.^[2] The objective was to establish a base for the direct supply of Chinese silk, instead of having to supply from Macao or Manila.^[3]^[1] Earlier Toyotomi Hideyoshi also planned to conquer Taiwan and increase to the Japanese power at sea. However the king of Ryukyu Sho Nei had warned Chinese emperor Wanli of the Japanese plans to capture Taiwan.^[3]^[1]

On 15 May 1616 (some say 1615) they left Nagasaki. Murayama's fleet of 13 ships and 4,000 warriors, under the command of one of his sons. However a typhoon dispersed the invasion force^[4] and only one ship managed to reach the island, but it was repelled by local forces.^[3]^[1] This failure put an early end to the invasion effort. An other single ship was ambushed in a river, and all her crew committed suicide to avoid capture by the Ming force or the Taiwanese indigenous tribes.^[1]^[5]

Several Japanese ships diverted themselves to plunder the Chinese coast. Some Japanese ships reached the coasts of Vietnam and did not return to Nagasaki until July 1617.^[1]^[5] They are said to have killed over 1,200 Chinese people.^[5]

Sources

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Jansen, Marius B. (1992). China in the Tokugawa World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-06-7411-75-32
^ Taiwan Government Archived 2007-08-01 at the Wayback Machine
^ ^a ^b ^c Recent Trends in Scholarship on the History of Ryukyu's Relations with China and Japan Gregory Smits, Pennsylvania State University, p.13 [1] Archived 2012-03-02 at the Wayback Machine
^ Frei, Henry P.,Japan's Southward Advance and Australia, Univ of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, ç1991. p.34 - "...ordered the Governor of Nagasaki, Murayama Toan, to invade Formosa with a fleet of thirteen vessels and around 4000 men. Only a hurricane thwarted this effort and forced their early return"
^ ^a ^b ^c Boxer, Charles. R. (1951). The Christian Century in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. OCLC 318190 p. 298

[:1-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Jansen, Marius B. (1992). China in the Tokugawa World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-06-7411-75-32

[Taiwan_Government-2] Taiwan Government Archived 2007-08-01 at the Wayback Machine

[:2-3] Recent Trends in Scholarship on the History of Ryukyu's Relations with China and Japan Gregory Smits, Pennsylvania State University, p.13 [1] Archived 2012-03-02 at the Wayback Machine

[4] Frei, Henry P.,Japan's Southward Advance and Australia, Univ of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, ç1991. p.34 - "...ordered the Governor of Nagasaki, Murayama Toan, to invade Formosa with a fleet of thirteen vessels and around 4000 men. Only a hurricane thwarted this effort and forced their early return"

[:3-5] Boxer, Charles. R. (1951). The Christian Century in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. OCLC 318190 p. 298

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Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1616)

See also

Sources