The Battle of Baguashan , the largest battle ever fought on Taiwanese soil, was the pivotal battle of the Japanese invasion of Taiwan

Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1895)

The Japanese invasion of Taiwan was a conflict between the Empire of Japan and the armed forces of the short-lived Republic of Formosa following the Qing Dynasty's cession of Taiwan to Japan in April 1895 at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War...

. The battle, fought on 27 August 1895 near the city of Changhua in central Taiwan between the invading Japanese army and the forces of the short-lived Republic of Formosa

Republic of Formosa

The Republic of Formosa was a short-lived republic that existed on the island of Taiwan in 1895 between the formal cession of Taiwan by the Qing Dynasty of China to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki and its invasion and occupation by Japanese troops...

, was a decisive Japanese victory, and doomed the Republic of Formosa

Republic of Formosa

The Republic of Formosa was a short-lived republic that existed on the island of Taiwan in 1895 between the formal cession of Taiwan by the Qing Dynasty of China to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki and its invasion and occupation by Japanese troops...

 to early extinction. The battle was one of the few occasions on which the Formosans were able to deploy artillery against the Japanese.

Background

Following the capture of Miaoli

Miaoli

Miaoli may refer to:*Miaoli County , a county located in central Taiwan, Republic of China*Miaoli City , the seat of Miaoli County*Miaoli, Zhengzhou , town in Jinshui District, Zhengzhou, People's Republic of China...

, the last Formosan stronghold in northern Taiwan, the Imperial Japanese Army

Imperial Japanese Army

-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...

 advanced south towards Changhua, the largest city in central Taiwan and the gateway to southern Taiwan. The city was surrounded by hills that offered strong defensive positions, and was protected by the Bagua Battery on Mount Baguashan , which was one kilometer east of the city. Changhua was also defended by walls, which was by no means usual at this period. Rebellions were frequent in Taiwan, and the Qing government preferred to keep Taiwanese cities unwalled.

The vanguard units of the IJA reached the north bank of Dadu River  on August 25, and immediately began preparation for crossing the river. In anticipation of a large scale confrontation, both sides tried to gather as many forces and supplies as possible. However, due to internal strife, the Formosans could only muster around 5,000 men, many of whom were remnants of militia units that were defeated in Miaoli, or raw recruits from Changhua; President Liu Yung-fu

Liu Yung-fu

Liu Yongfu was a Chinese soldier of fortune and commander of the celebrated Black Flag Army. Liu won fame as a Chinese patriot fighting against the French in northern Vietnam in the 1870s and early 1880s...

  ignored the repeated requests for reinforcement due to political rivalry with Li Jin-sung , the commander-general of northern Taiwan. The Japanese massed about 15,000 soldiers, with support of modern artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

. On August 27, General Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa

Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa

of Japan, was the 2nd head of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family.- Early life :Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa was the ninth son of Prince Fushimi Kuniye . He entered the Buddhist priesthood under the title Rinnoji-no-miya...

 , commander of the Japanese forces in the area, inspected the front line at the bank to draw plan for an assault on the Formosan positions. He was spotted by the garrison in Bagua battery, who opened fire on him and his group of staff. The unexpected bombardment killed his second-in-command and wounded him; some sources alleged that the wound he received later cost him his life.

The battle

After nightfall on August 27, under the cover of darkness, several Japanese units crossed the river and moved into positions to attack. Unaware of the Japanese movement, the Formosans launched several raids against the Japanese that night, but achieved little. The Japanese left wing successfully reached the foot of Mount Baguashan undetected, and assaulted the battery at dawn. Despite being caught off guard and outnumbered, the Formosans held the battery until Wu Tang-hsing , who was in charge of defense of the battery, was killed, and the garrison reduced to several dozen soldiers. A counterattack by a Black Banner

Black Flag Army

The Black Flag Army was a splinter remnant of a bandit group recruited largely from soldiers of ethnic Zhuang background, who crossed the border from Guangxi province of China into Upper Tonkin, in the Empire of Annam in 1865. They became known mainly for their fights against French forces in...

 unit was repulsed, and the remaining Formosans under Hsu Hsiang were forced to abandon the battery.

At the same time, Formosan units under Wu Peng-nien engaged the Japanese in fierce fighting south of the river. Upon learning the loss of Bagua battery, Wu immediately led his men towards the battery and regrouped with Hsu. They then counterattacked the Japanese forces on Mount Baguashan in a last-ditch effort to destabilize the Japanese line, but were eventually thrown back with heavy losses. Wu was killed when his unit was surrounded by the Japanese, and Hsu managed to break out with a handful of men.

After routing the Formosans, the Japanese bombarded the city of Changhua, caused panic among the civilians and garrison soldiers, who then fled the city. The Japanese then took the city unopposed, thus ended the fiercest battle in the history of Taiwan

History of Taiwan

Taiwan was first populated by Negrito, and then Austronesian people. It was colonized by the Dutch in the 17th century, followed by an influx of Han Chinese including Hakka immigrants from areas of Fujian and Guangdong of mainland China, across the Taiwan Strait...

.

The following account of the battle was given by James Davidson, who served as a war correspondent with the Japanese army during the campaign:

Changwha, a walled city, is situated less than five miles from the sea, in a plain scarcely above its level. To the east lies a range of hills, the highest of which—Hakkezan (Paquasoan)—which dominated the whole plain, was crowned with a well-erected fort protected by four 12-centimetre late model Krupp guns, besides a large number of the usual miscellaneous relics of ancient warfare so beloved by the Chinese. To the north, about 3,000 metres distant, ran a mountain stream which, with the heavy rains usual at this time of year, had been converted into a surging river. It was on the opposite banks of this river that the Japanese and Chinese troops met on the 27th; the Japanese to the north hidden by fields of sugar-cane, which cover the district; the Chinese to the south protected by earth-works of some importance, which they had erected on the river bank; while a few rods to the rear stood formidable breastworks.

It has always been the custom to ford the river at one point where it was comparatively shallow, and it was at this point that the Chinese had built their defences and gathered a large portion of their forces; for, if it "blong olo custom" to cross at this place, the Japanese would, according to Chinese reasoning, do the same. But the Japanese have a reputation for dropping old customs, and they did so in this case. The right wing, under command of Major-General Ogawa, remained at the camp to divert the Chinese with large camp fires, etc.; while the left wing, under command of Major-General Yamane, under the shadow of darkness, crossed the river with considerable difficulty at a previously discovered ford some 1,500 metres off. The column was now divided into three detachments. The first detachment, under command of Major-General Yamane, made its way quietly along to obtain a position to attack the city of Changwha itself. The second detachment with a battery of mountain-guns crawled along through the sugar-cane to cross the lower hills and gain a position to the east of the lofty fort of Mount Hakkezan, while the third with great caution slowly and quietly advanced to the rear of the Chinese troops guarding the river, and between them and the city.

The whole force arrived at their positions without a hitch, and with the enemy still watching the moving figures and the numerous camp fires of the Japanese across the river. It was one of the cleverest exhibitions of strategy displayed during the whole war. The right column crossed the river before daylight, leaving a detachment at the camping grounds to keep up the camp fires; and all were now in position ready for the attack. With the first rays of morning, the Chinese were on the alert, and opened fire with great bravado on the decoy troops left across the river. This was to the Japanese the signal for action. Scarcely had the smoke cleared away when the detachment which had occupied the position to the rear of the Chinese on the river bank was down on the insurgents with a rush. The Chinese, too surprised to make any defence, were terror-stricken. They jumped into the river, ran right and left, even on to the bayonets of their opponents. Simultaneously, the second detachment began to climb the hill at the back of the fort of Hakkezan. The surprised garrison poured a rifle fire upon them, but the detachment did not hesitate. On the contrary, bayonets were fixed and a determined charge made, until the fort was entered, and the Chinese deserting the big guns still loaded, were climbing over the walls and plunging down the hillside in full flight.

Many of the retreating insurgents had fled into the walled city of Changwha, apparently with the idea of fighting from the walls, where a large force was now assembled. But the Japanese in the fort above them had witnessed the whole scene and turned the insurgents’ own guns down upon the city. The Chinese had not thought of this; but like a flash their danger became apparent; and from a position of calm defiance, they were thrown into a frenzy of terror, and with a wild rush they sought escape through the South Gate. But to their horrible dismay, they found the Japanese even there; and turning back into the city they ran shrieking and howling like an army amok, firing at anything that attracted their attention. Only a few shots had been fired by the Japanese from the fort; and the Japanese infantry then scaled the walls and poured down into the city in large numbers. Street fighting with the panic-stricken braves occupied an hour; but by 7 a.m. all was quiet. Detachments were at once detailed to pursue the retreating insurgents, who had gone towards Kagi [Chiayi] to the south and Lokang (Rokko) to the west, where they hoped boats could be obtained to carry them to the south of the island.

Aftermath

The battle was an impressive Japanese victory, and foreign observers praised the courage and skill with which the Japanese troops had captured such a strong position so quickly. For the Japanese, the opportunity to defeat the Formosans in a pitched battle was welcomed after the weeks of guerilla fighting they had experienced since the start of their march south from Taipei. The battle put an end to organized resistance against the Japanese in central Taiwan, and ultimately paved the way for the final Japanese advance on Tainan, the last major Formosan stronghold. However, the Japanese were unable to follow up their victory immediately. A severe outbreak of malaria at Changhua in early September 1895 ravaged the Japanese forces, killing more than 2,000 men, and continuing Formosan guerilla attacks kept the Japanese short of supplies. The Japanese temporarily halted their advance, and their inaction gave the Formosans time to regroup and organize an initially successful, but ultimately fruitless, counteroffensive

Battle of Yunlin-Chiayi

The Battle of Yunlin-Chiayi was fought in the Yunlin-Chiayi region during the Japanese invasion of Taiwan. It was one of the very few major counter-offensive the Formosan initiated on the Japanese, and possibly the only successful one. Although the Formosan succeeded in recapturing Yunlin, they...

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Cultural influences

In 1965 a mass grave containing 679 bodies, believed to be those of Formosan fighters, was discovered at the site of battle. The site is now a memorial park, dedicated to those who perished in the battle.

The battle of Baguashan has recently been depicted as the climax to the film 1895

1895 (film)

1895 is a Taiwanese film based on the Japanese Invasion of Taiwan in 1895, with emphasis on the Hakka fighters and their families in the conflict. The film has a limited budget of 60 000 000 TWD , with roughly half of it provided by the Council for Hakka Affairs of the Executive Yuan...

 (released in November 2008), based on the life of the Formosan militia commander Wu Tang-hsing.

On May 6, 2006, Democratic Progressive Party

Democratic Progressive Party

The Democratic Progressive Party is a political party in Taiwan, and the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition. Founded in 1986, DPP is the first meaningful opposition party in Taiwan. It has traditionally been associated with strong advocacy of human rights and a distinct Taiwanese identity,...

's leadership circle proposed the dedication of August 28 as "Taiwanese

Taiwanese people

Taiwanese people may refer to individuals who either claim or are imputed cultural identity focused on the island of Taiwan and/or Taiwan Area which have been governed by the Republic of China since 1945...

 Resistance of Japan Memorial Day," (Traditional Chinese: 台灣人民抗日紀念日) as well as the inclusion of the battle in the history textbooks and having the portraits of leading figures in the battle printed on bank notes. This proposal, however, did not make it to the Legislative Yuan

Legislative Yuan

The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China .The Legislative Yuan is one of the five branches of government stipulated by the Constitution of the Republic of China, which follows Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People...

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