Battle of Pingxingguan
The battle resulted in the loss of 500 to 600 soldiers on either side, but the Chinese captured 100 trucks full of supplies. The victory gave the Communists a tremendous propaganda boost and it was the only division-size battle fought by the Chinese Communists during the entire war. After the capture of Beiping at the end of July, Japanese forces advanced along the Beijing–Baotou Railway to Inner Mongolia, having anticipated the move, Chiang Kai-shek had appointed the Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan as Pacification Director of Taiyuan. In reality these forces operated independently from Yans provincial army, Japanese forces, mainly the 5th Division and 11th Independent Mixed Brigade, moved out from Beiping and advanced on Huailai County in Chahar. A Japanese column advanced quickly into Shanxi, making use of the railway which the Chinese did not attempt to destroy, the Chinese abandoned Datong on September 13, falling back to a line from Yanmenguan on the Great Wall east to the mountain pass of Pingxingguan.
Yan Xishans troops became more demoralised as the Japanese exerted their air supremacy, the main body of the Japanese 5th Division, under the command of Itagaki Seishiro, advanced from Huaili to invade northeastern Shanxi. Although it had a transport column, its rate of advance was limited by the poor roads. By the time reached the Shanxi border, Lin Biaos 115th Division. The pass of Pingxingguan was a narrow defile worn through the loess, lins division were able to ambush two columns of mainly transportation and supply units and virtually annihilate the trapped Japanese forces. On September 25, the 21st brigade of the Japanese 5th Division stationed at Lingqiu received a request from the 21st Regiment that they urgently needed supplies due to falling temperature. The supply troops of the 21st Regiment set out with 70 horse-drawn vehicles with 50 horses, filled with clothes, food and proceeded westwards towards Pingxingguan. Around 10,00, the column passed into a defile with the two sides rising up more than 10 meters, they were heading towards Caijiayu about 3 km away.
At the same time, a column of Japanese supply troops in about 80 trucks left Guangou. Both of these non-combat formations entered into the set by the 115th division after 10 a. m. on the 25th and were largely wiped out. A relief force consisting of the 3rd Battalion of the 21st Regiment was rebuffed by Chinese troops, Lin Biaos troops eventually withdrew from the battlefield, allowing the Japanese to finally reach the site of the ambush on September 28. The total, the Japanese casualties in the battle have been estimated at 400 to 500 and the Chinese at about 400. The Chinese forces destroyed about 70 trucks and an number of horse-drawn carts and captured 100 rifles,10 light machine guns,1 gun,2000 shells as well as some clothing. The Kuomintang official history of the Second Sino-Japanese War deals with it in a sentence, communist accounts, on the other hand, describe Pingxingguan as a typical example of Red guerrilla tactics, inspired by Mao Zedongs conceptualization of Peoples war
Imperial Japanese Army
The Imperial Japanese Army or IJA, literally Army of the Greater Japanese Empire, was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan, from 1871 to 1945. Later an Inspectorate General of Military Aviation became the agency with oversight of the army. During the Meiji Restoration, the forces loyal to Emperor Meiji were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist daimyōs of Satsuma. This central army, the Imperial Japanese Army, became even more essential after the abolition of the han system in 1871. One of the differences between the samurai and the peasant class was the right to bear arms, this ancient privilege was suddenly extended to every male in the nation. In 1878, the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office, based on the German General Staff, was established directly under the Emperor and was given broad powers for military planning and strategy. The Japanese invasion of Taiwan under Qing rule in 1874 was an expedition by Japanese military forces in response to the Mudan Incident of December 1871.
The Paiwan people, who are indigenous peoples of Taiwan, murdered 54 crewmembers of a merchant vessel from the Ryukyu Kingdom on the southwestern tip of Taiwan. 12 men were rescued by the local Chinese-speaking community and were transferred to Miyako-jima in the Ryukyu Islands and it marked the first overseas deployment of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. Not surprisingly, the new led to a series of riots from disgruntled samurai. One of the riots, led by Saigō Takamori, was the Satsuma Rebellion. Thenceforth, the military existed in an intimate and privileged relationship with the imperial institution, top-ranking military leaders were given direct access to the Emperor and the authority to transmit his pronouncements directly to the troops. The sympathetic relationship between conscripts and officers, particularly junior officers who were mostly from the peasantry, tended to draw the military closer to the people. In time, most people came to look more for guidance in matters more to military than to political leaders.
By the 1890s, the Imperial Japanese Army had grown to become the most modern army in Asia, well-trained, well-equipped, however, it was basically an infantry force deficient in cavalry and artillery when compared with its European contemporaries. The Sino-Japanese War would come to symbolize the weakness of the military of the Qing dynasty and this was the result by Japans 120, 000-strong western-style conscript army of two armies and five divisions, which was well-equipped and well-trained when compared with their Qing counterparts. The Treaty of Shimonoseki made the Qing defeat official, with a shift in regional dominance in Asia from China to Japan. In 1899–1900, Boxer attacks against foreigners in China intensified eventually resulting in the siege of the legations in Beijing
1938 Changsha fire
The Changsha fire of 1938, known as Wenxi fire, was the greatest human-caused citywide fire in Chinese history. Kuomintang officials ordered the city be set on fire in 1938 during the Second Sino-Japanese War to keep its wealth from the Japanese, the result of this fire made Changsha one of the most damaged cities during World War II, alongside Stalingrad and Nagasaki. On October 25,1938, the city of Wuhan fell to the Empire of Japan, soon after, a great number of refugees and injured soldiers, in addition to government institutions and factories, were relocated to Changsha. This caused a boom in the city, and the number of residents jumped from 300,000 to more than 500,000. Though the city did prepare for this type of scenario for a time, due to the limited transport capacity of Changsha, it still could not hold this amount of goods. On November 8, the Imperial Japanese Army entered northern Hunan, soon and Japanese armies faced off along the Xinqiang River just outside Changsha. The situation in the city became increasingly tense, because of a lack of confidence in holding the city, Chiang Kai-shek suggested that the city should be burned to the ground, so that Japan would gain nothing even if it chose to forcefully enter it.
On November 10, the chairman of the Hunan government, Zhang Zhizhong, an arson team was immediately organized. The team was dispatched to every corner of the city and was ordered to set the fire once a signal fire was set off on the top of Tianxin Building in the southwest of Changsha. At around 2 oclock in the morning of November 13,1938, the arson team took it as a signal and started to set the fire. The burning lasted for five days, destroying several 2, city residents tried their best to escape, resulting in a severe boat accident at a river ford on the Xiang River. More than 30,000 people lost their lives during the fire, over 90%, or 56,000, of the citys buildings were burned. The fire disabled commercial trading, academic institutions and government organizations throughout the city, the fire cost a total economic loss of $1 billion, which accounted for 43% of the total output of the city. More than 31 schools, including Hunan University, were burned down. Banks destroyed include the Bank of Hunan, Bank of Shanghai, more than 40 factories were burned.
The one that suffered the most was the First Textiles Factory of Hunan, the damage to this factory include $270,000 loss due to burned workshops, $960,000 to raw materials, $600,000 to machinery. Of the citys 190 rice mills and storage buildings, only 12 survived the fire, more than $2 million, or about 80% of the total, were lost in the silk industry. Forty Hunan embroidery factories were completely destroyed, except for the Xiangya Hospital, every hospital in Changsha was burned to ground
Jiangqiao Campaign
After the Mukden Incident, the Japanese Kwantung Army quickly overran the provinces of Liaoning and Jilin, occupying major cities and railways. At that time, the Chairman Wan Fulin of Heilongjiang Province was in Beijing, leaving the provincial government leaderless, General Ma Zhanshan arrived in the capital Qiqihar on October 19 and took office the next day. This bridge had been dynamited earlier by Mas forces during the fighting against pro-Japanese collaborationist forces of General Zhang Haipeng, a repair crew, guarded by 800 Japanese soldiers, went to work on 4 November 1931, but fighting soon erupted with the 2,500 Chinese troops nearby. Each side charged the other with opening fire without provocation, the skirmish continued for over three hours, until the Japanese drove General Mas troops off toward Qiqihar. Later General Ma Zhanshan returned to counterattack with a larger force. Japanese Major General Shogo Hasebe, had the river on his left. Wide swamplands made the Japanese left wing impregnable, forcing Ma to concentrate his cavalry against the exposed Japanese right wing, although dislodging the Japanese from their advance positions, Ma was unable to recapture the bridge, which the Japanese continued to repair.
Ma was eventually forced to withdraw his troops in the face of Japanese tanks, Ma became a national hero for his resistance to the Japanese which was widely reported in the Chinese and international press. The publicity inspired more volunteers to enlist in the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies, on November 15,1931, despite having lost more than 400 killed and 300 wounded since November 5, General Ma declined a Japanese ultimatum to surrender Qiqihar. Japanese cavalry charged down the Chinese front line cutting a swath into which Japanese infantry followed, Mas right flank held at first. The Chinese cavalry tried to encircle the Japanese right flank, but were stopped by Japanese artillery, the superior Japanese firepower turned the battle. Chinese units broke and fled across the frozen steppes, on November 18, Ma evacuated Qiqihar. By November 19, he led his troops to the east to defend Baiquan and his forces had suffered serious casualties and their strength was now much reduced. However once Ma was forced to retire up the Nonni River valley, he managed to regroup his forces, Japanese troops attempting to press Mas men further up the Nonni River towards Koshen in the cold suffered large casualties on several occasions.
At the same time the Japanese began their occupation of Qiqihar, at Mukden and Kirin the Japanese had already established collaborationist Chinese governments. At Qiqihar they established another government under pro-Japanese General Zhang Jinghui, japan secured control of the central section of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the eastern section was still under the control of General Ting Chao in Harbin. Second Sino-Japanese War Mukden Incident Coogan, northeast China and the Origins of the Anti-Japanese United Front. The Making of Japanese Manchuria, 1904-1932
Battle of Xinkou
After battles at Nankou, the Chahar Expeditionary Force of the Japanese Kwangtung Army occupied Datong in Shanxi province, and began their assault on the Yenbei area. The Japanese Fifth Division started their attack from Hebei marching westwards and taking the towns of Guanglin, the Commander of the 2nd War Zone, Yan Xishan, ordered Chinese troops to retreat and set up a defense line in Niangziguan and Pingxingguan. On October 1, Japanese central command ordered Itagaki Seishiro to lead the Fifth Division, on the same day, the military commission of the Chinese Nationalist government ordered the 14th Group Army to fight the Japanese at Xinkou. The 34th and 35th Armies were in reserve, commanded by Fu Zuoyi, to control the Dingxiang, the 15th brigade from the Chahar Expeditionary Force marched around Gouxian and attacked Yuanping, and engaged the 34th Army’s 196 brigade, led by Jiang Yuzhen. After intense close-quarter combat, the defending Chinese soldiers were wiped out, by this time, the invading forces were ready to make their move on Xinkou.
Due to the developments on the battlefields, Chinese commander Wei Lihuang had to re-organize the defense line on October 2. Finally, the 33rd, 17th and 15th Armies formed the right flank, on October 13, Itagaki Seishiro led 50,000 Japanese troops on a major assault against Xinkou. The Xinkou battles rages on for days, with the Nanhuahua position changing hands many times. Despite his death, the 61st Army commander Chen Zhangjie and subsequently the 19th Army commander Wang Jingguo continued to lead the defense of Xinkou and successfully held their defensive positions. During this time, the Communists’ Eighth Route Army executed several guerrilla attacks in the Japanese troops rear at Lingqiu, Weixian, Pingxingguan and Yanmenguan. On the evening of October 19, the 769 Regiment of the 120th Division attacked Yangmingbao airbase, By this time the Japanese had suffered close to 20,000 casualties without making much progress on their assault of Xinkou. Therefore, the Japanese Northern China Area Army had to add three additional regiments on October 22,27 and 29, to assist in the attack of Nanhauhua.
However, the Japanese troops still could not take this important position and had to re-direct their attack to Dabaishui, the Chinese commander for this operation was assigned to Huang Shaohong, the deputy commander of the 2nd War Zone. On October 11, the 20th division of the Japanese army captured Jingxing, the Japanese only used some troops to attack Niangziguan, while their main force marched around and captured Jiuguan. On October 21, the 20th division was reinforced by the 109th division and continued their attack on Niangziguan from the south, on October 26, four Japanese commando battalions were able to break through the Chinese 3rd Army defense at Ceyuzhen, and breach the Niangziguan defense line. The Chinese forces were forced to retreat to Taiyuan, and were chased by the Japanese attackers along the Shijiazhuang – Taiyuan railways, on November 11, the Japanese troops captured Shouyang after repelling an ambush by the 41st Army. By this time, all Chinese troops at Xinkou were ordered to retreat to Taiyuan to avoid being encircled by the enemy, the battle of Xinkou marked the first large-scale cooperation between the provincial army, Chinese Communists, and Chiang Kai-shek’s Central Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Although the Chinese defenders fought bravely on a front against the enemy during this campaign, they had a large shortage of firepower. In conclusion, the Chinese forces ultimately lost the battle, paying the price of 100,000 troops dead, injured or missing, hsu Long-hsuen and Chang Ming-kai, History of The Sino-Japanese War 2nd Ed.1971
National Revolutionary Army
It became the regular army of the ROC during the KMTs period of party rule beginning in 1928. It was renamed the Republic of China Armed Forces after the 1947 Constitution, the NRA was founded by the KMT in 1925 as the military force destined to unite China in the Northern Expedition. Organized with the help of the Comintern and guided under the doctrine of the Three Principles of the People, other prominent commanders included Du Yuming and Chen Cheng. The end of the Northern Expedition in 1928 is often taken as the date when Chinas Warlord era ended, though smaller-scale warlord activity continued for years afterwards. In 1927, after the dissolution of the First United Front between the Nationalists and the Communists, the ruling KMT purged its leftist members and largely eliminated Soviet influence from its ranks. Chiang Kai-shek turned to Germany, historically a great military power, the Weimar Republic sent advisors to China, but because of the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles they could not serve in military capacities.
When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 and disavowed the Treaty, the anti-communist Nazi Party, with Germany training Chinese troops and expanding Chinese infrastructure, while China opened its markets and natural resources to Germany. Max Bauer was the first advisor to China, the plan was never fully realised, as the eternally bickering warlords could not agree upon which divisions were to be merged and disbanded. Furthermore, since embezzlement and fraud were commonplace, especially in understrength divisions, therefore, by July 1937 only eight infantry divisions had completed reorganization and training. These were the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 14th, 36th, 87th, 88th, throughout the Chinese Civil War the National Revolutionary Army experienced major problems with desertion, with many soldiers switching sides to fight for the Communists. Troops in India and Burma during World War II included the Chinese Expeditionary Force, after the drafting and implementation of the Constitution of the Republic of China in 1947, the National Revolutionary Army was renamed as the Republic of China Armed Forces.
At the apex of the NRA was the National Military Council, chaired by Chiang Kai-Shek, it directed the staffs and commands. However, many divisions were formed two or more other divisions, and were not active at the same time. Also, New Divisions were created to replace Standard Divisions lost early in the war and were issued the old divisions number, the number of divisions in active service at any given time is much smaller than this. The average NRA division had 5, 000–6,000 troops, an army division had 10, 000–15,000 troops. Not even the German-trained divisions were on par in terms of manpower with a German or Japanese division, the United States Armys campaign brochure on the China Defensive campaign of 1942–45 said, The NRA only had small number of armoured vehicles and mechanised troops. At the beginning of the war in 1937 the armour were organized in three Armoured Battalions, equipped with tanks and armoured cars from various countries, after these battalions were mostly destroyed in the Battle of Shanghai and Battle of Nanjing.
The newly provided tanks, armoured cars, and trucks from the Soviet Union and Italy made it possible to create the only mechanized division in the army and this Division eventually ceased to be a mechanized unit after the June 1938 reorganization of Divisions
Battle of Xuzhou
The Battle of Xuzhou was fought between Japanese and Chinese forces in May 1938 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In contemporary accounts in English, the event was referred to as the Battle of Hsuchow. In 1937, the North China Area Army had chased Song Zheyuans 29th Army to the south along the Jinpu Railway after his defeat in the Battle of Lugou Bridge, most mechanized and air forces in Eastern China were wiped out in the Battle of Shanghai in 1937. Although new equipment was purchased, it had yet to be shipped, han Fuqu, the chairman of the Shandong province, rejected orders from Chiang Kai-shek and kept retreating to preserve his force. After Qingdao was occupied in January 1938, his policy was denounced, in March 1938 Japanese forces occupied the north of Shandong, including the capital city Jinan. The defense line along the Yellow River was torn apart, due to pressure from Japanese forces,64 Chinese divisions gathered around Xuzhou in Jiangsu, the headquarters of 5th Military Region of the National Revolutionary Army.
Without surrounding it, General Itagaki Seishiro moved south first to attack Taierzhuang, following this defeat, Japan intended an encirclement against Xuzhou and deployed the North China Area Army to the north and the Central China Expeditionary Army to the south. The North China Area Army had four divisions and two infantry brigades drawn from the Kwantung Army, the 5th Tank Battalion was used to support the 3rd Infantry Division advancing north along the railway to Xuzhou. Additional troops were deployed in the Battle of Northern and Eastern Henan by the North China Area Army to stop Chinese reinforcements from the west, a Chinese counterattack here resulted in the Battle of Lanfeng. However, with the approach of the Central China Expeditionary Army from the south, the situation was grim. The Japanese army won the battle and ultimately captured Xuzhou. Most of the Chinese soldiers broke through the encirclement through gaps in the Japanese lines to the west or dispersed into the countryside as guerrillas, the many Chinese troops who broke through the encirclement would play a major role in battles.
Order of battle, Battle of Xuzhou Huaihai Campaign of 1948-49, involving a Battle of Xuzhou Hsu Long-hsuen and Chang Ming-kai, translated by Wen Ha-hsiung, Chung Wu Publishing,33, 140th Lane, Tung-hwa Street, Taiwan Republic of China
Resistance at Nenjiang Bridge
It marked the start of the Jiangqiao Campaign. This bridge had been dynamited earlier by Mas forces during the fighting against the pro-Japanese collaborationist forces of General Chang Hai-Peng, a repair crew, guarded by 800 Japanese soldiers, went to work on 4 November 1931. Nearby were 2,500 Chinese troops under General Ma Zhanshan, each side charged the other with opening fire without provocation. The Japanese claimed the Chinese opened fire using rifles and machine guns late in the day during a fog when Japanese troops started across the span, the Japanese retaliated and the skirmish continued for over three hours. Only 15 Japanese were reported killed and 120 Chinese, as the Japanese advanced, General Ma Zhanshan returned to counterattack with a much larger force. Although dislodging the Japanese from their positions, he was unable to recapture the bridge. Ma was eventually forced to withdraw his troops in the face of Japanese tanks, the repaired bridge made possible the further advance of Japanese forces and their armored trains.
Despite his failure to hold the bridge, General Ma Zhanshan became a hero in China for his resistance at Nenjiang Bridge. The publicity inspired more volunteers to enlist in the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies, although often led by army officers and with numbers of former regular troops among their ranks, most volunteers had no previous military experience. These irregular armies were to become the main anti-Japanese force in northeast China during 1932. Jiangqiao Campaign Japanese invasion of Manchuria Coogan, northeast China and the Origins of the Anti-Japanese United Front. The Making of Japanese Manchuria, 1904-1932, two War Lords, TIME Magazine, Nov.16,1931 NONNI RIVER BRIDGE The volunteer armies of northeast China
Pacification of Manchukuo
The operations were carried out by the Imperial Japanese Kwantung Army and the collaborationist forces of the Manchukuo government from March 1932 until 1942, and resulted in a Japanese victory. The provincial government of Liaoning Province had fled west to Chinchow, Governor Zang Shiyi remained in Mukden, but refused to cooperate with the Japanese in establishing a separatist and collaborationist government and was imprisoned. On 23 September 1931, Lieutenant General Xi Qia of the Kirin Army was invited by the Japanese to form a government for Kirin Province. In Kirin, the Japanese succeeded in achieving a bloodless occupation of the capital, General Xi Qia issued a proclamation on 30 September, declaring the province independent of the Republic of China under protection of the Japanese Army. On 24 September 1931, a government was formed in Fengtien with Yuan Chin-hai as Chairman of the Committee for the Maintenance of Peace. However he was not able to act as much of the area surrounding Harbin was still held by anti-Japanese militias under Generals Ting Chao, Li Du, Feng Zhanhai and others.
After the fall of Chinchow, the movement made rapid progress in northern Manchuria. There he attempted to continue to govern Heilongjiang province, Colonel Kenji Doihara began negotiations with General Ma from his Special Service Office at Harbin, hoping to get him to join the new state of Manchukuo Japan was organizing. Ma continued negotiating with Doihara, while he continued to support General Ting Chao, away from the Japanese garrisons in cities and along the railroads, resistance units mustered openly and relatively free from molestation in late 1931-early 1932. One of the first such forces to form, called the Courageous Citizens Militia, had established by November 1931 near the estuary port of Chinchow. These militias operated principally in southern Fengtien, which had half of Manchurias population, Fengtien had come almost immediately under Japanese control, as most population centers and its capital of Mukden all lay along the tracks of the South Manchuria Railway in the S. M. R.
Zone, which had been garrisoned by Kwantung Army troops since long before the conflict, peasant brotherhoods were a traditional form of mutual protection by Chinese small-holders and tenant farmers. Waves of immigrants fleeing the wars of the Warlord era that ravaged north, the Red Spear Society was strongest in the hinterlands of Fengtien and countryside around Harbin. The Big Swords Society predominated in southeastern Kirin and adjoining parts of Fengtien, in 1927, the Big Swords had spearheaded an uprising triggered by the collapse of the prevailing Feng-Piao paper currency. During the rebellion the Big Swords were respected by the peasants because they did not harm or plunder the common people, the Big Swords became the principal component of partisan resistance in this region, forming loose ties with the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies. The bandit leader Lao Pie-fang commanded several bands of Big Swords in western Fengtien, the Big Swords in southeast Kirin were allied with Wang Delin, and General Feng Zhanhai organized and trained a Big Sword Corps of 4,000 men.
The Red Spear Society groups were more widespread, members formed important centers of resistance as the war spread out through the countryside. Red Spears frequently attacked the S. M. R, zone from the Hsinlintun and Tungfeng districts, close to Mukden and the Fushun coal mines
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan was the historical Japanese nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan. Imperial Japans rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei led to its emergence as a world power, after several large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, the Empire gained notoriety for its war crimes against the peoples it conquered. A period of occupation by the Allies followed the surrender and reconstruction continued well into the 1950s, eventually forming the current nation-state whose full title is the State of Japan or simply rendered Japan in English. The historical state is referred to as the Empire of Japan or the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan in English. In Japanese it is referred to as Dai Nippon Teikoku, which translates to Greater Japanese Empire and this is analogous to Großdeutsches Reich, a term that translates to Greater German Empire in English and Dai Doitsu Teikoku in Japanese.
This meaning is significant in terms of geography, encompassing Japan, due to its name in kanji characters and its flag, it was given the exonym Empire of the Sun. After two centuries, the policy, or Sakoku, under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. The following years saw increased trade and interaction, commercial treaties between the Tokugawa shogunate and Western countries were signed. In large part due to the terms of these Unequal Treaties, the Shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical, xenophobic movement. In March 1863, the Emperor issued the order to expel barbarians, although the Shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it nevertheless inspired attacks against the Shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan. The Namamugi Incident during 1862 led to the murder of an Englishman, Charles Lennox Richardson, the British demanded reparations but were denied.
While attempting to exact payment, the Royal Navy was fired on from coastal batteries near the town of Kagoshima and they responded by bombarding the port of Kagoshima in 1863. For Richardsons death, the Tokugawa government agreed to pay an indemnity, shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki and attacks against foreign property led to the Bombardment of Shimonoseki by a multinational force in 1864. The Chōshū clan launched the coup known as the Kinmon incident. The Satsuma-Chōshū alliance was established in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, in early 1867, Emperor Kōmei died of smallpox and was replaced by his son, Crown Prince Mutsuhito. On November 9,1867, Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned from his post and authorities to the Emperor, while Yoshinobus resignation had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. On January 3,1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the palace in Kyoto. On January 17,1868, Yoshinobu declared that he would not be bound by the proclamation of the Restoration, on January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces
China
United States
Japan
Gu Zhutong
Shunroku Hata