Armies of the Japan-Sino War
Gabriele Esposito describes the structure of the military forces that saw the ascendancy of Japan as a great military power
Gabriele Esposito describes the structure and organisation of the military forces that took part in a conflict from 1894-1895, that saw the ascendancy of Japan as a great military power.
The conflict known as the First Sino-Japanese War, fought during 1894-1895, saw the confrontation between two worlds that were living a different historical phase. On one side there was China, an immense empire still organised according to the traditions of the previous centuries and being out of place in the 19th century. On the other side there was Japan, the most modern country of the Far East that was experiencing an age of fast development. From a military point of view, China and Japan represented the old and the new of warfare in Asia. The Chinese Empire had no regular military forces to speak of, its soldiers wore no uniforms and most of them did not have modern firearms. The Japanese Empire had a westernised army, with smart uniforms and excellent firearms.
After centuries of isolation, the war against China was the first conflict fought by Japanese troops outside their country. After the victories of 1894-1895, they would continue expanding on mainland Asia during the Boxer Rebellion (1900) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). The Sino-Japanese War of 1894 mostly broke out due to territorial disputes related to Korea. The latter country had always been the battlefield of the wars fought between China and Japan. Korea was a nation full of natural resources and having a key position in the geography of the Far East. Conquering it would have been extremely important for Japan, in order to obtain a first possession on mainland Asia. For several centuries,
however, Korea was a Chinese protectorate and thus any action aimed at conquering it would have caused a war with the Chinese Empire.
In 1894 Korea was still characterised by a traditional way of life, but was already experiencing some attempts of modernisation and westernisation. This was apparent, also, in her military forces, which mostly had a medieval character but which also comprised some elite units that had been trained and equipped by Russian military advisors. During the war of 1894-1895 Korea sided with China and so at the end of the hostilities she was transformed into a Japanese protectorate. In addition to Korea and China, the Sino-Japanese
War was fought also on the island of Formosa, today known as Taiwan. At that time the latter was part of the Chinese Empire, but enjoyed a great degree of autonomy and was mostly inhabited by aboriginal tribes. When, in 1895, China ceded the island to Japan, the local Imperial garrison and the aborigines declared their independence from both China and Japan by creating the short-lived Republic of Formosa. That simply prompted the Japanese to occupy the island, despite the efforts of the aborigines who fought a desperate guerrilla war.
During the second half of the 19th century, China had tried to modernise herself in order to repel the assaults of the European colonial powers. By 1894, however, the immense empire did not have a proper industrial structure and could not exert an effective political control over all its territories. Most of the country was in a state of anarchy because there was no regular army that could protect the borders or maintain internal order. Since the days of the Opium Wars, the Chinese troops had been defeated on several occasions by European military forces. This had led to many attempts to modernise and westernise the Chinese Army, all of which had limited success. Some portions of the Chinese military forces received modern training, uniforms and weapons but all these measures were only temporary experiments and thus generally ended after a very short time. The central government of Peking did not have a real control of the peripheries and was in no condition to carry on a definitive military reform.
All the temporary experiments of modernisation were the result of private initiatives, which were carried on by warlords or superior officers who tried to reorganise their own troops, more than increasing the quality of the Imperial ones. As a result of the above, by 1894 there four distinct armies in China.
Firstly, there was the Army of the Eight Banners, which was the central army of the Imperial government, organised along ethnic lines and comprising a majority of Manchu soldiers (the ruling dynasty of China, the Qing, came from Manchuria); the Green Standard Battalions, which made up a sort of paramilitary police force organised on a provincial basis; the Brave Battalions, which were volunteer units raised by local warlords in order to support the Imperial troops; the Huai Army, a partly-westernised force organised since the days of the Taiping Rebellion (1862) that was at the orders of China’s most important warlord. The Eight Banners Army, as clear from its name, consisted of eight Banners or Corps; each of the latter comprised three divisions, which had five battalions each. A single battalion comprised five companies with 300 soldiers each. The Eight Banners Army was a very traditional fighting force, in which ranks skills like archery were considered as more important than modern military tactics.
The Green Standard Battalions had 500 men each and were scattered across the whole territory of the Chinese Empire, since they mostly performed garrison duties. The 600,000 soldiers of the Green Standard Battalions formed a sort of provincial reserve for the professional fighters of the Eight Banners Army.
The Brave Battalions, being the private armies of the many Chinese
warlords, had an average consistency of 500 men each but their quality varied a lot.
The Huai Army was the most important of the various private armies that were made up of Brave Battalions; it was under command of Li Hungchang, a powerful mandarin who was governor of the Kiangsu province. In total 26,000 Huai troops participated to the conflict of 1894-1895, organised into 51 infantry battalions with 500 men each.
The Japanese situation
During the complex historical process known as Meiji Restoration (18681877), Japan had gradually abandoned the traditional way of life of the samurais in order to become a modern nation. All the sectors of Japanese culture and society were affected by this process. Isolationism became just a memory of the past, a new class of merchants emerged, the industrial apparatus started to develop, a strong central government was installed in the new capital of Tokyo, the Emperor became the effective ruler of the state, economy was reformed, the samurai class was abolished, a large part of the population started to wear European clothes, the telegraph and the train were introduced and the buildings started to be built in the western way.
In practice, the Meiji Restoration was a real cultural revolution that took place in just a few years. During a very short time Japan was able to become a modern and industrialised country, having started as an almost medieval society. This process astonished the world but was quite difficult to understand for the Europeans; it became apparent only after the military victories obtained by the Japanese during 1894-1905, which made their country a dominant power in Asia.
In January 1873, with the help of French advisors, the Meiji government established the first draft law of Japan. According to this, military service was made compulsory for all able-bodied males aged 20-40. The period of service in the army was to last for three years, after which each soldier remained in the reserve for a further four years. The Active Army was called Jobigun, while the Reserve was divided into two different branches: the Yobigun (First Reserve) and the Kobigun (Second Reserve).
Each reservist spent the first two years in the Yobigun and the following ones in the Kobigun. While being part of the First Reserve, a soldier had to train once every year but once part of the Second Reserve, he could be called to serve only in case of national emergency. The NCOs, differently from rankers, served for seven years in the Jobigun and did not become part of the Reserve. All conscripts were chosen by drawing lots amongst those individuals who had reached the age of 20 by the beginning of January of the current year.
All those able-bodied men who were not chosen for active military service had to remain until their 40th year in a distinct body of militia known as Kokumingun (which was to be called to serve only during emergencies, after employing both the First Reserve and Second Reserve). In addition, during all their 20th year of age, they could be called to serve in the Active Army in order to fill vacancies (for example caused by desertion).
In 1873 the territory of Japan was divided into six military districts, with the exception of Hokkaido: Tokyo, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kunamoto. Each military district was in turn divided into two sub-districts. By 1894 the whole army comprised 24 regiments of infantry, six regiments of cavalry, 36 batteries of artillery, six battalions of engineers, six battalions of train and three regiments of garrison artillery. Each of the 24 infantry regiments comprised three battalions and each of the latter was made up of four companies. An infantry regiment totalled 2,320 men in peacetime and 3,280 in wartime; a battalion totalled 768 men in peacetime and 1,088 in wartime; a company had 192 soldiers in
peacetime and 272 in wartime.
The 24 infantry regiments were grouped into brigades of two regiments each, which were in turn grouped into six divisions of four regiments each. Despite the fact that mounted warfare had always been part of the samurais’ military tradition, the Meiji government had serious trouble in forming effective cavalry units. Firstly, because Japan possessed surprisingly few horses suitable for westernised military service. Local horses, in fact, were too small and weak for European standards. Many attempts were made to improve the Japanese breed by buying large amounts of horses from abroad, but it took until the final decades of the century to produce significant results. As a result, of the six cavalry regiments, only some had three squadrons each as prescribed by the official regulations.
A single squadron numbered 120 horsemen in peacetime and 150 horsemen in wartime. The 36 batteries of artillery (24 equipped with field guns and 12 with mountain guns) were assembled into six regiments with three battalions each (two of field artillery and one of mountain artillery). Each field battery was composed by two squads with three guns each and totalled 120 gunners in peacetime (increased to 130 in wartime); a single mountain battery had 150 gunners in peacetime, increased to 160 in wartime. Each of the six artillery regiments, like the cavalry ones, was assigned to one of the infantry divisions: 1st of Tokyo, 2nd of Sendai, 3rd of Nagoya, 4th of
Osaka, 5th of Hiroshima and 6th of Kunamoto. The battalions of engineers had three companies each, while those of the train had two companies each. The companies of engineers had a peacetime establishment of 120 men and a wartime one of 150 men. The companies of the train had a peacetime establishment of 60 men and a wartime one of 80. The regiments of garrison artillery, mostly employed for coastal defence, comprised a variable number of battalions and companies. The Japanese Army also included a strong Gendarmerie or Military Police, which was established in 1881 and consisted of six battalions with three companies each. Members of this elite corps were chosen from time-expired NCOs and privates of exemplary conduct, who had to keep order in the ranks of the Japanese military forces and prevent desertions.
The Imperial Guard
The Japanese Army featured a sizeable Imperial Guard which was formed in February 1871, in order to have a modern force for national defence while the new conscript army was in the process of being established. Initially the Imperial Guard (named Shimpei) was formed with the best westernised troops of the feudal domains (Choshu, Satsuma and Tosa) that had supported the Emperor during the civil conflict of 1868-1869 known as Boshin War. Choshu sent a contingent with three infantry battalions; Satsuma sent four infantry battalions and two batteries of artillery; Tosa provided a contingent with two infantry battalions, two cavalry squadrons and two batteries of artillery. In 1873, once the new line army completed its organisation, the Imperial Guard was completely reorganised and assumed the new denomination of Goshimpei. All the guardsmen who had previously served in the armies of Choshu, Satsuma and Tosa were dismissed; they were replaced by new recruits, who were specially selected and drawn from every corner of Japan. Before entering the Goshimpei, each new recruit had to serve for at least six months in a line unit. By
1894 the Imperial Guard, organised as an independent division, comprised the following units: four infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment, four artillery batteries, one battalion of engineers and one battalion of the train (for a total of 8,000 men).