Armies of the First Sino-Japanese War 1894–95 - Men-at-Arms

The study describes how newly modernized Japan waged war against China in its first overseas campaign, marking its remarkably rapid transition into Asia's leading military power only 30 years after emerging from centuries of feudalism.

After the Meiji restoration of the Japanese imperial regime was secured in 1868-77, the modernization along Western lines of Japan's industry, communications and land and naval forces advanced with remarkable speed, and by the 1890s, the rejuvenated nation was ready to flex its muscles overseas. The obvious opponent was the huge but medieval Chinese Empire, and the obvious arena for war was Korea, a nearby Chinese protectorate that Japan had long coveted. (A secondary campaign would be fought on Formosa/ Taiwan, an autonomous Chinese island protectorate.)

This book describes the course of the Japanese campaigns in China, and, in greater depth, the organization, equipment and appearance of various Chinese forces (China had no true national army), the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy, and, for the first time in English, the Korean and Formosan participants. Japan's victory left it confident enough to challenge Imperial Russia nine years later. Russia's shocking defeat in 1905 at the Battle of Tsushima where two-thirds of her fleet was destroyed by the Japanese Navy confirmed Japan's place as Asia's leading military power, soon to become a realistic rival to the West.