Japan might have had reason to wish that the war with China would end, but they had no interest in merely a status quo peace, such as they’d been forced to accept in the previous war. This time they not only wanted compensation for all the Japanese blood shed on the Manchurian steppes, but also believed she had the strength and technology to compel it.
Japan wanted eastern Manchuria, so that China would no longer loom over the home islands.
As the war wore on into 1880, the slaughter of the Chinese troops in Manchuria continued. Both at Ninguta and Jinzhou, smaller Japanese armies waged battles against enormous Chinese swarms, and came away the better for it. But never unscathed. The Japanese armies were losing men and cohesion with every new human wave attack.
The enemy armies were so massive that not all of them could fight at once. The drawback to this was that once many had been killed or forced to withdraw, there were always fresh troops to take their place, and so battles lasted for weeks. This continually wore down the Japanese armies, and over many months it was having a debilitating effect, since there were few, if any, fresh Japanese armies – they were all ground into the dust, or had to find a brief respite between battles to recover.
This process of continual grinding down was how the Japanese army that had been defeated earlier, at Utchan, was forced to retreat to Ulusamudan – a tired and ragged force that was again attacked there – and then, after another defeat in late January, was forced to retreat still deeper into Manchuria, toward Aigun.
And, here, events from outside of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War intruded upon the attentions of Japan’s government. The Europeans were holding a conference to determine the process of colonizing and civilizing African lands. While Japan was not specifically invited, it was clear that she was not excluded either, and might send delegates. This was a high honor, of sorts – to be regarded so highly by the Europeans that they might sit at the same table and negotiate as equals. Such was the result from having defeated Russia, and for having carved out a colonial portion of Asia, in Korea.
At the same time, Japan’s appearance would be clearly foreign. Was Japan so like the Europeans now that, not only would the Europeans admit them to their foreign conferences, but Japan would behave like Europeans? The Emperor decided that, though it would surely cost Japan prestige in the eyes of the world (in actuality, Japan GAINED prestige by refusing, in that it felt such a conference beneath her – prestige rose from 108 to 114), that it would be inappropriate for Japan to appear with the despoilers of Asia which Japan opposed on principle. Japan very firmly had no ambitions to colonize Africa, and that would surely represent a dilution of her very interests, which were centered so clearly in Asia. Japan sent polite regrets with an observer who was without portfolio to participate.
Now, as Japan continued to kill the enemy on the battlefield, and even have significant victories over them, a problem (your ears ringing, Funnyman?
– this is the “problem” I mentioned earlier, related to warscore and winning battles) eventually became apparent – a problem which could ultimately spell defeat as surely as the wearing down of her troops. For all these victories, Japan was winning the battles, but not the war (translating into game terms, I was locked in at the maximum of 25 Warscore from winning battles – I could not gain more, which was necessary to claim HaIshenwai Region – without physically conquering territory).
It would be necessary for Japanese armies to somehow force the battlefront away from some of the coastal lands so that the process of subduing the territory could proceed unmolested. This would be difficult, with the stream of Chinese armies always rushing on.
In February, good news came from the halls of the European capitals – the Dutch have declared war upon Japan’s enemy, China, with the intent of seizing land in the south. France and Spain have joined alongside in this war.
While this is bad news in a global context – Japan does not want more foreign intrusion in Asian lands – it’s certainly good news for those who want a conclusion to the war. Indeed, this might result in fewer armies marching north, which is what mostly keeps Japan from conquering territory and being able to finally finish battles, rather than simply entering later stages of war over the same lands.
But that would take time, and Japan’s armies were losing because they were simply too exhausted. At the end of February, Gen. Matsudaira lost in the mountains of Saghalian Oula, and Gen. Arisugawa lost at Jinzhou, though he took 66,000 enemy with him. Then, Mar. 4, Gen. Arichi lost his entire army (the one which had been chased from Utchan to Ulusamudan to Aigun), which had been harried for hundreds of miles across Manchuria. They were each relatively minor losses, but it sapped morale.
March 10, Gen. Zhao finally admitted he had been beaten by Gen. Tetsutaro Yamagata, having lost nearly 60% of his 250,000 man army (which had been added to as the months-long battle waged). Yamagata had lost 47,000 himself, but that paled compared to the devastation wrought upon the Chinese. Still, losses like that were not affordable for Japan.
And because China had an endless supply of troops, this marvelous victory by Japan moved them hardly at all when they were asked again to come to the negotiation table (the total Warscore remained at 31% despite a 24 Warscore victory on the battlefield – I was at my limit, and these huge victories were irrelevant!).
By the end of March, Gen. Terauchi was having difficulty coping with the sheer number of the enemy his army was forced to take on at Mukden. His command began to falter of the sheer weight of responsibility. On April 1, he was forced to give way, and the Chinese armies began to march once more into Korea. It was a key setback.
The French were finally waging their own war in southern China. Japan still held out hope that this would stem the flow of new armies from the south.
Even as Chinese armies battled to defend their own provinces in northern Manchuria, and even as they had again invaded the north of Korea, Japan was finally, by the middle of May, securing some of the demanded territory along the coast, and even inland at Ninguta.
With each province of the demanded territory that fell, the likelihood of the Chinese accounting the province lost increased. The war might end, finally, because Japan was able to take control of these lands.
But even some of those lands that had already been secured were under threat of being overrun by China’s trump card – her superior numbers.
Gen. Takamori Kanin was battling to defend Port Arthur, which was exposed since Terauchi’s defeat at Mukden. There was some question of which army would falter first – China’s superior number of troops were able to deploy to envelop Kanin’s flanks, and his own armies were deployed incorrectly, with the cavalry in the center.
The Chinese won a battle at Hamhung, and pushed deeper into Korea. By June, there was fear that a pivotal battle at Jilin, immediately north of Korea, might be lost.
And even at Kimchaek, it was as if the Chinese had finally learned to defend properly against the machine guns, and were taking fewer casualties as the result of smarter tactics. For once, Gen. Arisugawa faced his equal on the other side, in Gen. Ma Kang’an.
Inadequate Japanese reinforcements prepared to dive in, where they could, even as Chinese troops had penetrated as far south as Pyongyang. For all Japan’s victories, and for all the territory she had gained, could the balance in this war really be turned around by the Chinese once more?
It was as if the Japanese Army had finally given its all, and could do no more. It was spent. Chinese armies invested the northern provinces of Korea as aggressively as they had in the early days of the first Korean War.
Ironically, that was the time when China chose to admit they were beaten, and they came to the peace table seriously, willing to do what needed to be done to bring the war to a close.
Perhaps they knew that Japan would have time to catch her breath and come back with rested armies before these Korean provinces could be brought under heel. And, in fact, that was probably a realistic assessment. But Japan was glad for the break – for not having to go through, also, that ordeal.
The peace gave Japan control of the coast of China along the whole Sea of Japan. Eastern Manchuria was full of a rich population of varied ethnic types, all of which joined the Empire of Japan. The Emperor hoped that this would become an asset to his country in the years ahead, and these lands would be a base of operations for future wars against both Russia and China.
