Part 5 Let Battle Commence
The bombardment of Shimonoseki, Jean Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager (1865).
On August 17, 1864, a squadron consisting of nine British ships (Euryalus, Conqueror, Tartar, Leopard, Barrosa, Perseus, Argus, Coquette, and Bouncer), four Dutch (Amsterdam, Medusa, Metalen-Kruis, and D'Jambi), and three French warships (Tancrède, Sémiramis, and Dupleix), together with 2,000 soldiers, marines and sailors, all under the command of Admiral Sir Augustus Leopold Kuper of the Royal Navy, steamed out of Yokohama to open Simonosaki Strait.
The U.S. chartered steamer Takiang accompanied the operation in a token show of support. This technically makes it the first US-Japanese naval battle.
The two-day battle that followed on September 5th and 6th did what the previous operations could not; it destroyed the Prince of Nagato's ability to wage war. Unable to match the firepower of the international fleet, and amid mounting casualties, the rebel Chōshū forces finally surrendered two days later on September 8, 1864.
Allied casualties included seventy-two killed or wounded and two severely damaged British ships. A full account of the battle is contained in Sir Ernest Satow's A Diplomat in Japan. Ernest Satow was present as a young interpreter for the British admiral, Sir Augustus Kuper on the British flagship HMS Euryalus commanded by Captain J.H.I. Alexander. It was also at this action that the seventeen year old Duncan Gordon Boyes won his Victoria Cross. Satow described Boyes as receiving the award "for conduct very plucky in one so young." Another VC winner at Simonosaki was Thomas Pride, and the third was the first American to win the medal, William Seeley. De Casembroot wrote his account of the events in the book De Medusa in de wateren van Japan, in 1863 en 1864.
The stringent accord drawn up in the wake of the ceasefire, and negotiated by U.S. Minister Pruyn, included an indemnity of $3,000,000 from the Japanese, an amount equivalent to the purchase of about 30 steamships at that time.[4] The Bakufu proved unable to pay such an amount, and this failure became the basis of further foreign pressure to have the Treaties ratified by the Emperor, the harbour of Hyōgo opened to foreign trade, and the customs tariffs lowered uniformly to 5%. In 1883, twenty years after the first battle to reopen the strait, the United States quietly returned $750,000 to Japan, which represented its share of the reparation payment extracted under the rain of multinational shells.
At some point in 1864 the Conqueror had run aground on a bank near Enoura, causing some damage to the ship.
SHIMONOSEKI BOMBARDMENT Japanese Prince Of Nagato s envoy paying indemnity 1865
Horace was lucky to have seen and experienced Japan at the time of the Shoguns, just as they were beginning to embrace western technology and customs. This was the end of the Edo period and the start of the more open Meiji period.
Further Reading
http://travelvolunteerblog.net/2011/12/09/a-history-of-violence/
Further Reading
http://travelvolunteerblog.net/2011/12/09/a-history-of-violence/
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