The time around the turn of the 19th century was one where there was quite a bit of naval activity in the far east. This activity involved the French and Chinese, the Japanese and Chinese, and the Russians and Japanese. In both of the wars in which the Japanese were involved, they came out as the victor as did the French.

MMP has already covered the Sino-Franco and the Russo-Japanese wars and so now turns it attention to the Sino-Japanese war of 1894 and 1895. This is one of those wars where the combination of both land based and nautical elements were in conflict. Those who are not that well versed in the political situation of the time, China was split into several semi-autonomous regions with the central government only holding a tenuous rule. This was true in terms of the army as well as the navy. This had helped European powers from waging and winning several wars against the Chinese, the results of which had not only cost the Chinese dearly in terms of money, but also in concessions to these nations. The Japanese saw all this and wanted some of the action as well.

During all this time, the Korean peninsula was nominally Chinese, though had its own rich heritage of rulers. The Japanese wanted to basically control what went on in Korea and had been trying to take it over for a considerable time (as in centuries). Korea was a country of extreme isolationism, killing any Europeans who tried to get a foothold in the country. It was seriously feudal in nature and managed to fend off both French and US attempts at relations. However, the Japanese were able to gain a toe-hold at a time when Korean intrigue was at a high and this started a series of violent political changes (as in assassinations) at the highest level. Finally, in the mid-1870s, Japan recognized Korea as a separate country, which frustrated the Chinese who had considered Korea to be in their sphere of influence.

Eventually, there were clashes between the Japanese and Chinese troops based in Seoul and the Sino-Japanese war began.

The Japanese wanted to land troops in Korea but were unable to do so because of the presence of a powerful Chinese fleet, the Pieyang Fleet. On paper, the Chinese fleet had the upper hand, mostly due to the presence of two Chinese battleships. The Japanese did not believe in heavily armored battle ships and instead had smaller ships with some huge guns. This was a fad at the time to equip a small ship with a large calibre gun, but as this war showed, this didn't work well as the smaller ship made for a less stable firing platform. The Chinese battleships also proved to be impervious to Japanese shells, thanks to all its armor plating.

However, as is often the case, the superior tactics of the Japanese and poor leadership of the Chinese, both on the water and on the land determined the course of the war.

I don't want to ruin the book for you so will say little more about things. Needless to say, the author had done his work on this one and helps to tell what could be a complex story in a manner that is relatively easy to follow. I say relatively as this reader has trouble with a lot of non-English names and you can't get much more non-English than Chinese! It took me quite a while to finish the book, but it was very much worth the time spent to read it cover to cover. There are superb period photos of the ships, many of which were still full rigged. An excellent batch of drawings and maps help to keep both the land war and the naval war in context. In addition, there is an excellent set of appendices that include some very well done profile line drawings of many of the participating ships. I personally found it neat to read of the predecessors of many famous WWII Japanese ships such as the gunboat Akagi and the small cruiser Yamato.

In all, it is an outstanding book and I doubt if you'll find anything better on the subject. It is a book that I give my highest recommendation.

August 2014

Review book courtesy of Mushroom Models Publications where you can order your copy. Australian readers can get theirs from Platypus Publications, European readers from Orca, and US readers can get theirs from Casemate Publishing.

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