This was the most powerful moment of the late Qing government! In November 1909, the Qing Navy warship Guanghai marched straight at Dongsha Island in the South China Sea, this time vowing to take back sovereignty from Japan.
1 On January 19, accompanied by 21 salutes, a brand-new "Yellow Dragon Flag" was slowly raised on Dongsha Island. At the same time, Qing officers and soldiers landed on the island, and the Japanese left the island. From this moment on, Dongsha Island, which had been illegally occupied by Japan for 2 years, returned to the feet of the Qing government.
Dongsha Island
So, why was Dongsha Island illegally occupied by Japan? Why is Japan, which has always been arrogant, willing to return Dongsha Island? What little-known things happened in the process of recovering Dongsha Island?
Since the end of the 19th century, Japan has been obsessed with the rich marine resources and important strategic values of the islands in the South China Sea. At the beginning of the 20th century, the long-coveted Japan finally moved, and the first to be illegally occupied by the Japanese was Dongsha Island.
Dongsha Islands is the northernmost archipelago in the South China Sea, and Dongsha Island is the only island in Dongsha Islands, since ancient times, there have been many fishermen living here, and there are also "Mazu Temple" and other sacrificial temples built on the island. Although the area of Dongsha Island is less than 2 square kilometers, it has extremely important strategic value.
In 1901, a Japanese businessman named Nishizawa Yoshiji encountered a typhoon on his way to sea, and eventually drifted to Dongsha Island by accident, with the help of the islanders, Nishizawa Yoshiji was able to escape from danger, but he never expected that when he found the guano layer covered on the island, Nishizawa Yoshiji soon had an idea of "evil poison".
Before leaving Dongsha Island, Nishizawa Yoshiji deliberately collected samples of bird droppings, and when he returned to Taiwan to conduct tests on bird droppings, Nishizawa Yoshiji found a huge business opportunity, these bird droppings are high-quality phosphate fertilizers, but very expensive agricultural fertilizers. Surprised, Nishizawa immediately began to prepare for his plan.
He first raised a large number of samurai, and then hired a large number of Taiwanese laborers at a low price, and after everything was ready, Nishizawa officially led a group of people to take a boat to Dongsha Island, but after going to the island, Nishizawa did not rush to collect bird droppings, but made a series of heinous moves.
After Nishizawa first expelled all the inhabitants of the island, then destroyed the fishermen's homes and all the bridges and buildings built, even the temples for sacrifice, and after doing this, Nishizawa ordered all the graves on the island to be excavated, and then destroyed all the corpses in the graves. At this point, Nishizawa's true purpose was clear: he was preparing to occupy Dongsha Island for a long time.
Sure enough, after all traces of life had been thoroughly cleaned up and the sovereign boundary monument had been destroyed, Nishizawa Yoshiji planted the Japanese flag on the island and openly declared that the island was discovered by himself and should belong to Japan. Even more shamelessly, he also renamed Dongsha Island to Nishizawa Province.
Japan illegally occupied, and the Qing government attacked hard
This was the first time that the Great Qing Dynasty had reclaimed its territory from the hands of the great powers. In the face of the Japanese's wild entanglement, the late Qing government argued on the basis of reason, and successively sent two warships, the "Flying Eagle" and the "Guanghai, to Dongsha Island to demonstrate; after more than half a year's efforts, Dongsha Island, which had been illegally occupied by Japan for two years, finally returned to the jurisdiction of the late Qing government.
Since Yoshiji Nishizawa illegally seized Dongsha Island, he has been developing the island like crazy, not only collecting bird droppings, but also fishing wildly. In order to assert sovereignty, Japanese warships also frequently patrolled the vicinity of the Paracel Islands. After learning of this, the government of the late Qing Dynasty was in an uproar.
Eastern Sands Islands
Since Dongsha Island is the closest to Guangdong, Guangdong gentlemen attach great importance to this matter. On March 22, 1909, Li Zhaohui, a representative of the Guangdong gentry merchants, wrote a letter to the regent Zaifeng, asking the Qing government to immediately communicate with Japan and reclaim Dongsha Island. However, the Qing government at that time was facing a situation of internal and external troubles, so the Qing government had no time to take care of the sovereignty of Dongsha Island.
In order to solve the problem of Dongsha Island, the Gentlemen and Merchants of Guangdong decided to take a multi-pronged approach, first of all, to publicize Japan's hegemonic behavior to the world in order to gain the support of public opinion at home and abroad; second, to write a letter to the imperial court again, striving for the government to protect China's sovereignty; and finally, to fight hard and do everything possible to regain the sovereignty of Dongsha Island.
Thanks to the efforts of a large number of gentlemen in Guangdong, the Japanese occupation of Dongsha Island was stirred up at home and abroad, and the "boycott of Japanese goods" incident, which had just calmed down in the late Qing Dynasty, was once again pushed to a climax, while the authoritative media in the United States sneered at the Qing government: "If the Qing government delays in declaring sovereignty, it will further deepen the impression of timidity and incompetence in the hearts of the people." ”
In desperation, the Qing government immediately dispatched two German warships, the "Flying Eagle" and the "Guanghai", to directly attack Dongsha Island, and after landing on the island, the Qing army not only quickly expelled the Japanese, but also raised the "Yellow Dragon Flag" on the island. Japan was obviously a little incredulous about the Qing government's tough attitude, but soon, Japan took a counterattack.
Battleship Flying Eagle
The unwilling Japanese, after learning that the Qing government had declared the sovereignty of Dongsha Island, immediately dispatched a large number of warships to try to retake Dongsha Island by force. At this time, a new round of arrival at Japan in the mainland had reached a climax, coupled with the fact that Japan had forcibly rebuilt the Anfeng Railway, the relations between China and Japan in the northeast were becoming increasingly tense, and in order to avoid falling into the situation of two-front war, Japan took the lead in proposing to solve the issue of the ownership of Dongsha Island through negotiations.
As the negotiations began, Japan quickly asked the most stupid question: "What evidence do you have for the Qing government's claim that Dongsha Island is Chinese territory?" "The Japanese thought that they had destroyed all traces of existence on the island at the beginning of their landing on the island, and the Qing government must not be able to prove the ownership of Dongsha Island."
After learning that Japan had asked the Qing government to produce evidence, the Qing government soon found the record of Dongsha Island in the book "Records of the Smells and Observations of the Sea Country", and with the efforts of guangdong gentlemen, one after another true and credible evidence was sent to the Japanese. After more than two months of negotiations, on October 11, 1909, the two sides finally signed the Treaty on the East Sands. The Treaty provides that:
Dongsha was China's inherent territory, and the Japanese immediately left the island. The Qing government purchased all the facilities built by Japan on the island for 160,000 yuan, and Japan had to pay back taxes to the Qing government and damage the original building on the island for a total of 30,000 yuan.
Sea Country Hearsay
On November 19, 1909, accompanied by the 21 salutes of the "Guanghai", Dongsha Island was officially returned. However, as everyone knows, from this moment on, the "turbulent displacement" of Dongsha Island has just begun.
Dongsha Island changed hands 7 degrees, and China's territory is inviolable
This is the most ill-fated island, less than a hundred years but seven times changed hands, successively occupied by Japan, the United States. Fortunately, after all the twists and turns, the island finally returned to the embrace of the mainland, but as everyone knows, in order to recover the island of only 1.8 square kilometers, the various departments paid a huge price.
After recovering the sovereignty of Dongsha Island, the Qing government tried to develop Dongsha Island, and after learning of this, the Japanese quickly contacted the Guangdong side, and the two sides signed a series of contracts for consignment sales and contracting in early 1911. According to the contract, the Japanese side is responsible for hiring workers to fish for aquatic products on Dongsha Island, and for every 100 catties of snail shells, the Japanese side needs to pay 10 Hong Kong dollars to the Qing government, while the income of other aquatic products is divided between the Japanese and Qing governments in four or six.
At the beginning of the cooperation, both the Japanese and Qing governments gained good benefits, but before long, with the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, the Japanese soon revealed their true colors.
In 1917, taking advantage of the internal chaos, the Japanese businessman Ishimaru Shosuke quietly landed on Dongsha Island, and stole bird droppings and seaman grass on the island, and his annual harvest of seaman grass was as much as 100,000 catties, and this income alone exceeded 20,000 yuan. This illegal act lasted for seven years, until a British proposal in 1923, when the Japanese revealed their true faces.
Sea man grass
In June 1924, when the representatives of the Beiyang government went to Dongsha Island to conduct on-site investigation, they found that the Japanese had occupied the island for 7 years, but when the Beiyang Government Foreign Ministry and Japan talked about this matter, the Japanese side was scornful, and in desperation, the Beiyang government finally forcibly expelled all the Japanese on the island by force.
In order to avoid the Japanese sneaking onto the island again, since 1928, the Beiyang Navy has been stationed on Dongsha Island for a long time, so far, Dongsha Island has experienced four changes of hands, but the "displacement" of Dongsha Island is far from over.
In 1937, with the full outbreak of the Japanese invasion of China, in order to impose a comprehensive sea blockade on China, the Japanese army sent the destroyer "Yubari" to shell the Dongsha Islands on September 3, and soon, Dongsha Island fell into Japanese hands again. With the participation of the United States in the war, the Japanese army's sea blockade of China was forced to be interrupted, and it was thought that Dongsha Island would smoothly return to China's jurisdiction, but it was not expected that after driving out the Japanese army, the United States fired a monument on Dongsha Island, and also openly raised the American flag on the island.
In 1945, after the surrender of Japan, the United States withdrew from Dongsha Island, because China was short of ships at that time, so Dongsha Island fell into a "borderland" for a full year, until June 1946, the Kuomintang Army successfully took over the management of Dongsha Island, at this point, the 7 degrees of change of hands of Dongsha Island finally returned to China's embrace.
Sovereignty is dignity, and since ancient times, the Chinese nation has always had a firm belief: no foreign forces will be allowed to infringe on China's territorial sovereignty. Our country has endured hundreds of years of humiliation, and it has deeply felt the taste of "being backward and being beaten." Therefore, since the founding of New China, the Chinese nation has been working hard and working hard to climb, and we have spent more than 70 years to finally let China successfully stand in the east of the world.