Relapse into Barbarism? Explaining the Port Arthur Massacre, November 1894

Between November 21 and 24, 1894, during the First Sino-Japanese War, Imperial Japanese forces perpetrated a large-scale massacre in Port Arthur, a strategic port in southern Manchuria. This event, relatively understudied in English-language historiography, ran contrary to the Imperial Army’s policy and undermined Japan’s concurrent initiatives to secure Western recognition as a “civilized state.” Moreover, the massacre was an anomaly, considering the generally restrained conduct of the Imperial Japanese Army toward Chinese civilians and POWs during that war. This paper seeks to elucidate the reasons behind the Port Arthur Massacre and place it within its historical context, exploring why Japanese military units acted contrary to state policy and interests. By so doing, it aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics behind unplanned military atrocities, focusing on the hermeneutics of ambiguous orders and the spiral of reciprocal violence between belligerents.