In addition to describing the Miyakojima victims as Japanese, the Meiji government also demanded compensation from the Qing government in China. The Ryukyu kingdom for many years had performed a ...

In “Meiji Jibutsu Kigen” (Origins of things of the Meiji Era), author Kendo Ishii (1865-1943) recalls how his father gave surnames to people in his neighborhood in the early Meiji Era (1868-1912).