Japanese land in Shantung

On 2 September 1914 the first units of the Japanese 18th Division of General Kamio Mitsuomi began landing at Longkou, on the northern coast of the Chinese province of Shantung. It was the first step of the land operation against Tsingtao, today’s Qingdao, Germany’s main base in the Far East.

A landing on neutral soil

Ten days earlier Japan had declared war on Germany and demanded the surrender of the Kiautschou leased territory. The port of Tsingtao was strongly fortified both on the sea side and on the land side. The Japanese staff therefore decided that the troops would land far from the fortress, beyond the range of its guns, and approach it from the rear. Longkou lies on the opposite side of the peninsula, more than 150 kilometres from Tsingtao, on the territory of China, which had declared its neutrality.

The landing on Chinese soil was an open violation of that neutrality. The weak government in Peking protested but did not oppose the Japanese. Faced with a fait accompli, it merely announced that it could not be responsible for the observance of neutrality in the area of Longkou, Laizhou and Kiautschou Bay, through which the troops of the belligerents were passing. The Japanese soon went beyond these limits, and at the end of September also occupied the railway station at Weixian, and then the whole Shantung railway as far as Jinan.

A march through sodden ground

The weather favoured the defenders. The peninsula was then struck by torrential rain and floods. The roads turned to mud, rivers burst their banks, and the movement of heavy artillery and supply trains was greatly delayed. In the end the Japanese landed some of their forces much closer to the objective: on 18 September in Laoshan Bay, about 30 kilometres east of Tsingtao. A few days later, on 22–23 September, a small British contingent also landed there, and the siege of the fortress ended with its surrender on 7 November 1914.