Bombardment of Kagoshima

What Happened

From 15 to 17 August 1863, a Royal Navy fleet commanded by Sir Augustus Kuper bombarded the city of Kagoshima, the seat of the Satsuma Domain. The attack was the climax of a confrontation that had begun the previous year, when a British merchant was killed by Satsuma retainers in the Namamugi incident. The British fleet arrived in Kagoshima Bay demanding compensation and the punishment of those responsible, but negotiations broke down and Satsuma coastal batteries opened fire on the British ships.

The British returned fire, shelling the city and setting much of it ablaze. Despite the destruction, the bombardment did not achieve a decisive military result. The Satsuma batteries inflicted damage on several British vessels, and Kuper withdrew his fleet after two days of fighting. The Satsuma Domain declared victory, though the engagement was followed by negotiations in which the domain agreed to pay compensation and punish the offenders connected to the Namamugi incident.

Background

The Namamugi incident occurred in September 1862, when a party of British merchants travelling near the village of Namamugi on the Tōkaidō road encountered the procession of Shimazu Hisamitsu, the father and regent of the Satsuma daimyo. One of the merchants, Charles Lennox Richardson, refused to dismount and was cut down by Satsuma samurai. The British government demanded an apology and a large indemnity from the Satsuma Domain, but the domain refused, and the shogunate was unable or unwilling to force compliance.

By the summer of 1863, the British had decided on a show of force. A squadron under Sir Augustus Kuper was dispatched to Kagoshima to press the demands directly. The daimyo of Satsuma at the time was Shimazu Tadayoshi, but real authority rested with his father, Shimazu Hisamitsu, who had ordered the attack on Richardson. The British hoped that a demonstration off the Satsuma coast would compel the domain to yield without a fight.

The situation was further complicated by the broader political climate of the Bakumatsu period, the final years of the Edo period (1603–1868). Anti-foreign sentiment was running high across Japan, and the Satsuma Domain was a leading voice among those who favoured expelling the foreigners. The British bombardment was therefore not merely a punitive expedition; it was also a test of whether the most powerful domain in southern Japan could be brought to terms by naval force.

Why It Mattered

The bombardment was a turning point for Satsuma. Although the domain publicly claimed victory, the destruction of Kagoshima made clear that the samurai class could not simply defy the naval power of Britain. Within months, Satsuma opened negotiations with the British and agreed to pay the indemnity and punish the men involved in the Namamugi incident. The settlement was a humiliation, but it also brought Satsuma into contact with British military and industrial technology.

That contact proved decisive in the years that followed. Satsuma would go on to purchase British warships and weapons, and the domain’s leaders came to understand that the path to strength lay in modernisation rather than isolation. Many of the young samurai who witnessed the bombardment later became leading figures in the Meiji Restoration, and several went on to serve as admirals and generals in the new imperial navy and army.

The engagement also demonstrated to the Western powers that Japan’s domains could fight back effectively. The British had expected an easy victory, but the Satsuma batteries damaged their ships and forced a retreat. This result, combined with the earlier bombardment of Shimonoseki in 1864, convinced Britain that a policy of pure coercion would be costly, and it shifted towards a more diplomatic approach to Japan.

The Name in Japanese

The Japanese name for the bombardment is 薩英戦争, read in kana as さつえいせんそう and in romaji as Satsu-Ei Sensō. The name translates roughly as the "Satsuma–British War", and it is the standard Japanese term for the conflict.

The name breaks down into three characters:

• 薩 (さつ, satsu): a character used in the name of the province of Satsuma (薩摩, Satsuma). On its own it does not carry an independent meaning in everyday Japanese; it functions as a phonetic and geographical marker for the domain.

• 英 (えい, ei): this character means "England" or "Britain". It is the same character used in the word 英語 (eigo), meaning the English language, and 英国 (Eikoku), meaning Britain. The character originally referred to a flower or something flourishing, but in this context it is a shorthand for the United Kingdom.

• 戦争 (せんそう, sensō): this compound means "war". The first character, 戦 (sen), means "war" or "battle", and the second, 争 (sō), means "to dispute" or "to contend". Together they form the standard Japanese word for war.

The full name 薩英戦争 thus reads literally as "Satsuma–Britain War". It is worth noting that the Japanese name frames the conflict as a war between equals, whereas the English name "Bombardment of Kagoshima" emphasises the British naval action against the city. The two names reflect the different ways the two sides remembered the event.

Key Figures

Sir Augustus Kuper was the British admiral who commanded the Royal Navy squadron at Kagoshima. He had been sent to Japan to press the British demands arising from the Namamugi incident, and he ordered the bombardment after the Satsuma batteries opened fire on his ships.

Shimazu Tadayoshi was the daimyo of the Satsuma Domain at the time of the bombardment. He was the nominal ruler of the domain, though effective power lay with his father, Shimazu Hisamitsu, who had been responsible for the Namamugi attack.

Shimazu Hisamitsu was the father and regent of the daimyo, and the man who had ordered the killing of Charles Richardson. He was a leading advocate of the anti-foreign movement and refused the British demands until the bombardment forced a change of policy.

Several young samurai who took part in the defence of Kagoshima later became prominent in the Meiji era. Tōgō Heihachirō, who served as a gunnery officer during the bombardment, went on to become the admiral who defeated the Russian fleet at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. Yamamoto Gonnohyōe, Nire Kagenori, Kabayama Sukenori, and Shibayama Yahachi also fought at Kagoshima and later rose to high rank in the imperial Japanese navy. Saigō Tsugumichi, a younger brother of the famous Saigō Takamori, also participated and later became a general and a minister in the Meiji government. Kanehiro Ijūin, another Satsuma samurai present at the bombardment, later served as a naval officer and politician.