Mudan incident
| Mudan Incident | |
|---|---|
Victims Tomb at Gokokuji Temple, Naha City. Okinawa Prefecture | |
| Location | Taiwan Prefecture, Fujian Province, Qing China |
| Date | December 1871 |
Attack type | massacre |
| Deaths | 54 |
| Victim | 54 Ryukyuan sailors |
| Perpetrators | Paiwan Formosans |
The Mudan incident of 1871 (Chinese: 八瑤灣事件、Japanese: 宮古島島民遭難事件、Japanese: 琉球漂流民殺害事件) was the massacre of 54 Ryukyuan sailors in Qing-era Taiwan who wandered into the central part of Taiwan after being shipwrecked off Taiwan's southeastern coast. Twelve survivors were rescued by local Han people and were later returned to Miyako Island in the Ryukyu Islands.
Because the Ryukyu Kingdom was a tributary state of Qing China as well as within the Japanese sphere of influence (to whom they also had a tributary relationship), the massacre was used as a pretext for Japan to invade southern Taiwan in 1874 to avenge "Japanese nationals" and subsequently annex the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1879.