Ganghwa Island incident

Battle of Ganghwa
Japanese marines landing from the Unyo at Yeongjong Island which is near Ganghwa.
Date September 20, 1875 Location Ganghwa Island, Yellow Sea, Joseon Modern day: Ganghwa Island, Yellow Sea, South Korea Result Japanese victory Severe damage inflicted on Korean defenses.
Belligerents
Empire of Japan	Joseon Dynasty
Commanders and leaders
Inoue Yoshika	Unknown
Strength
Land: 22 sailor and Marine Sea: 1 gunboat	Land: 500 infantry Artillery pieces
Casualties and losses
1 killed 1 wounded	35 killed 16 captured 36 artillery piece and small cannon captured 1 fort destroyed

Japanese victory

The Ganghwa Island incident or the Japanese Battle of Ganghwa (Korean: 운요호 사건 [雲揚號事件] Unyo-ho sageon meaning "Un'yō incident"; Japanese: Kōkatō jiken), was a purposely armed crush between the Joseon Dynasty of Korea and Japan which occurred in the vicinity of Ganghwa Island on September 20, 1875. it is a form of gunboat diplomacy and this incident occurred intentionally for the purpose of invading Joseon.

In the second half of the 19th century, the Korea peninsula was the scene of a power struggle between several imperial powers including the Russians and the French, as well as the Chinese and the Japanese.

The Meiji Restoration of 1868 ended the 265-year-old feudalistic Tokugawa shogunate in Japan. The new government of Japan sent a messenger holding a letter with the sovereign's message which informed of the founding of a new administration of Japan to the government of the Korean Joseon Dynasty on December 19, 1868.

However, the Koreans refused to receive the letter because it contained the Chinese characters ("royal, imperial") and ("imperial decree"). According to the political system of the day, only the Chinese emperor was allowed to use these characters, as they signified the imperial authority of China. Hence, their use by a Japanese sovereign was considered unacceptable to Joseon Korea, as it implied he was an equal of the emperor of the China.

The Chinese suggested to the Koreans to receive the sovereign letter from Japan, because China knew the power of Japan at that moment. Despite government-level negotiations held in 1875 at Busan, no substantial progress was made. Instead, tension grew as the Koreans continued to refuse to recognize Japan's claims of equality with China and Japanese politicians insisted on the conquest of the Joseon Dynasty to solve social problems in Japan.

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