Cartoon from Marumaru Chinbun [ja], 24 May 1879, with the caption 'Japan trying to obtain sole possession of the "Colossus of Riukiu" by pulling China's leg'; playing upon the Colossus of Rhodes, the figure stands with one foot in China one in Japan, and carries a jar, identifiable from its label (泡盛), of the distinctive Ryūkyūan awamori[1]
The Ryukyu Disposition (琉球処分, Ryūkyū shobun),[2][3] also called the Ryukyu Annexation (琉球併合, Ryūkyū heigō)[4][5][6] or the annexation of Okinawa,[7][8] was the political process during the early years of the Meiji period that saw the incorporation of the former Ryukyu Kingdom into the Empire of Japan as Okinawa Prefecture (i.e., one of Japan's "home" prefectures) and its decoupling from the Chinese tributary system.[9][10] These processes began with the creation of the Ryukyu Domain in 1872 and culminated in the kingdom's annexation and final dissolution in 1879; immediate diplomatic fallout and consequent negotiations with Qing China, brokered by Ulysses S. Grant, effectively came to an end late the following year.[1][11] The term is also sometimes used more narrowly in relation to the events and changes of 1879 alone.[12] The Ryūkyū Disposition has been "alternatively characterized as aggression, annexation, national unification, or internal reform".[9]
^ abTze May Loo (2014). Heritage Politics: Shuri Castle and Okinawa's Incorporation into Modern Japan, 1879–2000. Lexington Books. pp. 2–39, 50. ISBN978-0739182482.
^Iwao Seiichi; et al., eds. (1991). "Ryūkyū-han". Dictionnaire historique du Japon (in French). Vol. XVII (Lettres R (2) et S (1)). Kinokuniya. pp. 61–62.