November 7, 1914

One hundred years ago today the after weeks of siege and hundreds of casualties, the German held port of Tsingtao (in China) fell to the Japanese army. The Japanese army took 4,700 German prisoners of war. The German prisoners of war spent the remained  of the war in Japan. The Japanese government treated the German prisoners well and over one hundred chose to remain in Japan after the war.

The victory at Tsingtao solidified Japan as a rise power in East Asia.  In the past twenty years Japan had defeated its rival China in a war and two European powers, Russia and now Germany. Until Japan's victories, a European nation had never lost a war against a non-European nation in modern history. Japan's expansion in territory and power would continue until World War II.