Battle of Lushunkou The Battle of Lüshunkou ( Japanese : was a land battle of the First Sino - Japanese War . It took place on 21 November 1894 in Lüshunkou , Manchuria ( later called Port Arthur , in present day Liaoning Province , China ) between the forces of the Empire of Japan and the Empire of China . It is sometimes referred to archaically in western sources as the Battle of Port Arthur ( that name is now primarily used for the opening battle of the Russo - Japanese War in 1904 ) . Background . Following the Battle of Jiuliancheng at the Yalu River , and subsequent minor engagements in the Liaodong Peninsula , the strategic aim of Japan was to seize the heavily - defended and strategically important naval base of Lüshunkou , known in the West as “ Port Arthur ” . This naval station had taken the Qing government sixteen years to build , and was considered superior to Hong Kong in its facilities . Defended by its hilly terrain and strengthened with fortifications and powerful artillery , it was widely considered to be an impregnable stronghold . Lüshunkou was also the only facility with dry docks and modern equipment capable of repairing the warships of the Beiyang Fleet , and its loss would mean that China would no longer have the capability to repair any ship damaged in combat . The location of Lüshunkou , at the entrance to the Gulf of Bohai also meant that it controlled the sea approaches to Beijing . The battle . The Imperial Japanese Army ’ s Japanese First Army under the overall command of Oyama Iwao divided into two groups , with one group marching north as a diversion to threaten the Qing ancestral capital of Mukden , and the other marching south down the Liaodong Peninsula towards Lüshunkou . The Imperial Japanese Army ’ s Japanese Second Army , with Lieutenant General Baron Yamaji Motoharu and General Nogi Maresuke landed at Pi - tse - wo ( present day Pikou , Liaoning Province , China ) on 24 October 1894 . On 6 November 1894 Nogi ’ s forces took the walled town of Jinzhou with very little resistance . The Liaodong Peninsula narrowed to only a 2 . 5 mile width just past Jinzhou , so with the town in Japan ’ s hands , Lüshunkou became isolated from its landward approaches . The following day , on 7 November 1894 Nogi marched into the port town of Dalian with no resistance , as its defenders had fled to Lüshunkou the previous night . The intact capture of the dock facilities greatly facilitated Japanese supply lines , as in their haste to depart , the defenders had even left behind plans to the minefield s and details to the defenses of Lüshunkou . To make matters worse for the defenders of Lüshunkou , the Beiyang Fleet had received orders from Viceroy Li Hongzhang ( based in Tianjin ) to withdraw to Weihaiwei rather than risk engagement with the Imperial Japanese Navy , and was thus not able to play any role in the defense of their base . Worse still , when withdrawing from Lüshunkou , the flagship of the Beiyang Fleet , the battleship " Zhenyuan " , struck rocks at the entrance of Weihaiwei harbor and had to be beached . As the only docks capable of making repairs were at Lüshunkou , this effectively put it out of commission for the remainder of the war . Skirmishing on the outskirts of Lüshunkou began on 20 November 1894 , creating a panic among the defenders resulting in looting and destruction of property . Most of the Qing officers fled on two small boats which remained in port , leaving their men to their fate . The assault on Lüshunkou began after midnight on 21 November 1894 . Under heavy fire , the Japanese forces had stormed all of the important landward defenses by noon the following day . The shore fortifications held out a bit longer , but the final one fell to the Japanese by 1700 hours . During the night of 22 November 1894 , the surviving Chinese defenders deserted their remaining positions , abandoning 57 large - caliber and 163 small - caliber artillery pieces . The fortifications , dockyards and a large supply of coal were captured largely intact by the Japanese . When the Japanese forces entered the city , they were fired upon from houses where Chinese soldiers had hidden themselves and had put on civilian dress so as to better blend in with the local population . The Japanese responded with a house - to - house search , killing many adult males who offered resistance . Chinese casualties were officially estimated at 4000 killed . The Japanese lost only 29 men killed , 233 wounded . Aftermath of the battle . The speed of the Japanese victory at Lüshunkou was regarded as a turning point in the war by contemporary Western observers and was a strong blow to the prestige of the Qing government . The Chinese government responded by denying that the naval base had fallen , and stripped Li Hongzhang of his official titles . However , Japanese prestige over the victory was tempered by an account of a widespread massacre of the Chinese inhabitants of the city by victorious Japanese troops , allegedly in response to the torture and murderous treatment the Chinese had shown Japanese prisoners of war at Pyongyang and elsewhere . The report , made by a Western newspaper correspondent known for sensationalism and yellow journalism was highly controversial , as other correspondents present initially denied that such events had occurred . News of a massacre soon spread among the Western public , damaging Japan ' s public image and nearly torpedoing ongoing effort by Japan to renegotiate the unequal treaties with the United States . The event came to be popularly known as the Port Arthur massacre .