maintained in China to protect Italian interests there. Japan Japan provided the largest contingent of troops; 20,840, as well as 18 warships. Of the total number, 20,300 were Imperial Japanese Army troops of the 5th Infantry Division under Lieutenant General Yamaguchi Motoomi; the remainder were 540 naval rikusentai (Marines) from the Imperial Japanese Navy. At the beginning of the Boxer Rebellion, the Japanese had only 215 troops in northern China stationed at Tientsin, nearly all of whom were naval rikusentai from the and the , under the command of Captain Shimamura Hayao. The Japanese were able to contribute 52 men to the Seymour Expedition. On June 12, the advance of the Seymour Expedition was halted some 30 miles from the capital, by mixed Boxer and Chinese regular army forces. The vastly-outnumbered allies withdrew to the vicinity of Tianjin and had suffered more than 300 casualties. The army general staff in Tokyo had become aware of the worsening conditions in China and had drafted ambitious contingency plans, but the government, in the wake of the Triple Intervention five years earlier, refused to deploy a large contingent of troops unless it was requested by the western powers. However, three days later a provisional force of 1,300 troops, commanded by Major General Fukushima Yasumasa, was deployed to northern China. Fukushima was chosen because of his ability to speak fluent English, which enabled him to communicate with the British commander. The force landed near Tianjin on July 5. On June 17, naval Rikusentai from the Kasagi and Atago had joined British, Russian and German sailors to seize the Dagu forts, near Tianjin. The British, in light of the precarious situation, were compelled to ask Japan for additional reinforcements since the Japanese had the only readily available forces in the region. Britain at the time was heavily engaged in the Boer War and so much of the British Army was tied down in South Africa. In addition, deploying large numbers of troops from its garrisons in India would take too much time and weaken internal security there. Overriding personal doubts, Foreign Minister Aoki Shūzō calculated that the advantages of participating in an allied coalition were too attractive to ignore. Prime Minister Yamagata likewise concurred, but others in the cabinet demanded that guarantees from the British in return for the risks and costs of the major deployment of Japanese troops. On July 6, the 5th Infantry