The historian Matayoshi Seikiyo points out that the killing of the officers and crew from Miyako Island by Puyuma aborigines provided Japan with a perfect fig leaf to mask its expansionist ambitions.
但是在沖繩人又吉盛清的論述中，琉球遭受台灣排灣族番害，使得日本出兵為琉球人討回公道，其實是明治政府自以為正當的構想。