MM Movie Review: The Last Samurai

“The Last Samurai” is a 2003 film I shall classify as “historical fiction” directed by Edward Zwick and starring Tom Cruise, Timothy Spall and Ken Watanabe. In describing what the film is about one of the major problems with it comes up immediately. As it is entirely a work of fiction, there is some debate over exactly what events the filmmakers are trying to portray here. It depicts a washed-up American cavalry officer who is hired by the government of Meiji Japan to train the newly established Imperial Japanese Army. This officer, Captain Nathan Algren played by Tom Cruise, is a veteran of the Indian Wars who is haunted by his experiences, particularly the atrocities committed by his unit in fighting the American Indians. He is then pushed into acting as an advisor to the Imperial Japanese Army as they confront an army of rebel samurai. Algren is taken prisoner by these samurai rebels, comes to sympathize with their cause, seeing them as analogous to the American Indians who fought the U.S. government, and finally joins them in their “last stand” against the imperial army.

Teaching the Japanese what they already would've known..

One thing to make clear at the outset is that absolutely nothing even remotely like this ever happened in Japanese history. However, the events in the film are generally said to have been inspired by the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 with the leader of the samurai rebels, Lord Moritsugu Katsumoto played by Ken Watanabe, standing in for the historical figure of Saigo Takamori. The character in the film, however, is nothing like the historical figure and no one like the character of Captain Algren ever existed at all. He is portrayed as an alcoholic, haunted by demons from his past, forced to take a job because of his desperate poverty. His former superior officer who recruits him for this job in Japan is a moustache-twirling villain who is hired by equally stereotypical villainous Japanese government officials who are portrayed as cruel and corrupt, dominating the noble, young, Meiji Emperor to enrich themselves in collaboration with the unscrupulous Americans. Again, nothing like this ever happened. Captain Algren begins training the Imperial Japanese Army but, before he thinks they are ready, these men are sent into combat after a series of attacks by samurai rebels.

If all else fails...CHARGE!!!

For some reason, despite being hired simply as a military instructor, Algren accompanies these soldiers on their campaign and, of course, ends up taking part in the battle, effectively commanding them, they are wiped out easily by the samurai and Algren is taken prisoner. Held in the stronghold of the rebels in a remote village, he lives with the wife of a samurai he had killed in the battle, eventually learns Japanese and comes to sympathize with his captors. He trains with them, learns their ways, all in a part of the film that has caused many to refer to this as “Dances with Wolves” set in Japan. Finally, the rebel leader Katsumoto goes to the capital to attend a council meeting in which he hopes to convince the Meiji Emperor to see things his way. However, he doesn’t attend the meeting at all because he refuses to take off his swords, the wicked government officials try to assassinate him and Algren goes with him to prepare for the final battle. Algren becomes a samurai and fights with Katsumoto in the climactic battle of the movie against the Imperial Army, presumably based on the historic Battle of Shiroyama though of course what happens in the film is nothing like what happened in real life.

Brunet

The most obvious problem with this movie is Tom Cruise and his character. The Japanese did not hire American veterans to train their army. During the period of modernization the Meiji government did try to learn from the west but they were much more influenced by the European powers such as Britain, France and Germany than by the United States. The U.S. had obviously played the decisive part in opening Japan up to the outside world but after that point American involvement was minimal. Indeed, the closest historical parallel to the character of Algren is usually given to be Captain Jules Brunet of the French army, however his involvement in Japan was earlier than the period depicted in this film. He was involved in the Boshin War, part of the fighting over the Meiji Restoration, not the subsequent modernization that happened in Japan. This, however, necessitates pointing out another glaring inaccuracy in the film which is the attitude of the rebel samurai toward foreigners and foreign ideas and tools, particularly weapons.

Muskets and volley fire were long established

In the movie, the rebel samurai are portrayed as fighting for the pure soul of Japan, Japanese tradition and as a matter of honor only fight with traditional Japanese weapons. This means they do not use firearms. Pardon me for being blunt but this is flat out retarded. The samurai rebels of the Satsuma rebellion were, to an extent, fighting for traditional ways but they were not stupid and would not refuse to use weapons that would help their cause. The Japanese had been using firearms for centuries ever since the first Portuguese explorers came to Japan and showed them what they were and how they worked. The Japanese immediately built their own firearms and used them forever after. Ranks of ashigaru armed with muskets were a staple of Japanese samurai armies throughout the famous Sengoku Period. Prior to the period of isolation under the Tokugawa Shogunate, many Japanese daimyos made extensive use of firearms with muskets, artillery and naval canon. The man who began the reunification of Japan, Oda Nobunaga, was one of the most enthusiastic about these western innovations.

Personally, I have often imagined what might have happened if Oda Nobunaga had not been assassinated, imagining Japan being united and modernizing earlier and sailing out into the northern Pacific to get in on the colonization of North America via Alaska and California, but that is getting off topic. The point is that no one in Japan would have considered firearms to be dishonorable or even “foreign” at all considering that they had been making and using such weapons for centuries to the point that their warfare was dominated by them long before Commodore Perry ever appeared on the horizon. This also highlights the way the film tries to simplify everything by having one side working with foreign powers and the other side shunning them (aside from Algren of course who adopts Japanese ways). The open to foreigners versus nativist dynamic was not the primary element of the Satsuma Rebellion but would have been more closely related to that of the previous Boshin War. However, even then, it was not so simple as both the shogunate and imperial forces had foreign powers they worked with against each other. As the historical case of Captain Brunet demonstrates, the forces loyal to the shogun had French backers whereas the imperial forces had British support.

Saigo Takamori

Brunet himself wrote to Napoleon III that the daimyos loyal to the shogun were friendly to France and that their victory would mean a greater French influence in the future Japan. No doubt the British backed the imperial forces for the same reason. Neither were open allies of course and neither would have all that much greater a position of favor in Meiji Japan but the point is that each side had foreign support and the rebels were not so puritanical as to shun any and all outside assistance. They would even ultimately adopt a rather foreign government model with a republic and a president; the Republic of Ezo. Their system was, to an extent, inspired by that of the United States yet there was no significant American involvement in this and it all happened in 1869, long before the events portrayed in this film. Saigo Takamori, on whom Katsumoto is based, fought with firearms as Japanese armies had long done, he often wore the western-inspired uniform (most similar to that of the French army of the time) as did the earlier rebel leaders of the Boshin War. Captain Brunet, it should also be mentioned, quite unlike Algren, did not ‘go native’ but rather insisted the Japanese adopt French customs.

Moreover, Saigo Takamori was no isolationist or backward-looking reactionary. He had supported the imperial party in the Meiji Restoration, he helped in the modernization and formation of the Imperial Japanese Army and advocated the conquest of Korea as a way to unite the country, gain foreign respect and provide the disgruntled samurai with an honorable death in battle. Far from shunning western technology, he established his own network of military academies throughout his prefecture and opened his own artillery school. Rebellion broke out when the imperial government tried to disarm these academies, fearing they could pose a threat and inadvertently provoking the very rebellion they had hoped to prevent. Saigo Takamori agreed to lead the rebellion that had already broken out, wearing his western-style army uniform at the head of a column of well-armed men who had raided government arsenals in order to do no more than demand reforms and the removal of corrupt officials and their replacement by men of more traditional Japanese morality.

The Battle of Shiroyama

The film is correct in depicting Katsumoto as a reluctant rebel. Saigo Takamori was insistent that he did not desire war and was loyal to the Emperor, that his only concerns regarded the government but the government would agree to nothing under threat of force and so warfare ensued. However, unlike in the film, the rebel forces never won any significant victories over the imperial forces. Their final confrontation, the Battle of Shiroyama, was not like what was depicted in the film at all but was similar at least in so far as it was an extremely heroic stand against impossible odds. The rebels were outnumbered roughly 60-to-1, were intensely shelled and faced assaults by huge numbers of imperial troops until the last handful of survivors drew their swords and charged to certain death. Saigo Takamori did not survive the battle though there is some dispute as to whether he died of his wounds or committed ritual suicide. Either way, even those who blamed the rebellion for setting back the Japanese economy and causing the samurai class to be viewed with suspicion could not help but admire the heroism of Saigo Takamori and his men.

His Majesty the Meiji Emperor did pardon Saigo Takamori posthumously but it is rather overstretching things to say, as the film does, that this gave Emperor Meiji the courage to slow down westernization and insist on Japanese traditions being retained. This was not something that the actual Meiji Emperor needed to learn. His father had been the most vociferous in rejecting any foreign contact with Japan at all and the Meiji Emperor was always cautious and rather suspect when it came to foreigners from the very beginning. He simply understood that isolation was no longer an option and if Japan was to avoid being dominated by foreigners, it would have to become as strong as the other foreign powers and this, during his reign, the Empire of Japan managed astoundingly well.

Low ranking foreign devils meet the Emperor

On the whole, “The Last Samurai” seems rather too full of tropes and very much lacking in any semblance to actual history. It is very well photographed, the visuals are extremely good and it at least does not ultimately depict the lone westerner as the one who saves the day. Algren is just along for the ride. It can be very moving at times and does get some things right, at least in terms of overall sentiment, which is to say being ‘true to life’ rather than actually true. I did like the scene toward the end when the imperial soldiers all bow down in respect to the courage of the defeated samurai rebels. Actual history is practically nonexistent. What is portrayed is simply not what happened in the Satsuma Rebellion, the rebels did not refrain from using firearms, the imperial army was not inept and not trained by American soldiers nor would any hired captain ever have been allowed into the presence of the Emperor. However, the actors mostly do very well, it can be entertaining and you do get to see Tom Cruise get the ever living crap beaten out of him on several occasions. There is that.

China and Japan, Should the West Care?

In recent years, the People’s Republic of Chinese Sweatshops has been growing at a rapid rate in terms of the size of its economy and massively building up its military forces, particularly its oddly named People’s Liberation Army Navy. They are currently finishing up their first domestically produced aircraft carrier, having one already in service they purchased from Ukraine, an old Soviet vessel basically used as a starting point for Chinese naval engineers. Similarly, China is expanding its submarine fleet faster than any other power and gone are the days of the noisy death traps known as the Han-class boats and the Romeo-class Soviet relics, the Shang-class nuclear attack subs are no laughing matter and after purchasing and studying a number of very effective Russian Kilo-class diesel boats, the recent Chinese made Song and Yuan-class boats are of comparative quality. China has also been building artificial islands, complete with aircraft platforms and weapons systems in the South China Sea and establishing naval bases in places such as Ceylon, Pakistan and Djibouti. Obviously, this is an effort to secure control of the main trade route between East Asia and Europe.

Should the western world care about this? Before addressing that, it must be noted that one country which cares very much is Japan. Ignoring the leftist, mainstream, “fake news” media like NHK, I will point to a more rational news source, the conservative Sankei Shimbun and the new online outlet Japan Forward. I think this is particularly appropriate since Japan Forward is the effort to spread a conservative Japanese news source to a wider, international, audience, particularly the Anglosphere. For example, Japan Forward frequently carries articles warning about the threat posed by China, offering advice on what the United States, Japan and other countries can or should do about it and criticizing any hint of the U.S. or Japanese governments taking their ‘eyes off the ball’ that is Pseudo-Communist China. Japan Forward recently ran a special, three part series on countering the building of militarized, artificial islands by China in the South China Sea (read it here). Any of these articles, taken on their own, put forward a compelling case. However, it is when World War II enters the conversation, which is absolutely inevitable when dealing with Japan as *everything* revolves around World War II, that we start to have problems at least so far as the U.S. and the West are concerned.

To illustrate this, I point to an interview, also in Japan Forward, by YouTube personality Yoko Mada with Hidetoshi Ishii, “a Japanese expert on the politics and history of Asia” who has very definite ideas on what needs to happen in the region (see it or read it here). First of all, for those on the left or even moderate right anywhere in the western world, any Japanese talk of a “Greater Asia” is inevitably going to cause blowback over memories of Imperial Japan’s “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” and the “Greater East Asian War” (which is what Japan calls World War II, look for Hitler and Mussolini far under the bus). They bring up something I have written about before (here, a plug for me this time) which is the claim that Imperial Japan was really the “good guys” in World War II, in fact the *only* “good guys” (Adolf & Benito still under that bus) as Japan was fighting a righteous war for ‘Freedom’ to liberate Asia from the wicked, western, colonial powers, because colonialism is a western thing, it is racist, it is wrong, it is evil and before you even ask, no, Korea doesn’t count, because it’s not colonialism if Japan does it. Silly. It is also noteworthy that, in the interview, a great emphasis is placed on Hong Kong (the former British Crown Colony now languishing under mainland rule) and that everyone in Japan, and America and the western world should back the cause of Hong Kong independence from China.

Now is the time to pose the question, in light of the Japanese argument, as to why the USA, the wider Anglosphere or Europe should really care about this. Should they? Do any really have a vital interest in seeing China stopped? To be clear, I think the current bandit regime that sits in Peking is illegitimate and monstrous, I have been unhappy with every Chinese regime since 1912 but, from a purely pragmatic perspective, what business is it of anyone in North America or Western Europe? The Chinese government, based on their military buildup, their establishment of naval bases and the ongoing construction of a new “Silk Road” are clearly, in my view, trying to gain control of the trade route which is vital to their overwhelmingly export-dependent economy. This is certainly a threat to those in competition with China but, as things currently stand, that list would not include North America or Europe which rely almost as heavily on Chinese imports as the Chinese economy depends on exports to these parts of the world. In short, the only cause for concern for the west would be China shutting off this trade route which is the last thing the Chinese would want to do as they would suffer the most from it as North America and Western Europe in particular buy more from them than anyone else. As things stand now, the west does not produce, it consumes and China depends more on that consumption than the west does on Chinese production.

In the old days, prior to World War II, things were very different. Countries such as Great Britain, France, The Netherlands, Portugal and the United States had an interest in Asia because they had colonies there which were important parts of their economies. If you go back prior to World War I, Germany did as well (and to a much lesser extent, a few others too). This is not the case anymore obviously. The British started giving up their Asian colonies almost as soon as the war was over. The Dutch had to give up the East Indies in 1949, the French were forced out of Indochina in 1955, Portugal lost Goa to India in 1961 and handed over Macau in 1999, the United States had agreed to Filipino independence before World War II, delivered it in 1946 and was evicted from Subic Bay in 1992. All of this, according to the “Japan fought World War II to end western colonialism” narrative, is ultimately thanks to Japan and, as such, runs contrary to the Japanese argument that the western powers today have any real, vital, national interest in what happens in the region. Why should, for example, the British ultimately care if Hong Kong remains a part of China or becomes independent when Hong Kong stopped being a British concern in 1997? And, again, based on the point that the same country arguing that Britain should be concerned is also arguing that they ultimately deserve the “credit” for Britain losing her Asian colonies in the first place.

“Asia for the Asians” was the Japanese slogan in World War II, and now, that is truly the case. It is why some on the right in Japan have argued that they didn’t really lose the war at all, because the goal was to get the westerners out of Asia and now they are all gone. Why then should the USA or any western power continue to take an active interest in Asian affairs? I do not doubt that some might notice that, when Japan said “Asia for the Asians” in the 1930’s and 40’s, the Empire of Japan was the strongest power in East Asia whereas today, economically and militarily, China is once again the dominant force in the region. Could that have anything to do with the Japanese attitude of, ’give up your colonies and get out of here but then come back and do something about China’? For Japan, the effort to justify their last war is running contrary to their current desire for support against a powerful and zealously anti-Japanese neighbor.

This is not unique to Japan, it is only that Japan, because of the war, casts itself more broadly, taking “credit” for the end of the other empires touching East Asia. However, since the Chinese military buildup, The Philippines has now said some U.S. troops can come back to Subic Bay after all and even Vietnam, which bases so much of its current identity on anti-Americanism, has decided that the United States isn’t really all *that* bad and now allows American warships to visit Vietnamese ports. If they were in a position to help them at all, I don’t doubt they would take the same attitude toward the French. From the point of view of western civilization, how is any of this not seen as a case of trying to have your cake and eat it too? In other words, why should western powers protect eastern powers for nothing in return? The strength and potential threat of China is supposed to justify everything and yet, the west, thanks mostly to allowing China into the World Trade Organization and other similar acts, is economically invested in maintaining good relations with China. Whether a good decision or not (and I think it was not), this is nonetheless a fact.

I also must repeat something I have said before which is, when making an argument, it is important to remember who exactly you are trying to persuade. In the case of Japanese conservative outlets trying to make the case against China, their target audience would be western conservatives. Western leftists certainly have no desire to confront China, being largely in sympathy with them, however, by tying so much back to their justification of World War II as a righteous, anti-western, “holy war” against colonialism, I fail to see how the Japanese could convince those on the right in the west who either stand by their former empires, defend their memory and deplore that they were lost, or agree that Asia should be “for the Asians” and of no concern to the west at all, these being more concerned with issues such as terrorism, immigration and demography in western countries than with anything China is doing on the other side of the world. In my experience, these same westerners often see much to admire about Japan but nonetheless view Japan as “them” and nothing to do with “us” which the Japanese narrative actually encourages by casting themselves as the ‘anti-imperialist’ empire.

Personally, I would have preferred Japan and the Allies never went to war at all or would have preferred the Japanese to have attacked the Soviet Union rather than the British and Dutch in Southeast Asia. I prefer the days when the Empire of Japan was still around and one of the club. I would have also liked to see a revived Qing Empire in China as part of that club as well. In any confrontation between Communist China and the State of Japan, my own sympathies are certainly going to be with the Japanese and, in the event of such a calamity, my friends know I would do anything to help them. When taken up to the level of countries, however, national interest is the determining factor and since the end of the colonial period, commerce is the only way the west is involved with the East Asia. The Chinese army is not threatening to invade Europe or North America and if the Australians considered such a thing remotely possible, they would probably have taken care to maintain a navy that would actually pose a challenge.

Since the European colonies in Asia were lost, no European power is frankly able to intervene in the region as they have no bases there any longer. So, as some in Britain have admitted, when anyone in the west says “we” should do something, it actually means that the United States should do something. As it concerns China, the mainstream right is concerned about China, the left is not but it is the right which most runs counter to the Japanese narrative as they are the only ones in America willing to take America’s side in its wars and interventions. The only sizeable group which actually agrees with much of the Japanese narrative are the libertarians, however, they illustrate perfectly the problem with Japan’s argument since they point to the same things Japan points to, such as western colonialism, as precisely the evidence for America not being involved in Asia at all. Just as they condemn the sanctions placed on Imperial Japan in the past, so too do they oppose any disruption of trade between America and China today.

Given the current state of affairs, it could well be argued that China poses an existential threat to Japan, not only because of their military strength but because of the degree to which anti-Japanese hatred is used as a unifying force in China. What is more difficult to argue is that China poses an existential threat to America or western civilization in general. Most of the west is frankly unable to do anything even if it should and, as for the United States, the most potent threat posed by China is the possibility of China’s new currency system replacing the dollar as the international reserve currency. That, however, is something that will not and cannot be stopped by American bases in Japan, American troops in South Korea or by the elimination of artificial islands in the South China Sea. Western civilization is under threat, of that I am in no doubt. However, that China is such a threat seems dubious, though I am open to arguments on the subject. With no real stake in the region, since the end of western colonialism, it seems more like the west is being called upon to, once again, take the side of others in a fight that is not theirs.

Catholic Saints, Korea and Japan

In 2014 I wrote an article titled, “Assassins, Sainthood and Joan of Arc” in which I commented on the cause for canonization currently underway in the Republic of Korea for Ahn Jung Geun, a Korean Catholic most famous for being the man who assassinated the first Prime Minister of the Empire of Japan, Prince Ito Hirobumi. Not surprisingly, this move raised some eyebrows given that Ahn Jung Geun not only seemed to be rather deranged and perhaps not in full possession of his faculties but particularly because the one act in his life which made him famous was not caring for the unfortunate, giving his life for his faith or converting people to Christianity but was, rather, the murder of an unarmed man and gunning down several others. He has, since his death, been lavished with praise and honor by the governments of South Korea and Communist China while, not surprisingly, being regarded as a terrorist and murderer in Japan. Obviously, there are a great many political implications for the Catholic bishops in South Korea promoting the canonization of this individual.

Mass in Japan

The Japanese have every reason to object to this and it would certainly be an unusual thing for the Catholic Church to do. The Church did not, as I pointed out in 2014, give in to the public call for the canonization of Balthazar Gerard in the 1580’s who had assassinated the Dutch leader Prince Willem “the Silent” of Orange. However, the Roman Catholic Church of today is quite different from that of the Sixteenth Century and in recent years the requirements for canonization have been “streamlined” considerably so that it is much easier to have someone canonized today than in the past when it might take several centuries for someone to be verified as a saint worthy of veneration. In other words, as much as I would oppose the canonization of such an individual, I do not think it beyond the realm of possibility that the Catholic Church today might go along with it, that the Holy See might simply go along with the recommendations of the Korean bishops who are pushing for this assassin to be recognized as a saint. I made my objections clear enough, I think, in that 2014 article but today I want to propose a positive action that the Japanese could take in response to this.

Konishi Yukinaga

The Catholic Church in Japan should, I think, propose a more worthy figure from their own history for canonization. I think the Japanese bishops should start a cause for the canonization of Konishi Yukinaga. For those unfamiliar with his exploits, you can read the story of the conflict he is most famous for in my recent article, “Clash of Monarchies: The Imjin War”. Konishi Yukinaga was a great Japanese warrior, a daimyo and a Catholic. He was also the leader of the vanguard force of the samurai armies of Toyotomi Hideyoshi which invaded Korea in 1592. He led the conquest of Busan, was instrumental in the conquest of the Korean royal capital of Seoul and gained further fame for his defense of the captured city of Pyongyang against the armies of Ming China. After a peaceful interlude he arranged, Yukinaga, who was also known by his baptismal name of Augustine (in Portuguese) Konishi, still played a prominent part in the second invasion of Korea, even fighting alongside a bitter rival of his, the daimyo Kato Kiyomasa who had a vicious hatred of Christians. In the final period of the war, Konishi was most distinguished by his heroic defense of Suncheon Castle against much larger Chinese and Korean forces.

All of that makes, I think, Konishi Yukinaga worthy of being considered one of the best Japanese warriors of his time but, of course, it does not make someone worthy of canonization. That being said, neither does the murder of a foreign dignitary which is what Anh Jung Geun is most known for. Is there anything else that would make Konishi Yukinaga more worthy of being “Saint Augustine Konishi”? I would say, yes. In the first place, his faith was obviously important to him and this is significant as other Japanese Christians of the period are often accused of being insincere in their conversions. It is not uncommon to find Japanese daimyos in particular, Otomo Sorin comes to mind, who are accused of converting simply to gain greater favor and cooperation from the Portuguese and who did not genuinely accept Christianity. Personally, I find such accusations to often be unfair but in any event this would not apply to Konishi Yukinaga. After the war in Korea, following the death of Lord Hideyoshi, the Japanese fought another civil war over who would take charge of the country. Konishi backed Ishida Mitsunari, unfortunately for him, rather than Tokugawa Ieyasu and was defeated at the Battle of Sekigahara. In the aftermath, in keeping with custom, the defeated daimyos committed ritual suicide. Konishi, who was captured by Takenaka Shigekado at Mount Ibuki, refused to kill himself because, as a Christian, this would be a sin and so he was beheaded by his captors.

Konishi Yukinaga

This, I think, is proof enough that Konishi was a sincere Christian. However, more than that, he was also something of a peacemaker and got himself into some trouble over his desire to make peace. The Koreans would no doubt object to the canonization of the conqueror of their capital just as the Japanese object to the idea of canonizing the assassin of their first prime minister but Konishi Yukinaga was no anti-Korean bigot. Before he landed his invasion force, he sent a last message to again urge the Koreans to join with his forces in friendship to fight against their Chinese overlords only to be rebuffed. Then, after China intervened in the war, he and a Chinese envoy arranged a period of peace for several years. This was controversial because it was a peace based on a deception. Konishi and the Chinese envoy both, basically, agreed to tell their masters what they wanted to hear. So, Konishi Yukinaga told Lord Hideyoshi that the Chinese had agreed to surrender and the Chinese envoy told the Ming Emperor that the Japanese had agreed to surrender. For a fear years, the war ended and peace prevailed until Lord Hideyoshi received a message from the Ming Emperor granting him the tributary status of “King of Japan” which caused no small amount of outrage and a great deal of anger directed at Konishi Yukinaga.

Obviously, this was not a successful or very sound effort at peace but it was an effort to make peace nonetheless. “Blessed are the peacemakers” is what Christ said and Konishi Yukinaga had tried, even if not by the best means, to be such a peacemaker. We can also see that Konishi was not an anti-Korean bigot as well as how serious he was about his faith by the fact that he married a Korean woman during the war and she was baptized as a Christian, taking the name of “Julia”. Historians still debate the issue but it is quite possible that the Catholic Japanese samurai were the first Christians to ever come to Korea and if so, Julia would have converted at the time of her marriage which shows that Konishi Yukinaga had no prejudice against Koreans and also that his Christian faith was important enough to him that he insist his wife become Catholic as well so that they would have a proper Catholic family.

Having said all of this, I have no doubt, given the level of knee-jerk anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea, that the Koreans would find a cause for the canonization of Konishi Yukinaga objectionable. Yet, I fail to see how anyone could legitimately say that it is more objectionable that their effort to canonize an assassin. Konishi Yukinaga, though I will grant he is far from the traditional sort of candidate, seems to me to be a far more worthy individual and I think a legitimate case could be made for his consideration for sainthood. Perhaps, if the Japanese hierarchy began to seriously take up this suggestion and begin looking into a cause for the canonization of Konishi Yukinaga, it might make some think twice about the obviously politically motivated effort to canonize Anh Jung Geun. The process is different these days and the more thought I have given this, the more I think it is an idea worth pursuing. Japanese Catholics might try praying for the intercession of Konishi Yukinaga. Perhaps a miracle will be forthcoming. If a formal investigation of his merits were to result in the Korean episcopacy re-thinking their own motivations, that would be something of a miracle itself.

Abdication and Constitutional Confusion in Japan

Recently, the ruling coalition in the Japanese government, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, approved a bill which will allow His Majesty the Emperor to abdicate. Readers may recall that in August of last year, the Emperor addressed the nation hinting or implying as much as he was constitutionally able to that this was his wish. The bill must now make it through the Diet but, as the government supports it, this should not be unduly difficult. What seems strange about this, at least to outsiders, is that this bill would apply to the current Emperor of Japan and the current Emperor only. In other words, barring any other change, an elderly Emperor Naruhito may have to go through this same process all over again if he wishes to step down. Why is this? It is because of the Japanese constitution which is, frankly, rather a mess. In fact, that may be the only thing “traditional” about it in as much as the former Meiji Constitution likewise resulted in a political establishment that was rather a mess. That being said, personally, I would be perfectly happy to see the Meiji Constitution restored today with but one or two changes and would consider that a vast improvement.

According to the constitution, the Emperor of Japan cannot abdicate, plain and simple as it contains no provision for such a thing and amending the constitution is an extremely difficult and complicated process in a country that has advanced bureaucratic complexity and government stagnation to heights that would astonish even Austria-Hungary. The issue of abdication not being addressed in the constitution is, however, indicative of a wider issue that covers many problems currently facing modern Japan. At the outset, consider the source of it; the oldest monarchy on earth has a constitution written for it (essentially) by the most powerful republic on earth (one could almost say oldest but that might offend the proud denizens of San Marino and it tends to embarrass the republicans when their heights of longevity are measured in a few centuries while monarchies go back for millennia). This has resulted in Japan having a very confused political foundation as a monarchy that operates with a very republican sort of rulebook. Originally, as some may know, the United States, after World War II, thought the Japanese themselves would draw up a new constitution but every proposal put forward was basically the old Meiji Constitution with a few minor changes so that two army officers, Milo and Courtney, came up with a draft of their own, with ideas from a group of advisors including an Austrian-born Ukrainian Jewish immigrant to Japan whose expertise seems to be interpretive dance. She added the parts about women getting to vote which, much to the annoyance of Caroline Kennedy, has not yet resulted in a total takeover of Japanese politics by women. Yet.

This is, I think, why so much of how Japan is politically organized makes little sense to most people. Personally, I tend to be rather rigid on issues like this such as the fundamental question of where ultimate authority and independence derives from. We call this “sovereignty”. In the old days, it was perfectly simple; Japan was a monarchy, the Emperor was the sovereign and head of state, all government authority being based on his “divine right”. This is technically though not effectively the way it works in the English-speaking monarchies. However, according to the current Japanese constitution, the Emperor is not the head of state, though he effectively fulfills that role, and he is not the sovereign as under the new constitution Japan is, like the United States, based on “popular sovereignty” (which is a nonsense we have talked about before here). Other monarchies are based on popular sovereignty and I think it is just as silly for them as it is for Japan. It is not real, it is basically an example of sophistry and if everyone is the sovereign it effectively means that no one is the sovereign and I find that to be a big problem.

The new constitution also abolished the Kazoku or aristocracy and with it the House of Peers, replacing it with an elected House of Councilors. This has proven to be just as bad as when the United States Senate went from being appointed by the states to being popularly elected during the horrific Wilson administration. It is redundant and needlessly complicates things while at the same time furthering the revolutionary lie of equality which practically everyone in Japan has too much sense to really accept as fact anyway. If you don’t believe me, look at how prosperous and powerful the Tokugawa clan still is to this day. Japanese industry, politics and high society is still largely dominated by the same families who were the aristocratic class in the time before World War II. This no doubt seemed completely loyal to the Americans who never had an official, titled aristocracy and who were quite accustomed to pretending equality exists while all the time knowing that they had an elite as well, albeit one based on a far more erratic and arbitrary way of deciding who is and who is not a member of that elite. However, aside from obvious examples such as the Kennedy crime family, just take a look at how many members of the U.S. Senate hold seats that previously belonged to older generations of the same family.

Then, of course, there is the absurd situation regarding the lack of a formal military in Japan. This is something so insane that even the United States recognized the fault a long time ago. Japan actually spends more on the Self-Defense Forces than most countries spend on their own militaries, the JSDF is larger than the militaries of many countries and more advanced than most as well. However, absurdly, this force is technically an outgrowth of the police and is not, officially, a military and is heavily restricted. They can possess no offensive weapons, no capital warships and can not engage in any military activity unless Japan is directly attacked. Not only does this allow an enemy a “free pass” to get in the first strike against Japan should conflict ever arise, it also means that Japan is at a permanent disability when it comes to foreign policy. It also means, combined with the odd situation the Emperor was placed in, that the Prime Minister, a politician who is a partisan, temporary, care-taker of the government, is Commander-in-Chief rather than the Emperor as head of state. This is, of course, because the Emperor is not, officially, the head of state and sovereign of Japan because of that “popular sovereignty” nonsense. Even other monarchies that have the ridiculous establishment of “popular sovereignty” do not have a similar situation regarding the military. For example, even in the Kingdom of Belgium, which is a “popular monarchy” in which the King does not become King officially until he swears his oath to the constitution, the King is still commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

The problem this brings up in diplomatic terms is that there is no reason for any country to want to form an official military alliance with Japan and, to date, the only official military ally of Japan is the United States. This is because such alliances are based on the promise of mutual self-defense or that one country will aid the other country if it is attacked. However, Japan is currently not allowed to go to war or engage in hostilities with anyone unless Japan itself is directly attacked. So, who would want to form an alliance with Japan in which they would have to help Japan if Japan was attacked but Japan would not help them if they were attacked? Obviously, the answer is no one but the United States and, as stated, has urged Japan to strengthen itself since the 1970’s on the quite simple grounds that only a strong ally is worth having whereas a weak ally is only a liability.

The absurdity of this situation should be obvious to everyone and yet, both because the constitution is so hard to amend and because of the lunatic left-wing in Japan, change has only just begun to come thanks to the leadership of the Abe government and the growing threat of North Korea combined with the recent massive buildup of the Communist Chinese military, particularly the People’s Liberation Army Navy. Why would anyone in Japan oppose rational, national self-defense? Some of them are basically paid agents of the Red Chinese, others are simply leftist crazies who, like leftists everywhere else, like to feel morally superior by tearing down their own side. These are the people who feel self-righteous and morally superior to all others specifically because Japan does not have an official military and they like to pretend that Japan has enjoyed peace and tranquility since 1945 because they do not have a military. Which, of course, is not true as anyone with half a brain knows that Japan has been at peace since 1945 only because countries like China or North Korea know that the United States would unleash a rain of fiery death on anyone who messed with Japan. Communist China invaded Tibet, South Korea, India, Vietnam, technically The Philippines and so on. Does anyone really believe they would hesitate to attack Japan, the country they hate more than any other, if not for the threat of retaliation from America? Obviously, the answer is no.

Anytime that issue comes up, however, the opponents of any change will usually say that the alliance with America makes any concern over national defense unnecessary. This is, again, stupid and short-sighted. As mentioned, a strong ally is a help whereas a weak ally is a hindrance. Furthermore, there are those on both the left and right in Japan who maintain that their problems with their neighbors could all be solved if it were not for the close ties between Japan and America. Personally, I doubt that, however, the possibility is worth considering simply from the American perspective. After all, in economic terms, China is far more important to America than Japan. Japan has little to no natural resources, buys far less from the United States than Japan does and relations with China as well as Russia, a resource-rich country America has no reason to be at odds with, would undoubtedly improve dramatically if America removed its bases and military forces from Japan, something Russia and China have been calling for practically since the end of World War II. There is certainly a case to be made on a purely dispassionate, self-interested basis. In any event, it should at least show that no country should depend entirely on another for their national defense. That is true regardless of the situation and, if the Japanese themselves deem it preferable to end the alliance with America, a constitutional change would be necessary if they were to choose to instead put their trust in a system of alliances with countries such as Taiwan, The Philippines, Vietnam or India to back them up in case of trouble.

All of this is why constitutional reform, at bare minimum, is absolutely essential. However, I think it also shows that more than just reform is really needed. Japan should simply discard the current constitution entirely and start over from blank paper with a purely Japanese-drafted constitution which is based on Japanese traditions and better suited to their own people and heritage. As I said, in my view, the Meiji Constitution would be a good place to start as they were was not much wrong with it other than in one or two areas and being a bit too vague in a few areas. I am afraid, if this is not done, the problems Japan currently faces will only because worse and the longer one waits, the more ossified the current complexities will become and the harder it will be to do anything which will result in political stagnation. Certainly, given the dwindling ranks of the Imperial Family and the fact that the continued life of the most ancient dynasty on earth is currently resting entirely on the shoulders of one 10-year old boy should be enough to motivate people into making some major changes and it has to be done when a government is in power that is at least reasonably trustworthy (I would not want this done under a Democrat prime minister to be sure). Japan is a monarchy and, if it is to have a constitution, it should have a monarchist constitution that is informed by Japanese values and customs and none other.

Monarch Profile: Emperor Komei of Japan

The Meiji Restoration is rightly regarded as one of the pivotal events in Japanese history. It was a turning point after which everything would be different and a critical shift away from the centuries-long rule of the shogunate in favor of the restoration of imperial power. Japan modernized, abandoned isolationism, became wealthy, powerful and one of the major world powers. However, these events have largely overshadowed the reign of the father of Emperor Meiji, the Emperor Komei, whose reign was almost just as pivotal. To a large extent, the events of the Meiji Restoration were set into motion during the reign of Emperor Komei. It was Emperor Komei who had to deal with the return of foreign peoples to the shores of Japan in a major way and it was the process of dealing with that which led directly to the restoration of imperial power and the downfall of the last shogun. The events of the Meiji era would likely have surprised Emperor Komei, but a careful inspection shows that his actions were critical in shaping those events.

Palace gate, Kyoto

Komei was born on July 23, 1831 to His Majesty Emperor Ninko, by tradition the 120th Emperor of Japan, and one of his concubines but who was, by tradition, regarded as the child of the Empress. Being the fourth son, he would not have been expected to inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne but, at a time when the imperial court at Kyoto relied solely on traditional Chinese medicine, sickness often took a heavy toll on the Imperial Family. By the time the future Emperor Komei was born, all of his older brothers had predeceased him and so he, Osahito (his given name) was crown prince. In fact, of the fifteen children of Emperor Ninko, only three lived beyond their third birthday. Emperor Komei would have six children and only one (Mutsuhito, the Meiji Emperor) would survive and of the fifteen children of the Meiji Emperor, only five would reach adulthood. Emperor Meiji himself might not have lived were it not for him being secretly vaccinated for smallpox with Dutch medicine smuggled into the Gosho in the imperial capital of Kyoto.

In keeping with tradition, Crown Prince Osahito (Komei) was raised on the Gosho, 220-acres enclosed by high walls in the city of Kyoto, dominated by the Heian Palace. The Emperor and his family were kept isolated, out of public view, regarded as too lofty, too sacred to be exposed to ordinary people or mundane affairs. They lived a cloistered life of ritual. Little Prince Osahito was taught by private tutors, an education dominated in those days by the “Classic of Filial Piety” by Confucius and traditional Japanese literature. Basic history and geography of the region were virtually the only other subjects deemed worth knowing anything about. There was leisure in the form of traditional entertainments but the Imperial Family lived a fairly austere life for such lofty individuals. They did not live lavishly like wealthy, powerful people but, while they certainly wanted for nothing, rather like members of a religious order in simple but beautiful confinement, though certainly with plenty of time for romance. Given the high mortality rate of Japanese princes and princesses, it was important that the Emperor father as many children as possible.

Emperor Komei

It came as a great shock when HM Emperor Ninko suddenly died in the morning, as the sun was rising, on February 23, 1846. He was only 46-years old, had always been healthy and had been bothered by what seemed no more than a cold. Then, one day, he found he could not walk and he died soon after. This was announced on March 13 and the following week Crown Prince Osahito was formally enthroned as His Majesty the Komei Emperor of Japan. The usual rituals followed but before the year was out, events would be set in motion that would result in dramatic changes. By the middle of October, word reached the new Emperor Komei that foreign ships had arrived at the Japanese capital. This was alarming but not too serious and the Emperor sent a formal message to the shogun about improving the naval and coastal defenses of the country. The Emperor then went to Iwashimizu Shrine to pray for peace and for the gods to spare Japan from anymore foreign ships.

These ships were most likely the American vessels of Commodore James Biddle who tried, and failed, to negotiate a trade agreement with a local Japanese official. A French warship also visited Japan the same year and in each case the response of Emperor Komei was the same, to go to Iwashimizu Shrine and pray for the gods to blow the foreign barbarians far away from ‘the Land of the Gods’. This would prove to be a lifelong concern for Emperor Komei and he never changed his position on it. Foreigners did not belong in Japan and their presence would not be tolerated. Occasionally, some circumstance would strand a foreigner on Japanese shores and the Emperor was not without compassion but they would be allowed to remain only until the first available opportunity to send them away. For Emperor Komei, other than a few bad omens and the usual, occasional, fires, floods or outbreaks of sickness, life carried on as before but the sighting of foreign ships seemed to be increasing and this was a growing concern.

For a time, life went on as usual, there were family matters to deal with, rituals to be observed and so on and then, on July 8, 1853, the “Black Ships” of U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in the port of Uraga, near Edo (Tokyo). The standing order that all foreign ships must be expelled from Japanese waters was shown to Perry, but he refused to leave until he had delivered the message he carried from the President of the United States to a sufficiently high-ranking Japanese official. After being put off for a time, Perry threatened to send an armed landing party to deliver the message to the shogun himself if something was not done. This caused consternation in the Japanese hierarchy where the existing law forbid receiving any foreign communications. Told that the shogun was too ill to receive him, Perry was finally convinced to leave but promised to return for an answer the following year. None of this was immediately known in Kyoto but it caused an uproar in Edo among the Shogun and his advisers. Some favored opening relations with the Americans and other foreigners while others favored continued isolation.

Commodore Perry arrives in Japan

It was not until July 15, 1853 that an official announcement of these events was sent from the Shogun to the Emperor who immediately ordered seventeen days of prayers in seven shrines and seven temples for protection from the gods from the foreign devils. The local daimyos were also informed, given copies of the presidential letter but they had different opinions about how best to proceed. The daimyo of Fukuoka, Kuroda Nagahiro, advised opening up trade but only with America and the Russian Empire while strengthening Japanese coastal defenses and navy. At the moment, he warned, Japan was far too lacking in modern weaponry to risk the wrath of the major powers in Europe and America. If Japan did not open up a little, and modernize, they would be conquered. It was not until August that Emperor Komei himself was given the text of President Fillmore’s request for trade and diplomatic relations and, while some advised opening up only to America (perhaps in a similar way to their long-standing, arms-length relations with the Netherlands) the consensus was against it.

However, what was significant was that the imperial court asked that they be informed by the Shogun prior to his taking any action and the Shogun also asked for the advice of the imperial court which was something that had not happened in 250 years in Japan. This, seemingly small, interaction was the beginning of the shift toward the restoration of the imperial power. The Shogun would not be acting alone but would inform and take advise from the imperial court. The following month, Russian ships arrived in Nagasaki with a note from the Czar and threatened to go to Edo harbor (as the Americans had done) if they were not dealt with. The Japanese officials could not decide what to do and so simply delayed answering the Russians as long as possible. They were finally told that the Japanese government would have an answer in 3 to 5 years. These events caused more Japanese officials to decide that the country had to be opened, particularly after the Russians threatened to annex all of the northern islands if they received no satisfactory answer. The local officials finally convinced the Russians to leave but everyone was convinced that the situation was now serious.

The Shogun agreed that Japan at least needed to take naval defense more seriously and lifted the ban on the building of large ships and even went so far as to order several steam ships from the Dutch and authorized an official flag for Japanese ships to fly, of course, a red sun on a white field. When the Shogun died, Emperor Komei appointed his heir, Tokugawa Iesada, to succeed him along with the urging to drive away all the foreign ships. The new Shogun asked the Emperor to be free with his advise and promised to act according to the Emperor’s wishes at all times. The power shift was well underway. Afterward, Emperor Komei was annoyed that more was not being done to keep the foreigners away for good and sent inquiries about the state of the coastal and naval defenses. When a treaty was subsequently signed with the United States, the Emperor would likely have been outraged when he was informed but a major fire at the palace took up his attention. He was more alarmed when the Russians arrived at Osaka and Emperor Komei ordered the usual prayers as well as fasting which alarmed the public and local daimyos assembled forces to defend the area in case the Russians made a move.

A large earthquake and tsunami which occurred during the negotiations with Russia over opening trade and their northern border was seen by many as another sign of divine disfavor at dealing with the foreigners. Unknown to Emperor Komei, the shogun signed a treaty with the Russians, granting them even more concessions than they had to America, and the Emperor was furious when he found out. He wanted no concessions made to the foreigners at all, no interaction with them and objected to any foreign presence on Japanese soil at all. Still, foreigners continued to come and a Dutch commissioner warned the shogun that the old Japanese attitude was likely to lead to war if things did not change. He advised making trade agreements and lifting the ban on Christianity in the country. At a subsequent meeting of the shogun and his top officials, almost all agreed that Japan had to deal with the outside world. Isolationism would come to an end.

In 1857 the same Dutch commissioner who had warned of trouble if Japan continued to shun foreign contact, informed Japanese officials that the Great Qing Empire had just been defeated in the Opium War by the British, and rather humiliatingly so. Obviously a warning, the commissioner also told of how Shanghai, Canton, Fuchow and other port cities were prospering after being opened to trade. There were, of course, scholars in Japan who had studied information from the west, obtained by their limited contact with the Netherlands, that Japan was woefully behind in the latest technology, medicine, transportation, weaponry and industry and had long urged the government to adapt in order to survive. Emperor Komei, however, saw things in more spiritual terms. The very presence of the foreign barbarians was disturbing the peace of the “land of the gods” and continued to pray that they would all leave and never return. Despite being annoyed at the agreements signed by the shogun without his prior knowledge, the Emperor was given a generous allowance and was not looking to take government into his own hands. While others began to shout, “Respect the emperor and drive out the barbarians!”, Komei himself desired no change with the shogunate, he simply wanted life to go on as it had before the worrisome White demons had appeared off their shores.

Nonetheless, on December 7, 1857 the Shogun Tokugawa Iesada, received an envoy from U.S. President Franklin Pierce who had come to negotiate a permanent trade agreement. The envoy, Harris, warned that France or Britain might make a colony of Japan but that America had no desires beyond trade and diplomatic relations and offered to support Japan against the French or British if they started to become acquisitive. To further differentiate America from Britain, he also promised that American merchants would never sell opium in Japan. When word reached Emperor Komei of these happenings, he was less than pleased and became quite angry when he heard that one official was coming to bring him a large monetary gift. Clearly offended, he said that he could not be bribed, that he would lose the love of the people if he allowed interaction with the foreign devils and warned the other elites of the country not to allow themselves to be influenced by the promise of rewards for accepting relations with alien races.

Ise Grand Shrine

This, finally, led to an outright disagreement as the Shogun decided it would be best to sign a treaty with the United States but Emperor Komei refused to agree, saying it would be detrimental to Japan to have any further interaction with the foreign barbarians. The Emperor still left this political matter up to the Shogun but there were many powerful aristocrats in the country who also opposed any further interaction with the White demons. In 1858, Emperor Komei sent envoys to pray at the Grand Ise Shrine and other major shrines, asking the gods to send another “Divine Wind” to wipe away the foreigners if conflict should erupt and calling down divine retribution on the “disloyal” who favored opening Japan to interaction with the foreign nations. In fact, when Emperor Komei learned that a treaty had been signed with the United States without his prior knowledge or approval (the Shogun saying that there had not been time), he threatened to abdicate the throne, the most drastic act of which he was capable.

Emperor Komei was adamant that the presence of foreigners in Japan was unacceptable, that it was an affront to the gods and that all means necessary had to be employed to expel all foreign elements from the country. He even cast doubts on the imperial system itself, though, from the available information, it seems that this letter never reached the Shogun. Nonetheless, powerful officials in Japan began to align with the Emperor against the Shogun, furthering the division that would ultimately result in the restoration of the imperial power. Ultimately, Emperor Komei relented that the treaty with America had been necessary but he continued to express his displeasure with this state of affairs with the next shogun, Tokugawa Iemochi. He became increasingly free with his opinions and interacted more with the government than any emperor had done in centuries. He tried to intervene in judicial matters but was thwarted by the fact that he had no actual power and the shogun even carried out something of a purge against those who had been in sympathy with the emperor and opposed to the policies of the shogunate.

Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi

It is worth reiterating that the Emperor had never been opposed to the existing political system, still regarding his position as being above government and policy making, however, it was becoming increasingly clear that he could do nothing to change or halt government policies which he regarded as detrimental to the ‘national spirit’. A political marriage was arranged between an imperial princess (Kazu-no-Miya Chikako) and the Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi and during the negotiations for this, the Shogun agreed that the foreigners would be expelled eventually but that greater unity was needed first and Japan had to upgrade and strengthen its military capability. Again, there was a threat of abdication if the Emperor did not gain greater input in national affairs and the bride-to-be backed up her brother in asserting conditions of her own. The result was an agreement that amounted to almost a sharing of power between the Shogun and the Emperor, another significant step in the process of restoring the imperial power.

Dissidents still associated themselves with the emperor, bemoaning the treaties the Shogun had signed with the foreign powers and the poor, backward state of the Japanese armed forces after such a long period of peace and isolation. Some began to go farther and urge Emperor Komei to take command of the country himself and even to demand tribute from the “five continents” of the rest of the world. This culminated, in 1863, with an imperial order from Emperor Komei to ‘expel the barbarians’. The Shogun had no intention of following such an order, fearing that it would result in immediate war with a number of countries that Japan could not hope to defeat in her current state, however, a number of ronin samurai took action on their own, attacking and assassinating foreigners in Japan as well as officials loyal to the Shogun.

One of those killed was Charles Lennox Richardson, an English merchant. When a Royal Navy squadron arrived in Kagoshima demanding reparations for this, the loyal daimyo attacked them and the British ships bombarded the area (which was in the Satsuma domain), destroying property and killing five people who had not been evacuated with the rest. Although, oddly enough, the Satsuma had not been generally anti-foreign and would, in the later Boshin War, be unofficial allies of the British. All the same, this incident caused great alarm that the shogun was unable to maintain effective control of the country to stop actions contrary to its policy, nor was it able to defend Japan from the superior military forces of the foreigners. The stage for the Meji Restoration had clearly been set.

Emperor Komei

It was, though, the Meiji and not the Komei Restoration as the Emperor Komei, after a life of robust health, suddenly became very ill and was diagnosed with smallpox in January of 1867. His condition worsened and Emperor Komei passed away on January 30, 1867 at the age of only 35. This was immediately seized upon by some factions who claimed that he had been assassinated by sympathizers of the Choshu and Satsuma domains who opposed the shogun since the Emperor had continued to support the shogunate and oppose any change to the existing order even while he strenuously disagreed with shogunate policies. In truth, however, he had died of natural causes which, as mentioned at the outset, were far from uncommon among the members of the Imperial Family with their isolation and opposition to modern medicine. He was immediately succeeded by his son, the Meiji Emperor and, as they say, the rest is history.

In conclusion, a final point that must be addressed is the accusation of those who claim that as Emperor Komei had vehemently opposed all foreign contact and that the restoration of the imperial power during the Meiji era result in Japan firmly joining the international community, modernizing and even becoming the first (and only) non-European member of the “Great Powers” of the time, that this represents a sort of repudiation of Emperor Komei or that, to put it even more harshly, the restored imperial power had brought about exactly the state of affairs he had most feared. This, in my view, is incorrect and the result of an overly narrow view. The Meiji era represented a coming together of the valid views of both the shogun, who realized that Japan as it was would be easy prey, offending and provoking wars it could not possibly win, and that interaction and modernization were necessary; as well as those of Emperor Komei who wished to maintain the Japanese ‘national spirit’. Foreigners were never accepted into Japan in any appreciable numbers, nor are large numbers of foreigners allowed into Japan even today. Additionally, the moral arguments of Emperor Komei, his heartfelt concern for the Japanese ‘spirit’ did prevail and Japan, going forward, always maintained traditional Japanese customs and values, the traditional Japanese culture, even while adopting and even improving on western learning and technology. Emperor Komei was, in my view, vital to the survival of Japan as a nation and his fears were not unfounded.

Clash of Monarchies: The Imjin War

The Imjin War (one of many names for the conflict, chosen here for its brevity) is not very well known outside of northeast Asia, yet it was a massive and significant conflict in world history. It represented a major challenge to the prevailing world order in East Asia, marked a shift in the history of Japan and the still tense relationship even today between the Japanese and Koreans. It principally involved three powers; the Empire of Japan, the Joseon Kingdom of Korea and the Empire of the Great Ming or China. Had it ended differently, the entire history of Asia would likely have been vastly different and building on that the history of the rest of the world would have unfolded differently as well. Of the three participants, Japan was a newly united country, forged in fierce civil conflicts, proud and ambitious. Korea was under relatively new leadership, still trying to assert its own place in East Asian politics and the Ming Empire of China was at its apex and the beginning of its decline. For the initial background, we must first look to Japan.

Emperor Go-Yozei (left), Emperor Wanli and the standard
of the King of Korea

The reunification of Japan, at the end of the “Warring States Period” is often helpfully described in terms of a house. Oda Nobunaga laid the foundation, Toyotomi Hideyoshi built the house and Ieyasu Tokugawa lived in the house. The famous warrior Oda Nobunaga had made the initial steps towards the reunification of Japan. Following his assassination, his cause was taken up by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a man western historians would later nickname “the Napoleon of Japan”. He succeeded in uniting the warring states under his leadership though, being a self-made man of humble origins, he could never become Shogun. Nevertheless, he was given a title, sometimes translated as “Chancellor” or something similar, and he looked abroad to pursue his destiny. His dream was to conquer China and then India, taking control of the Silk Road and its lucrative trade, leading the Empire of Japan to dominate Asia. If this seems fantastic, remember that this was after Genghis Khan had taken the disparate tribes of Mongolia, united them into a single nation-state and led them to conquer China and then a larger empire that stretched from the Korean peninsula to Eastern Europe. Lord Hideyoshi, an ambitious man with many armies of samurai hardened by fierce battles among themselves, may well have thought to himself that if Genghis Khan of the Mongols could accomplish such a thing, so too could Toyotomi Hideyoshi of the Japanese.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

For Japan to invade China, the only possible invasion route was the Korean peninsula where, not too long before, the Joseon Dynasty had seized power and had compensated for their lack of ancestral legitimacy by obtaining the recognition of the Ming Emperor in China as a vassal state. For the Chinese, this meant that Korea belonged to them but for the Koreans it meant nothing of the sort. They ruled their own country but, as with other neighbors of China, would pay tribute to the Ming court in exchange for trade and recognition. When the war came, Korea was ruled by King Seonjo, a man who worked to improve education and government in his kingdom. However, a diplomatic exchange of gifts with Hideyoshi gave the Japanese ruler the mistaken impression that the Koreans had voluntarily become vassals of Japan, which had not been the Korean intention. When he prepared to embark on his war against China, he invited and expected the Koreans to join him in this grand enterprise. Hideyoshi would be disappointed on this subject but King Seonjo also had other problems to deal with. Not only were there rival factions at court vying for power but the country was also divided north and south with the north worrying about the gathering strength of the Manchus and the south worrying about the growing power of Japan.

Japanese landing at Busan

On April 13, 1592 the first elements of the Japanese invasion landed at Busan with their commander, Konishi Yukinaga, sending a subordinate ashore first to ask one last time for Korean cooperation in their war with China. He was refused and the war began with the siege of Busan. Having obtained firearms from the Portuguese some time before and with an army of veterans of the fierce fighting of the “Warring States Period” the Japanese forces were far superior to the Korean defenders. Busan, Fort Dadaejin and the city of Dongnae fell to the Japanese in quick succession. More reinforcements followed and, though this is not often remembered, the Japanese invasion of Korea represented the largest amphibious assault in world history up to that time. The other Japanese divisions spread out and soon occupied Gyeongsang Province. The Koreans mobilized to meet the invasion with an army under General Yi Il, however, his archers proved no match for the ranks of Japanese musketeers and he was outmaneuvered as well. The resulting Battle of Sangju was a crushing defeat for the Koreans. They tried to regroup and stop the Japanese at the Battle of Chungju but again, Japanese firepower was devastating and the Koreans were defeated.

Konishi Yukinaga

The only major problem for the Japanese was that their victorious troops were advancing farther and faster than planned, causing some dissent among their commanders who accused the leaders of the initial wave of being glory hounds. King Seonjo fled from the capital of Hanseong (Seoul), which was soon captured by the Japanese and some Korean commanders, such as those charged with defending the Han River, retreated without resistance. The Koreans were forced into a massive retreat, doing their best to simply hamper and delay the Japanese as they fled north. At the Imjin River, which slowed the Japanese advance, the Japanese again called on the Koreans to stop resisting and join them in an attack on China but, once again, the Koreans refused. The King retreated to Pyongyang with the Japanese First Division pushing north behind him while other divisions fanned out to secure control of the rest of the Korean peninsula as they advanced. As city after city fell to Konishi Yukinaga of the First Division, he was joined for his advance on the northern Korean capital by the Third Division under Kuroda Nagamasa.

The Koreans tried to even the odds against them by launching a surprise night attack on the Japanese camp which was initially successful but which also exposed their position, allowing the Japanese to swing around and attack them from the rear. The escapade ended in chaos and as the Koreans retreated, the Japanese paid close attention to how they crossed the Taedong River, so they would know where to take their own forces across. When they made their advance on Pyongyang on July 20, 1592, they found that the King and remaining Korean forces had already retreated, leaving behind huge stockpiles of food and supplies. Meanwhile, the other Japanese divisions consolidated their hold on the Korean provinces, eliminating local resistance and establishing Japanese governors and administrators. Before the year was out, most of Korea had been conquered and the Japanese could look forward to their invasion of China, by way of the Jurchen territory, later known as Manchuria.

Yi Sun-Sin

All in all, 1592 had been a year of swift and decisive victories for Japan on the Korean peninsula. The Japanese armies had totally dominated the battlefield with superior weapons, superior tactics and greater skill. However, the Koreans were not without some victories of their own, it was only that these would not be won on land. Admiral Yi Sun-sin proved to be the most brilliant naval commander of his age in East Asia and in numerous battles totally defeated the Japanese whose ship designs and tactics were not as advanced as the Koreans. This had a major long-term impact on the conflict as it severely complicated the logistical situation for the Japanese armies. Things would, at one point in particular, get very bad for the Korean navy as the force was often cannibalized to make up for losses by the army, however, the Japanese were never able to defeat Admiral Yi Sun-sin. The one thing Admiral Yi Sun-sin is most famous for, certainly beyond Korea where he is a celebrated national hero to this day, is his innovative design known as the “Turtle Ship” (or Geobukseon).

Korean Turtle Ship

Today, any Korean will proudly tell you that the Turtle Ship was the first armored warship in the world. That, however, is an arguable point. The Japanese, namely Oda Nobunaga, had Tekkosen or “iron ships” in his naval arsenal, though these were more like armor plated floating fortresses rather than sea-going naval vessels. Before that, the Italian sailors of the Republic of Venice also had an armor plated flagship for their fleet. However, people can argue over bragging rights all they like but the armor was only one aspect of what made the Turtle Ships unstoppable. They were also completely enclosed and covered with spikes to repel borders. This was something that the Koreans had in common with the English ships who repelled the Spanish Armada. Admiral Yi Sun-sin designed his vessels to fight from a distance with naval cannon whereas other ships in those days were basically floating castles filled with soldiers which would ram each other and allow the warriors to fight for control of the vessel. The Japanese, more experienced at man-to-man combat, excelled at this and so, Admiral Yi Sun-sin wisely appreciated the strength of his enemy and had his ships fight with cannon rather than up close with swords. He would only go in for close combat against the Japanese when he had them severely outnumbered. As a result, the Koreans won battle after battle on the naval front.

Korean fleet

On September 1, 1592 Admiral Yi and his Korean fleet launched a surprise attack on the Japanese at Busan Bay in an effort to completely cut off from the Japanese armies in Korea from their home islands. It was an overwhelming tactical victory for the Koreans but did not change the strategic situation. The Korean fleet could not sustain itself in the area and had to withdraw, leaving Japan still in control of Busan. However, it did mean that the Japanese could not use the waterways to their advantage and this basically eliminated their plan of sending over more men and supplies for a full scale invasion of China and march on Peking. The Koreans also organized a highly effective guerilla warfare movement known as the “Righteous Army” which won a number of tactical victories against the occupying Japanese forces.

By the end of 1592 the Koreans had lost their country and King Seonjo was at the northern border seriously contemplating simply handing his entire kingdom over to China if only they would come to his rescue. The Ming Emperor Wanli, for his part, was rather overwhelmed by the news and shocked that the Japanese, a people the Chinese had always despised and looked down upon, could have conquered Korea so quickly. There had been some local assistance but it was not until January of 1593 that Emperor Wanli dispatched a major army to invade Korea and push the Japanese out. The King of Siam, another tributary of China, offered to attack the Japanese home islands but the Ming court refused the offer, not wanting to complicate the situation. On January 5, 1592 a Ming army of over 40,000, including a Korean contingent, arrived to besiege the 18,000 Japanese warriors garrisoning Pyongyang. Using a massive artillery and rocket bombardment, the Chinese inflicted over a thousand casualties on the Japanese but had purposely neglected to completely encircle the city so as to allow the Japanese the chance to escape rather than fight to the death. Under cover of darkness, the Japanese finally withdrew and Pyongyang was retaken.

Tachibana Muneshige, Japanese commander at
the Battle of Byeokjegwan (1 of 3)

This made the Chinese rather overconfident and they continued their offensive south only to be met with a stinging defeat at the hands of the Japanese at the Battle of Byeokjegwan. Despite having a near 2-to-1 superiority in numbers, the Chinese were defeated and suffered heavy casualties, proving to them for the first time just how formidable a foe the Japanese were and, perhaps, making them understand why the Koreans had had so much trouble. The Japanese tried to follow this up but were themselves defeated by the Koreans at the Battle of Haengju on February 12, 1593. This was significant even if only as a morale-booster for the Koreans, proving, under the leadership of General Kwan Yul, that they could beat the Japanese in a defensive battle with carefully prepared fortifications and the proper weaponry. Later, as the Ming and Korean armies moved, more slowly and cautiously this time, south toward Seoul, a team of saboteurs were sent in who destroyed much of Japan’s military stockpiles in the city. This, combined with Korean naval pressure on their supply lines, convinced the Japanese to withdraw from Seoul and agree to negotiate for peace. The Chinese, after their bloody loss at Byeokjegwan, were also eager to end the war.

Unfortunately, each side thought the other was suing for peace and basically trying to surrender and this, naturally, was not conducive to ending the war. The Chinese thought that the Japanese had agreed to withdraw and submit again to the Ming Emperor as their overlord (Hideyoshi having previously stopped paying tribute to the court in Peking) while Hideyoshi thought that the Chinese were surrendering to him and demanded territorial concessions as well as a Ming princess to be married to the Japanese Emperor Go-Yozei. Neither was true and when each side refused the demands of the other, hostilities resumed after several years of back and forth between the two sides. However, with the resumption of hostilities, the overall strategy and goals of the war, at least for Japan, would be dramatically different than they had been originally. With the huge numbers of Chinese troops moving east, Hideyoshi realized that the conquest of the Ming Empire was hopeless, at least for the moment and so would instead focus on simply retaking and holding the Kingdom of Korea as a Japanese foothold on the Asian mainland, a tributary state and a possible base for future, more ambitious operations.

Kobayakawa Hideaki

This would impact how the war was fought as previously the Japanese had made at least some effort to win over the Koreans to their side. They hoped all along that the Koreans would simply accept Japan as their new overlord and join them in the conquest of China. Now that the conquest of China was off the table and control of Korea was the only immediate goal, Japanese forces became rather less considerate, to put it mildly, toward the Koreans. It also made a difference that during the years of diplomatic exchanges between Japan and China, the Koreans worked feverishly to rebuild and improve their military capabilities. As a result, when the war resumed, the Japanese found them a much more capable opponent and a dangerous enemy is much less likely to receive mercy than an easily beaten foe. Though more limited, the fighting would often be even more intense. Unlike the first invasion force which, though estimates vary, numbered over 200,000 Japanese troops, the second invasion force would number just over 100,000 under the overall command of Kobayakawa Hideaki, the nephew and adopted son of Hideyoshi.

This invasion force, carried by a fleet of 200 ships, landed in southern Korea unopposed in 1597 and began taking control of Gyeongsang Province. The Ming Emperor Wanli gathered a relatively modest force by Chinese standards with naval support to send to Korea under the command of General Yang Hao, who would have a less than upstanding career. Along with his 75,000 Chinese troops, the Koreans would muster about 30,000 in four armies plus the naval forces. The great Admiral Yi Sun-sin was available but his success aroused jealously at court and a smear campaign of sorts was launched against him until he was dismissed by King Seonjo and replaced by Won Gyun. The new admiral immediately sought out the Japanese fleet and attacked them at the Battle of Chilcheollyang. The result was possibly the biggest and most decisive Japanese naval victory of the entire war. Won Gyun was totally defeated, was himself killed in the battle and the Korean flagship was captured. The Japanese won complete mastery of the area and were able to continue landing men and supplies for the invasion force unimpeded.

The Battle of Myeongnyang

Korean morale was wounded by this disaster and their defenses began to crumble as the Japanese launched a determined offensive northward. The fortress of Namwon fell, then Hwangseoksan fortress fell with the defenders retreating almost immediately. Ming Emperor Wanli was furious that the Japanese were again advancing on Seoul, reshuffled his military high command and sent General Yang Hao to take charge of Korea. However, the situation was beginning to turn around. At the Battle of Jiksan on September 7, 1597, although the Japanese won something of a tactical victory, the Ming army was able to block their advance. Also, after the disastrous loss at Chilcheollyang, King Seonjo of Korea stopped listening to the critics and restored Admiral Yi Sun-sin to his old command and the result was a swift turnaround. At the Battle of Myeongnyang he defeated a massive Japanese fleet in what is certainly his most famous and celebrated victory. The scale of the success was incredible and was due almost entirely to the Admiral’s skillful placement of his ships and his knowledge of the local waters.

Attack on Ulsan castle

With their supply lines imperiled and the Ming armies blocking their path north, the Japanese began to fall back, almost always under harassing attacks by Chinese and Korean forces. The Japanese would give battle when necessary and were never beaten in these attacks but were steadily pushed back by them. A really decisive battle seemed in place at the Siege of Ulsan which lasted from December 23, 1597 to January 4, 1598. The Chinese and Korean forces numbered  around 55,500 men whereas the Japanese garrison was only 10,000 with only 13,000 more troops near enough to come to their aid. The Japanese held off these superior forces, despite being nearly starved to death for lack of supplies due to Korean naval dominance of the coast but at the approach of the Japanese reinforcements the Ming General Yang Hao completely lost his nerve and ordered a retreat. Seeing an opportunity, the Japanese forces in Ulsan castle burst out from their fortifications to attack and the result was a humiliating panicked retreat by the Sino-Korean forces. In the disastrous battle the Chinese and Koreans had lost 20,000 men killed while the Japanese dead numbered only a little over 1,000. Later, another Sino-Korean force would try to take Ulsan castle and would again be defeated in September though there was at least no panic and the retreat was orderly.

This resulted in a prolonged period of stalemate and an ‘America in Vietnam’ type situation for Japan. Despite winning the major land battles, their loss at sea meant that supplying men and material for an offensive or even a large defensive force was simply impossible and Japanese forces began to be withdrawn from Korea. A renewed Sino-Korean offensive failed to achieve a major breakthrough but nonetheless kept up an unrelenting pressure on the Japanese whose logistics were extremely strained. At the Battle of Sacheon the Sino-Korean offensive was defeated and the Japanese again launched a successful counter-attack and likewise at the Siege of Suncheon a little under 14,000 Japanese troops under Konishi Yukinaga successfully repelled a Sino-Korean attack by 50,000 men with heavy losses, yet these victories did not change the overall strategic situation. The stalemate simply dragged on until September 18, 1598 when Lord Hideyoshi in Japan died. Everyone knew, despite his efforts to secure the succession of his son to his position, that all the daimyo would soon be fighting for power in Japan and so the ruling council ordered a total withdrawal from Korea while keeping the news of the death of Hideyoshi secret in order to preserve Japanese morale.

Japanese fleet

The only major subsequent engagement was the Battle of Noryang Point which was a tactical victory for Korea but a strategic victory for Japan in that they were still able to continue their evacuation. Worse for Korea was the death of Admiral Yi Sun-sin in this battle along with the Ming commander Deng Zilong. Negotiations for the final peace settlement would drag on for some time, long after the power struggle in Japan had been ended with the famous Tokugawa Ieyasu becoming Shogun and establishing the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate which would survive until the Meiji Restoration. Both sides were so entrenched that it took an act of deception, making the Koreans believe the Japanese had submitted to their demands when, in fact, they had not, to formally end the war and reestablish normal relations between the two countries.

In retrospect, the Imjin War was extremely significant for the course of the history of northeast Asia and beyond. It weakened the Toyotomi clan of Hideyoshi and helped enable the Tokugawa in seizing power in Japan. It solidified the place of Korea as a vassal of China and reaffirmed prejudices against Japan in their regard that would prove disastrously mistaken over the course of history. Had the war gone differently, had Hideyoshi been satisfied in his ambition to conquer the Ming empire, India and control of the Silk Road, the entirety of Asian history would have been drastically changed. All sides came away feeling rather justified in their own sense of accomplishment. The Empire of the Great Ming had retained the Sino-centric status quo of the existing international order. The Koreans had expelled the invaders of their country after a long and bitter struggle and even the Japanese could boast of having dominated their enemies on the land and withdrawn from the conflict without suffering a major, decisive defeat on the battlefield. All of these sentiments would have an impact on how these countries developed in the centuries to come.