1.
Boshin War
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The war found its origins in dissatisfaction among many nobles and young samurai with the shogunates handling of foreigners following the opening of Japan during the prior decade. Increasing Western influence in the led to a decline similar to other Asian countries at the time. An alliance of western samurai, particularly the domains of Chōshū, Satsuma and Tosa, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the sitting shogun, realizing the futility of his situation, abdicated political power to the emperor. Yoshinobu had hoped that by doing this, the Tokugawa house could be preserved and those loyal to the Tokugawa retreated to northern Honshū and later to Hokkaidō, where they founded the Ezo republic. Defeat at the Battle of Hakodate broke this last holdout and left the imperial rule supreme throughout the whole of Japan, around 120,000 men were mobilised during the conflict, and of these about 3,500 were killed. When the Boshin War began, Japan was already modernizing, following the course of advancement as that of the industrialized Western nations. But Japan protected its economy by rejecting Western-enforced free trade. And since those Western nations, especially the United Kingdom and France, were involved in the countrys politics. Over time, the war has been romanticized as a bloodless revolution, in 1854, Commodore Perry opened Japan to global commerce with the implied threat of force, thus initiating a period of rapid development in foreign trade and Westernization. His efforts culminated in March 1863 with his Order to expel barbarians, other attacks included the shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki. During 1864, these actions were successfully countered by armed retaliations by foreign powers, such as the British Bombardment of Kagoshima, the Shogunate further ordered a punitive expedition against Chōshū, the First Chōshū expedition, and obtained Chōshūs submission without actual fighting. Despite the bombardment of Kagoshima, the Satsuma domain had become closer to the British and was pursuing the modernization of its army, the Scottish dealer Thomas Blake Glover sold quantities of warships and guns to the southern domains. American and British military experts, usually former officers, may have directly involved in this military effort. The British ambassador Harry Smith Parkes supported the forces in a drive to establish a legitimate, unified Imperial rule in Japan. The Shogunate also was preparing for conflict by modernizing its forces. In line with Parkes designs, the British, previously the Shogunates primary partner, the Tokugawa thus came to rely mainly on French expertise, comforted by the military prestige of Napoleon III at that time, acquired through his successes in the Crimean War and the War of Italy. In 1865, Japans first modern naval arsenal was built in Yokosuka by the French engineer Léonce Verny and this in turn prompted Chōshū to form a secret alliance with Satsuma. In the summer of 1866, the Shogunate was defeated by Chōshū, in late 1866, however, first Shogun Iemochi and then Emperor Kōmei died, respectively succeeded by Yoshinobu and Emperor Meiji
2.
Japanese warship Kasuga
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Kasuga Maru was a Japanese wooden paddle steamer warship of the Bakumatsu and early Meiji period, serving with the navy of Satsuma Domain, and later with the fledgling Imperial Japanese Navy. She was originally named Keangsoo, and was a dispatch vessel built for the Imperial Chinese Navy. She was constructed in 1862 by Whites at Cowes, she formed part of the Lay-Osborn Floatilla during the Taiping Rebellion, Keangsoo was the largest of the vessels which made up the Lay-Osborn Floatilla. She was 241.5 feet long overall, had a beam of 29 feet and her engines produced an average cruising speed of 16.9 knots, while on two boilers she could operate at an average speed of 14.2 knots. The main armament on the vessel were two mounted smoothbore muzzle-loading 68-pounder guns and her secondary armament consisted of four 18-pounder long guns. Keangsoo was a dispatch vessel, laid down at Whites shipyard at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1862. Whites had become known for winning contracts with the Ottoman Navy during the 1850s. Prince Gong of the Qing Dynasty gave permission for Lay to proceed with this task, while some, such as HMS Africa were purchased from the Royal Navy, Keangsoo was one of three dispatch vessels alongside Tietsin and Kwangtung which were procured as new builds. Keangsoo underwent trials in May 1863 while underway to China, however, Lay and Osborne agreed that Osborne would only accept orders from Lay, and he in turn would only pass orders on from the Chinese Government if he agreed with them on an individual basis. The ships reached Shanghai in September, and the Chinese refused to provide stores or funds since Osborne would not accept a new Chinese commander, when the authorities attempted to bribe the enlisted men from the fleet to join them, Osborne sent it to Chefoo. Following the intervention of a British minister, the fleet was ordered to depart for India with Osborne taking Keangsoo, Kwangtung, Amoy and the yacht Thule to Bombay. The Keangsoo was then laid up alongside the remaining vessels of the flotilla. She was then acquired by her Captain Forbes once again, following the end of the conflict in 1865. While at Nagasaki, Keangsoo was purchased by Matsukata Masayoshi, a leading Satsuma samurai, on November 3,1867, for the amount of 160,000 ryō, whence she was renamed Kasuga Maru. With a speed of 17 knots, and six cannons, she was faster than anything in the Tokugawa shogunate Navy, and Matsukata intended to convert her into a warship. However, already alarmed by the high cost, as the price was four times the budget Matsukata had been authorized and she was assigned to be used as a cargo ship. In disgust, Matsukata gave up command of the ship he had bought, only to see it converted into a warship just a few months later under the command of his assistant, Akatsuka Genroku. Kasuga Maru entered Hyōgo harbour in January 1868, where she was blockaded by three ships of the Tokugawa Navy, Kaiyō Maru, Banryū Maru and Shōkaku Maru
3.
Imperial Japanese Navy
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The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 until 1945, when it was dissolved following Japans defeat and surrender in World War II. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force was formed after the dissolution of the IJN, the Japanese Navy was the third largest navy in the world by 1920, behind the Royal Navy and the United States Navy. It was supported by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service for aircraft and it was the primary opponent of the Western Allies in the Pacific War. This eventually led to the Meiji Restoration, accompanying the re-ascendance of the Emperor came a period of frantic modernization and industrialization. Following the attempts at Mongol invasions of Japan by Kubilai Khan in 1274 and 1281, Japan undertook major naval building efforts in the 16th century, during the Warring States period, when feudal rulers vying for supremacy built vast coastal navies of several hundred ships. Around that time Japan may have developed one of the first ironclad warships when Oda Nobunaga, in 1588 Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued a ban on Wakō piracy, the pirates then became vassals of Hideyoshi, and comprised the naval force used in the Japanese invasion of Korea. Japan built her first large ocean-going warships in the beginning of the 17th century, from 1604 the Bakufu also commissioned about 350 Red seal ships, usually armed and incorporating some Western technologies, mainly for Southeast Asian trade. For more than 200 years, beginning in the 1640s, the Japanese policy of seclusion forbade contacts with the outside world and prohibited the construction of ocean-going ships on pain of death. Contacts were maintained, however, with the Dutch through the port of Nagasaki, the Chinese also through Nagasaki and the Ryukyus and Korea through intermediaries with Tsushima. Apart from Dutch trade ships no other Western vessels were allowed to enter Japanese ports, an exception was during the Napoleonic wars. However frictions with foreign ships started from the beginning of the 19th century, the Nagasaki Harbour Incident involving the HMS Phaeton in 1808 and other subsequent incidents in the following decades led to the Shogunate to enact an edict to repel foreign vessels. Western ships which were increasing their presence around Japan due to whaling, the shogunate also began to strengthen the nations coastal defenses. Numerous attempts to open Japan ended in failure in part to Japanese resistance, during 1853 and 1854, American warships under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry entered Edo Bay and made demonstrations of force requesting trade negotiations. After two hundred years of seclusion the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa led to the opening of Japan to international trade and this was soon followed by the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce and treaties with other powers. In 1855, with Dutch assistance, the Shogunate acquired its first steam warship, Kankō Maru, samurai such as the future Admiral Enomoto Takeaki were sent by the Shogunate to study in the Netherlands for several years. In 1859 the Naval Training Center relocated to Tsukiji in Tokyo, in 1857 the Shogunate acquired its first screw-driven steam warship Kanrin Maru and used it as an escort for the 1860 Japanese delegation to the United States. In 1865 the French naval engineer Léonce Verny was hired to build Japans first modern naval arsenals, at Yokosuka, in 1867–1868 a British Naval mission headed by Commander Richard Tracey went to Japan to assist the development of the Japanese Navy and to organize the naval school of Tsukiji. The Shogunate also allowed and then ordered various domains to purchase warships and to develop naval fleets, Satsuma, a naval center had been set up by the Satsuma domain in Kagoshima, students were sent abroad for training and a number of ships were acquired
4.
Hakodate, Hokkaido
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Hakodate is a city and port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of July 31,2011, the city has an population of 279,851 with 143,221 households. The total area is 677.77 km2, the city is now the third biggest in Hokkaido after Sapporo and Asahikawa. Hakodate was Japans first city whose port was opened to trade in 1854 as a result of Convention of Kanagawa. Also, the city had been the biggest city in Hokkaido before the Great Hakodate Fire of 1934, Hakodate was founded in 1454, when Kono Kaganokami Masamichi constructed a large manor house in the Ainu fishing village of Usukeshi. There was constant low level conflict in the Oshima peninsula at the time with the Ainu as armed merchants like the Kono family established bases to trade in the region. This conflict culminated in an uprising from 1669 to 1672, led by Ainu warrior Shakushain after which the Ainu in the region were suppressed, Hakodate flourished during the Hoei period and many new temples were founded in the area. In 1779, the Tokugawa shogunate took direct control over Hakodate, merchant Takadaya Kahei, who is honoured as the founder of Hakodate port, set up trading operations, which included opening the northern Etorofu sea route to the Kuril island fisheries. He is credited with turning Hakodate from a trading outpost into a thriving city, a Hakodate magistracy was established in 1802. The port of Hakodate was surveyed by a fleet of five U. S. ships in 1854 under the conditions of the Convention of Kanagawa, as negotiated by Commodore Matthew Perry. S. A mariner in Perrys fleet died during a visit to the area and he stayed in Hakodate until 1884, during which time he documented the local natural environment, equipped the local meteorological station and ran guns to the Boshin War rebels. As one of few points of Japanese contact with the outside world, the Russian consulate included a chapel from where Nicholas of Japan is credited with introducing Eastern Orthodox Christianity to Japan in 1861. The Orthodox church is neighbored by several other historical missionary churches, including Anglican, Hakodate also played a central role in the Boshin War between the Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji Emperor which followed Perrys opening of Japan. Shogunate rebel Enomoto Takeaki fled to Hakodate with the remnants of his navy and his handful of French advisers in winter 1868 and they formally established the Republic of Ezo on December 25. The republic tried unsuccessfully to gather international recognition to foreign legations in Hakodate, including the Americans, French, the rebels occupied Hakodates famous European-style Goryōkaku fort and used it as the centre of their defences in southern Hokkaido. Government forces defeated the secessionists in the Battle of Hakodate in 1869, military leader, Hijikata Toshizō, was one of those slain in the fighting. In 1878, Isabella Bird reported of the city in her travelogue, The streets are wide and clean
5.
Empire of Japan
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The Empire of Japan was the historical Japanese nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan. Imperial Japans rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei led to its emergence as a world power, after several large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, the Empire also gained notoriety for its war crimes against the peoples it conquered. A period of occupation by the Allies followed the surrender, Occupation and reconstruction continued well into the 1950s, eventually forming the current nation-state whose full title is the State of Japan or simply rendered Japan in English. The historical state is referred to as the Empire of Japan or the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan in English. In Japanese it is referred to as Dai Nippon Teikoku, which translates to Greater Japanese Empire and this is analogous to Großdeutsches Reich, a term that translates to Greater German Empire in English and Dai Doitsu Teikoku in Japanese. This meaning is significant in terms of geography, encompassing Japan, due to its name in kanji characters and its flag, it was also given the exonym Empire of the Sun. After two centuries, the policy, or Sakoku, under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. The following years saw increased trade and interaction, commercial treaties between the Tokugawa shogunate and Western countries were signed. In large part due to the terms of these Unequal Treaties, the Shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical, xenophobic movement. In March 1863, the Emperor issued the order to expel barbarians, although the Shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it nevertheless inspired attacks against the Shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan. The Namamugi Incident during 1862 led to the murder of an Englishman, Charles Lennox Richardson, the British demanded reparations but were denied. While attempting to exact payment, the Royal Navy was fired on from coastal batteries near the town of Kagoshima and they responded by bombarding the port of Kagoshima in 1863. For Richardsons death, the Tokugawa government agreed to pay an indemnity, shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki and attacks against foreign property led to the Bombardment of Shimonoseki by a multinational force in 1864. The Chōshū clan also launched the coup known as the Kinmon incident. The Satsuma-Chōshū alliance was established in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, in early 1867, Emperor Kōmei died of smallpox and was replaced by his son, Crown Prince Mutsuhito. On November 9,1867, Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned from his post and authorities to the Emperor, however, while Yoshinobus resignation had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. On January 3,1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the palace in Kyoto. On January 17,1868, Yoshinobu declared that he would not be bound by the proclamation of the Restoration, on January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces
6.
Republic of Ezo
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The Republic of Ezo was a short-lived state established in 1869 by former Tokugawa retainers in what is now known as Hokkaido, the large but sparsely populated northernmost island in modern Japan. Ezo is notable for being the first government to attempt to institute democracy in Japan, Enomoto made a last effort to petition the Imperial Court to be allowed to develop Hokkaido and maintain the traditions of the samurai unmolested, but his request was denied. On January 27,1869, the independent Republic of Ezo was proclaimed, with a government organization based on that of the United States, elections were based on universal suffrage among the samurai class. This was the first election held in Japan, where a feudal structure under an Emperor with military warlords was the norm. Through Hakodate Magistrate Nagai Naoyuki, attempts were made to reach out to foreign legations present in Hakodate in order to obtain diplomatic recognition. The treasury included 180,000 gold ryō coins Enomoto retrieved from Osaka Castle following Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobus precipitous departure after the Battle of Toba–Fushimi in early 1868. During the winter of 1868–1869, the defenses around the peninsula of Hakodate were enhanced. The brigades were themselves divided into two each, under Japanese command. Brunet demanded a personal pledge of loyalty from all officers. The Imperial forces progressed swiftly, won the Battle of Hakodate, Enomoto surrendered on June 26,1869, turning the Goryōkaku over to Satsuma staff officer Kuroda Kiyotaka on June 27,1869. Kuroda is said to have been impressed by Enomotos dedication in combat. On September 20 of the year, the island was given its present name. We pray that this portion of the Empire may be conferred upon our late lord, Tokugawa Kamenosuke, Enomoto was sentenced to a brief prison sentence, but was freed in 1872 and accepted a post as a government official in the newly renamed Hokkaido Land Agency. He later became ambassador to Russia, and held ministerial positions in the Meiji Government. The Influence of the Sea on the Political History of Japan, black, John R. Young Japan, Yokohama and Yedo, Vol. II. Shinsengumi, The Shoguns Last Samurai Corps, onodera Eikō, Boshin Nanboku Senso to Tohoku Seiken. French Policy towards the Bakufu and Meiji Japan 1854–1895, Richmond, new York, M. E. Sharpe,1998. Kinsé shiriaku A history of Japan, from the first visit of Commodore Perry in 1853 to the capture of Hakodate by the Mikados forces in 1869, media related to Republic of Ezo at Wikimedia Commons
