Meiji Restoration Losers

"In this volume, Wert traces the shifting portrayals of Restoration losers and the supporters who promoted their legacy. By highlighting the overlooked sites of memory and legends, Wert illustrates how the process of commemoration and rehabilitation allows individuals a voice in the formation of national history"--Provided by publisher.

"This book is about the “losers” of the Meiji Restoration and the supporters who promoted their legacy. Although the violence of the Meiji Restoration is typically downplayed, the trauma was real, and those who felt marginalized from the mainstream throughout modern Japan looked to these losers as models of action. Using a wide range of sources, from essays by former Tokugawa supporters like Fukuzawa Yukichi to postwar film and “lost decade” manga, Michael Wert traces the shifting portrayals of Restoration losers. By highlighting the overlooked sites of memory such as legends about buried gold, the awarding of posthumous court rank, or fighting over a disembodied head, Wert illustrates how the process of commemoration and rehabilitation allows individuals a voice in the formation of national history. He argues that the commingling of local memory activists with nationally known politicians, academics, writers, and treasure hunters formed interconnecting memory landscapes that promoted local figures as potential heroes in modern Japan."

A comprehensive and engaging new history, charting Japan's development from its origins through to the present day.

Jansen tells the story of the Restoration in the career and thought of Sakamoto Ryoma and, to a lesser extent, Nakaoka Shintaro, each an example of the new type of political leader: idealistic, individualistic, and patriotic.

This volume examines the Meiji Restoration through a global history lens to re-interpret the formation of a globally-cast, Japanese nation-state.

Provides a detailed history of Japan from 1868 to 1912.

The Meiji Restoration of 1868 is most often seen as a glorious event marking the overthrow of Tokugawa feudalism and the beginning of Japan's modern transformation. Yet it had its dark side. The Aizu domain in northeastern Japan had staunchly supported the old regime. For this it was attacked by the new government's forces from Choshu and Satsuma in the autumn of 1868. Its castle town was burned to the ground, and during a month-long siege, whole families perished. After defeat, the domain was abolished and its samurai population exiled to barren terrain in the far north. Shiba Goro was born into an Aizu samurai family in 1859. He was just ten years old at the time of the attack, which claimed most of his family. In the cruel world of exile, he lived with his father on the edge of starvation, struggling to survive. Eventually making his way to Tokyo, he became a servant, and though born in an enemy domain, gained entrance to a military school of the new regime. Shiba's abilities were recognized, and he rose through the officer ranks to become a full general - a singular distinction for an Aizu samurai in an army dominated by former samurai of the Choshu domain. Remembering Aizu tells of Shiba's earlier years. It is an extraordinary story that provides insights and material for a social history of the Restoration and its aftermath. But above all, it is a vividly rendered personal account of courage and determination, loss and remembrance.