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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amal Shukup" data-source="post: 1372234" data-attributes="member: 6291">Lots of talk about historical innacuracies and PC 'revisionism'. This film is by no means a documentary and it took several liberties with the historical record. But, lest people wander off in a haze of righteous indignation against Hollywood about its treatment of the subject matter... Some Historical Notes: Emperor Meiji and his backers (including several powerful Samurai families) Took power back from the Togugawa Shogunate, abolished feudalism and brought Japan into the modern era by sheer force of will. There were blunders and they inadvertantly set up for a period of nationalistic imperialism that, well, ended badly for Japan. But they accomplished some truly amazing things in a remarkably short time. It's worth reading about. The 'Rebels' in the movie are obviously based on the Satsuma rebellion (1876-1877) led by Saigo Takamori. Until 1873, Takamori had been Meiji's Field Marshall and close advisor, and had been instrumental in putting the Meiji Oligarchy back in power. Hey, that sounds familiar... Random Fact: What prompted Takamori to quit his position was that the other advisors wouldn't let him invade Korea... Interestingly, his plot involved having an emissary make such unreasonable and insulting demands that the Koreans would be provoked into killing him - thus providing some casus belli. Being a seriously hardcore Samurai type, he volunteered to be the sacrificial emissary himself. This is actual history! You can't make this stuff up! The Rebellion was ended at the battle of Shiroyama. Saigo Takamori, leading 25000 Samurai against 300000 better armed Gov't troops, was seriously wounded and comitted seppuku to avoid the shame of capture. Not badly represented by the flick. Except for that odd Gaijin hanging around... Actually reports differ - some claim he went out in the traditional seppuku fashion - others claim he was too badly injured and required a 'friend' to help him... What is not open for debate is that the battle of Shiroyama marked the end of the Edo period and Japan's feudal era. Takamori was, in essence, the last samurai. Emperor Meiji, in response - likewise well represented in the flick - PARDONED Saigo Takamori of all crimes and went out of his way to have him recognized as a national hero. As to the whole rah rah bit about tossing out the Americam arms deal or whatever. Not representational of a specific event, but symbolically very accurate:  Modernizing (and unifying) Japan allowed it to deal with the rest of the world on relatively equal terms, rather than as a patsy of 'Western' (not neccesarily American) imperialism. They were able (by 1894) to renegotiate the unequal treaties forced on them 50 years earlier by Commodore Perry et al. More accurately Envoy Harris. Perry keeps getting the blame, but all he really did was deliver a quite reasonable <a href="http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob54.html" target="_blank">letter</a>.  What amuses me is that in order to accomplish this, Japan built an army based on the Prussian model, a British style Navy, an education system based on France's, a German style judiciary, and later a european style constitution and parliament.  If we Scots had learned that fast, we woulda kicked Longshanks' skinny pattooskie up between his shoulder blades... A'Mal</blockquote>

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