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| The
Battle of Aizu |
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The
period of Japanese history from
the 1850s to 1868 is known as
the Bakumatsu ("End of
the Shogunate") period.
This era was characterized by
the Fall of the reigning Tokugawa
shogunate, the end of feudalism,
and the start of Japan's rapid
drive toward modernization.
There were many battles fought
in this period, and though feudalism
was rapidly being eclipsed,
great and enduring examples
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of adherence to Bushido, the Way of the
Warrior, emerged. This was all the more
apparent on the side of the Tokugawa, where
many managed to remain loyal, despite knowing
full well that they were fighting for a
lost cause. The Battle of Aizu, in the old
province of Shimotsuke in northern Japan,
was one of these instances, made all the
more painfully significant by the fact that
the entire population rallied behind their
lord and participated in the battle. Some
of them kept fighting even after their castle
had been breached. ( Of Spirits Walking
in the Red Shadow , p.1)
Aizu-Wakamatsu, in what is now Fukushima
Prefecture, was the capital of the Aizu
domain and the flashpoint of much of the
later fighting during the Bakumatsu period.
The city grew up around a castle originally
called Kurokawajo (Kurokawa Castle), built
in 1384 by Asahina Naomori. However, much
of the present city dates from 1590, when
Gamo Ujisato renovated the castle and renamed
it Tsuruga-jo (also known today as Wakamatsu-jo).
After the climactic battle of Sekigahara
in 1600, the Tokugawa shogunate was founded,
and the castle was given to the Matsudaira
family, a branch of the Tokugawa. (Britannica,
p.712)
In the Bakumatsu period, the daimyo, or
feudal lord, of Aizu was Matsudaira Higo
no Kami Katamori, who also held the title
of Lord Protector of Kyoto (also known as
Miyako; the ancient Imperial capital). From
1864 to 1867 he was mainly in Kyoto, overseeing
the Kyoto Shugoshoku, or Military Commission,
which kept the peace in the city and kept
the streets relatively clear of any Ishin
Shishi, or revolutionary samurai opposed
to the Shogun s rule. The Aizu domain was
renowned in the Kyoto area for funding the
famous police troops of the Shinsengumi
and the Kyoto Mimawaarigumi, as well as
helping to thwart the plot of the Choshu
domain s Ishin Shishi to burn Kyoto to the
ground and to kidnap the Emperor, who in
those days resided in Kyoto. For a time,
the Aizu domain was in control of Kyoto,
with the support of the great domains of
Satsuma and Kuwana, as well as the Kyoto
Shoshidai (official government office for
the administration of Kyoto) and successfully
drove out repeated Choshu attempts to take
the city. In late 1867, though, Tokugawa
Yoshinobu, the last shogun, resigned, making
the Emperor the legitimate ruler of the
country. The lord of
Satsuma, Shimazu Hisamitsu, had had a falling
out of sorts with the shogun, so he had
switched sides, and his domain now assisted
Choshu in the fight against the forces still
loyal to the Shogun. Aizu s fortunes in
Kyoto took a turn for the worse, and after
a resounding defeat at the Battle of Toba-Fushimi,
the daimyo had no choice but to return home.
At least one of his chief counselors advised
him to peacefully declare allegiance to
the Imperial side, but Lord Matsudaira,
loyal to the last to his family, refused,
deciding to put up a fight in defense of
the old order (Reischauer, p.120). It was
in his making this decision that the fate
of Aizu was sealed ( The Shinsengumi , p.1).
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In
July of 1868, Nagaoka Castle,
to the southwest of Aizu, fell
after a long siege, despite the
fact that the defenders had "new"
Gatling guns. Thus, the Aizu domain
braced for the storm that was
heading their way, and on August
23rd,
1868, the Battle of Aizu began.
For their part, the Aizu forces
had some successes. Under the
command of the chief retainer,
Sagawa Kampei, they organized
shock
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troops that slipped out
at night and wreaked havoc in the enemy encampments,
especially amongst the artillery, which lost
half its effectiveness due to nighttime raids.
During the daytime, Tsuruga Castle came under
heavy fire from enemy gun positions on nearby
Mount Oda. However, the women and children
fought the fires under the command of a fire
brigade from Edo (later Tokyo). There was
also a Buddhist monk named Nikkai, who climbed
the castle tower and, praying to Amida Buddha,
rang the bell every hour, day and night, throughout
the battle (Takeda, p.2). Thus, despite the
fact that they were besieged, the people of
Aizu hung on tenaciously, without any hope
of outside assistance, especially since the
remainder of the forces still loyal to the
Shogun, under the leadership of the Shogun
s admiral, Enomoto Takeaki, were gathering
at the port of Hakodate in southern Ezo (now
Hokkaido), and preparing for the final standoff
with the Imperial army. (Takeda, p. 1-2)
Perhaps the most famous and controversial
example of bravery in the Battle of Aizu is
that of the Byakkotai, or White Tiger Corps.
This group was composed of teenagers who accompanied
Lord Matsudaira to the front. Forty members
of the second unit, the Shichu Byakkotai (the
sons of the high-rank samurai), engaged the
enemy near Tonoguchi village, and concentrated
their fire on them. The counterattack, however,
was tremendous, and they were forced to retreat
through a tunnel to nearby Mount Iimori. From
there they saw a sea of flames in the town
surrounding the castle. Assuming that the
castle was aflame and that their lord was
killed (whereas the castle was not on fire
and Lord Matsudaira had taken refuge in a
Buddhist temple), all but one of the Shichu
Byakkotai committed seppuku, ritual suicide.
Later, a woman came to the Iimori Hill, and
found 19 bodies, and one survivor, Sadakichi
Iinuma ( The Byakkotai and the Boshin War
, p. 4). In the ancient tradition, warriors
whose lord was killed had to commit ritual
suicide and follow their lord in death, or
else live a life of dishonor.
In this way, despite their age, the Byakkotai
members displayed their dedication to bushido
and to their lord. It is from the survivor
that the details of the unit s last moments
are known. (The Byakkotai and the Boshin War
, p.4)
In the Second World War, the Byakkotai were
touted by the Axis as one of the finest examples
of militarism. A stone column from Pompeii
was sent to Aizu on December 1, 1928. The
Byakkotai was used then for militarism ( The
Byakkotai and the Boshin War , p.4). Also,
another Japanese military unit called the
Byakkotai acquired an equally renowned status,
in continual action against the British in
Burma from 1942 to 1945. (Storry, p. 102)
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To
this day, though, the demise of the
Byakkotai remains a controversial issue.
Some view it as yet another example
of adherence to bushido that was so
commonplace during the course of this
battle. However, an opposing viewpoint
is that the mass suicide of the Byakkotai
is yet another example of war snuffing
out the lives of the young, like the
Children s Crusade in Medieval Europe.
Ultimately,
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though,
no matter how people choose to view it, the
unit members had been educated in the principles
of Bushido and Confucianism (which both stress
giri, or duty), and it was a conscious choice
that they made( The Byakkotai and the Boshin
War, p. 4).
As the battle wore on, things became more
and more desperate. Later in the battle, after
arriving at the front lines near the town
of Aizu-bange, the Joushitai (Aizu Women s
Troop), a unit of 20 women, later went on
to participate in the fighting at Yanagibayashi.
Historically speaking, Japan had many famous
female samurai, as far back as the Gempei
Wars in the twelfth century A.D., but since
then the role of women was gradually confined
to the home. This was not the case in the
entire country, though, as the Aizu samurai
and some others on other extremes of the country
considered martial education just as important
for women as for men. Many women from the
Aizu domain were very skilled with the naginata,
or halberd (Takeda, p.2).
The Joushitai unit was led by Nakano Takeko,
a young woman from Aizu, renowned for her
skill with the naginata as well as for her
beauty. Even to this day, she seems to have
an almost legendary status. Takeko had trained
in naginata under Dengoro Kurokochi, other
martial arts and calligraphy under Taisuke
Akazeki, and practiced swinging the sword
one thousand times every morning (Takeda,
p. 2). Her sister Yuko and mother Kouko were
also skilled in the use of the naginata (Female
Samurai, p. 3).
The group fought tenaciously against enemy
riflemen, determined to try and turn the tide
of the battle. During the battle she charged
into the midst of the enemy harassing them
with her naginata but finally caught an enemy
bullet in the chest and fell (Takeda, p.2).
Carried away from the firing line after being
shot in the chest, Nakano, barely 22, begged
her crying sister to remove her head and take
it home. She feared that otherwise she would
be captured, a destiny which each samurai
felt was a huge disgrace ( Of Spirits Walking
in the Red Shadow , p.1).
Nakano Takeko is today remembered through
her cenotaph that proudly stands in Kozashi-machi
(The Joushitai women vanished in battle, p.1).
A monument was also erected in her memory
in Bangemachi. Every year during the Aizu
Autumn Festival, a group of young girls dressed
in hakama (pleated skirt) and white headbands
join the procession as a reminder of the sacrifice
of the Joushitai women. In addition, there
is a tower erected in the Zenryu Temple in
memory of the 236 Aizu women martyred during
the battle (The Joushitai women vanished in
battle, p.1).
It is interesting to note that the common
people throughout Japan greatly respected
the sole survivor of the Byakkotai and the
survivors of the Joushitai. Many books and
songs were written about them, including the
famous tune Kojo no Tsuki (The Moon over the
Desolate Castle). Though they had been in
insurrection against the new government, these
warriors had stood up to the Imperial forces
honorably, and had valiantly upheld the ancient
tradition of loyalty to one s clan and lord,
as codified by bushido. Surprisingly, the
Imperial government later even awarded medals
to some of the survivors of the Joushitai,
such as Yamamoto Yaeko. However, the survivor
of the Byakkotai, Iinuma Sadakichi, was not
so fortunate. He moved to the coastal city
of Sendai, and was not able to return home
until after his death, when, as he requested
in his will, he was buried on the same hill
where his comrades-in-arms had committed suicide
(Kiyota, p.96).
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Bushido,
the ancient Way of the Warrior,
has endured for centuries. Throughout
the ages, it has had to adapt
to changing circumstances and
political climates, such as revolutions,
foreign invasions, new technologies,
and so on. The Battle of Aizu
shows that even despite overwhelming
odds and a huge disparity in weapons
and technology, the Way of the
Warrior and its related teachings
and philosophies had
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become
so ingrained in the psychology of the population
ofAizu and several other regions of Japan
that a great many people, even those who were
not samurai themselves, refused to betray
their lord, family, or clan, and instead remained
loyal, and fought to the last, whether it
was at Aizu in 1868, Hakodate in 1869, or
Satsuma in 1876. It is partly because of these
incidents and the attention and analysis they
drew that bushido survives to this day, although
it has once again been transformed by new
ideas, new technologies, and new circumstances.
A quote from Nabeshima Naoshige, the 17th-century
lord of the
Nabeshima domain on the island of Kyushu,
can appropriately sum the Battle of Aizu up:
Warriors are not the only ones who die. All
classes of people know their duty.
by Shimazu Masayoshi
This article © 2003 Armen Bakalian |
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