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Categories: Honest and Ethical Government, Foreign Policy, Peace and Armed Conflict, Religion, Separation of Powers / Federalism, Arts and Culture, Faith and Religion, Opinion, Front Page
The sad but courageous story of the young boys (16 & 17) of the Byakkotai (A Special Infantry Unit of a Rebel Japanese Samurai Army) who had been militarized by centuries of family, class, and warrior clan tradition that epitomizes the end of the Last Samurai.
I equate this part of Japanese feudal history to the downfall of our own Southern Slave Owning feudal system in the South after they lost the American Civil War.
It is little known to us in the West that Asian nations like China and Japan had witnessed centuries of civil wars with the last one being fought as Japan entered the modern age or industrial revolution at the turn of the century armed and supplied by left over's from our American civil war.
The feudal lords of the Tokugawa Shogunate (then the ruling government of Japan) had become stagnant weekend warriors and the source of the growing civil war was just how the Japanese government was going to deal with Western colonialism.
One faction desired to expel the foreign intruders while another believed that the only way to defend Japan from becoming another China (the Sick Man of Asia) carved up by Western colonial powers, including the United States, was to modernize their Armed Forces and do away with the feudal Samurai system. Japanese historians (even those in the West) know it as the Meiji Restoration. If you saw the Tom Cruise movie THE LAST SAMURAI, it is that period that I accurately refer to.
Both sides felt the Gods or God (in this case the Emperor) was on their side. Both sides were armed with weapons sold to them by England, France, and of course left over Enfield and Springfield rifles, cannons, and the deadly Gatling Gun from the U.S. civil war. All were Japanese people.
That gives a little background on the Byakkotai, and suffice it to say that the victors in this civil war, like the industrialized North in America, would be that faction with technological superiority in weapons and overwhelming troop power provided by the West, including military advisors. They would also be the forerunners of the Japanese Militarists who would rule Japan and take their nation into disaster during WWII against the very nations that armed the Japanese military in the first place.
Prior to the Boshin Civil War as it was called, Japanese Military forces were extremely limited in size, something like state militias in America should be, and only the Samurai class were allowed to be armed. That of course would never thrill the Second Amendment fanatics of our nation.
With the coming of the Western powers, and move by several Samurai clans to forego the feudal Samurai class and government in order to modernize Japan, for the first time in centuries peasants, merchants, and townspeople were not only allowed to carry arms, but also to join the growing Imperial Army and Navy and to become officers and leaders. Many were educated in the West in military tactics and strategy they would TRY using agains their instructors. This was a similar process when the last class at West Point broke up to make up the leadership of the Southern or Northern Armies during our blood fest.
To us in the Western democracies this was of course a good thing that was felt would lead not only to a modern Armed Force for Japan but also a less warrior like mentality. WRONG!
The opposite occurred, the military that replaced the Samurai class became even more militarist and aggressive than the Samurai. The newly developing militarist kept the Samurai spirit and took it with them into WWII, but threw away the discipline and class status of the Samurai.
Point: Going into WWII Japan, anyone could be a Samurai. This practice of course ended with the American occupation and forcing of the Peace Constitution (yep hard to believe our nation today would relish the ideal of a so-called Peace Constitution being forced on any nation we need to help bail us out– hum?)
That reminds me, ironically, going into the 21st Century the current Bush administration did everything inhumanly possible to get Japan to shred the Peace Constitution WE forced on them after winning WWII, so Bush would have yet another ally of the unwilling in Iraqnam.
What does this have to do with today, Iraq, and militarism? Lots and lots.
Could you as parents, especially mothers of young 16 and 17 years olds, in any small town or village hamlet in America today dream of convincing your children, 340 of them made up this special unit of desperation, that seeking glorious war and valor for the President (Emperor) God and Country was not only expected of them but the ethical and moral thing to do?
Think on that long and hard before you send or take you child to any military recruiting station, because to you, their mother, those children regardless of age they fall will remain 16 or 17 in your eyes and in your heart.
"Byakkotai" is a tragic story due to the mistakes and lack of leadership these youngsters endured. They were sent into combat with little to no training. Their martial skills has been with Samurai swords. Western Enfield and Springfield rifles of American Civil War vintage were shoved into their hands. Not one of those kids received any training on how to load a weapon let alone kill another human being who happened to be another Japanese man with it.
Fortunately, those boys only got one opportunity to use their weapons to fire one volley. They were overwhelmed by the superior cannons and Gatling guns provided the central government forces of Japan at that time. It was what happened after their first trench warfare battle that was the real tradgedy.
The infantry unit was led by only two adults, their school master, and the younger brother of their feudal lord who got his position, rank, and military skill by birthright not merit.
In a drenching downpour mixed with the heat of August in central Japan, much like any August in Ohio, the unit spit up into two groups so as not to be so easily spotted by the enemy. That was their first mistake, because they were in a forested and mountainous area where the size of their force, bunched fire power, and adult supervison would have made a difference. Sounds pretty much like our chain of command under Bush - HUM?
To make things worse, the only adult among one group of youngsters who would meet with tragedy, left those boys with no supervision as he went off to get food for them, something he should have turned over (delegated) to a subordinate or foraging squad. The school master was wounded by the enemy and lost his way back to his charges.
Remember they had no other officers of NCOs.
The other group led by the Lord’s younger brother, not much older than the boy (a boy himself) made it back to their castle by fate several weeks before it would fall and all resistance to the modern forces would cease.
What remained of any Samurai clan in rebellion, they and their families were carted off to the northern most island of Hokkaido to freeze to death. At that time, Hokkaido would have been like sending the losers of the American civil war to Alaska to colonize it.
The other group, led by the most aggressive 17 year old, who was quickly elected (no he did not VOLUNTEER) by all the other kids to take command. He led them into several skirmishes with central government forces depleting their numbers as he TRIED desperately to get his young friends back to their Lord’s castle. By this time even young women 16 and 17 years old were fighting like Samurai in the streets leading up to the castle rather than be raped and butchered.
The tragedy that is even today remembered at the Byakkotai Memorial Hall and Museum in the Japanese city of Aizu, once the castle town of the province of the Lord of Aizu on the Island of Honshu not far from our U.S. Airbase at Misawa, Japan.
On the outskirts of the town, what remained of those 340 boys that marched off with their Lord was less than 30 kids. When they came out of the forest overlooking their castle town, the castle was blocked from view by smoke from the burning town and streets below. These young boys thinking that their castle had been burned and that their families had committed suicide decided on the spot to take their own lives rather than experience the shame of capture, debasing, and likely execution anyway by the victors.
The moral of the story, is that these young boys strongly encourage by their mothers to seek a valorous and glorious death in war, wasted their lives on a hillside overlooking their homes based on not only a lie, and incompetent leadership, but a MISTAKE.
In reality, they mistook the burning town and smoke for their castle and homes within the grounds. When their mothers found out they had committed suicide by mistake, they remembered how passionately they told their child to kill himself. They repented and implored their Lord to surrender the castle and not waste anymore lives.
Three things struck me as courious.
- Why was this motion picture in the making during 2006, and released in 2007?
One assessment has been that the Japanese people were disgusted that Japanese Soldiers were in Iraq. The time was ripe for an anti-war movie that would not only glorify and make war valorous but also show it to be a GRAVE MISTAKE.
- The Last Samurai was made with Japanese collaboration in 2003 not long after we invaded Iraq. This movie was produced and released with no western actors in 2006/2007.
- The other thing that caught my attention was the soundtrack was done by a Western Musical Group in English. The theme song was YOU RAISE ME UP a Christian hymn by the Celtic Women.
If our readers take nothing away from my war story, please read the words and listen to the music of YOU RAISE ME UP. I believe the Japanese producers picked that soundtrack because it was their way of saying that given the circumstances, culture, and what those boys were taught. They did not die in vain although they died by MISTAKE.
WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES CAN LEARN A LOT OF THOSE WE CONQUER! THE FIRST THING WOULD BE HUMILITY!!!
If you have a love one, friend or acquaintance that is coping with (or hardly coping with or in denial about PTSD), I implore you to at least share these words of comfort with them that Life is Worth Living and that mistakes have been made that were and are far beyond their control as followers and not leaders.
When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up: To more than I can be.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up: To more than I can be.
There is no life - no life without its hunger;
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly;
But when you come and I am filled with wonder,
Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up: To more than I can be.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up: To more than I can be.
You raise me up: To more than I can be.
To listen to the Celtic Women sing YOU RAISE ME UP
Go here and be inspired to raise someone up
http://www.jango.com/play/celtic+woman/you+raise+me+up?source=00005
Bobby Hanafin
Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired
Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) Ohio
