The wonderful Peter Yang
Cool Fact Tom Cruise Movie The last Samurai is base on a real story
February 17th 2010 01:52
Hi guys, for those who don't know.
Tom Cruise movie The last Samurai, is actually base on a real story and a lot of the character actually do exist. The original historical account recorded by the Brtish Publisher is actually extremely bias from a Samurai point of view, although the movie balanced it up, looking from a more general point of historical view.
One historical inaccuracy with the movie is that in reality, the Samurai did use modernized weapon of their time in their battle, although they choose to wore traditional armor as a form of political statment, although in their final battle they did return to using Samurai swords rather then rifles, due to lack of supplies.
I copy the following information off Wikipedia
Really Long Link
Historical background
The Last Samurai combines real but disconnected historical situations, rather distant in time, into a single narrative. It also replaces the key Western actors of the period (especially the French) by American ones. Finally, it portrays a radical conflict between ancient and modern fighting methods, but in reality all sides of the conflict (the Satsuma Rebellion, and before it the Boshin War) adopted modern equipment to various degrees. Indeed, firearms had been in use centuries earlier in Japan and played an important part in the civil wars that created the Tokugawa Shogunate, but were later rejected as dishonorable and by the early 19th century the gunsmith's art had fallen into disuse. Many thematic, and visual elements of the film parallel the films of Akira Kurosawa, specifically Seven Samurai
Military modernization and Western involvement
The kind of military modernization described in The Last Samurai was already largely achieved by the time of the Boshin War ten years before, in 1868. At that time, forces favorable to the Shogun were modernized and trained by the French Military Mission to Japan (1867), and a modern fleet of steam warships had already been constituted (Eight steam warships, Kaiten, Banryū, Chiyodagata, Chōgei, Kaiyō Maru, Kanrin Maru, Mikaho and Shinsoku formed the core of the Bakufu Navy in 1868). The Western fiefs of Satsuma and Chōshū were also already highly modernized, supported by British interests and expertise. Even the appearance of Gatling guns in Japan goes back to that time (the Gatling guns were invented in 1861, and deployed during the 1868-1869 Boshin War by both sides, at the Battle of Hokuetsu and the Naval Battle of Miyako). Modernization had already advanced at a fast pace during the Bakumatsu period, many years before the installation of the Meiji Emperor.
Although Commodore Perry is credited with opening Japan to foreign contacts in 1854, American involvement in Japan was minimal thereafter. In-depth interaction, mainly commercial in nature, only started from 1859 with the Harris Treaty, and from 1861 American influence waned due to the demands of the American Civil War (1861-1865). The main powers involved with the modernization of Japan up to the 1868 Meiji Restoration were the Netherlands (initiation of a modern navy with the Nagasaki Naval Training Center and the supply of Japan's first modern ships, the Kankō Maru and the Kanrin Maru), France (Construction of the arsenal of Yokosuka by Léonce Verny, the 1867 French Military Mission), and Great Britain (in supplying modern equipment, especially ships, to a variety of domains, and in training the Navy with the Tracey Mission).
Meiji restoration
Following the Meiji restoration in 1868, the early Imperial Japanese Army was essentially developed with the assistance of French advisors again, through the second French Military Mission to Japan (1872-1880). An army of conscripts, mostly peasants replacing the former samurai class, was put in place with French assistance for the first time in March 1873. These troops were further modernized and their officers trained in military academies set up by the French, and would intervene against former samurai in the Satsuma rebellion in 1877. The Haitorei edict in 1876 all but banned carrying swords and guns on streets.
The Satsuma rebellion
The Satsuma Rebellion, the historical event described in The Last Samurai, was even more one-sided than in the movie, although the military techniques employed by each side were less contrasted. It occurred in 1877, ten years after the Boshin War, and ten years after the establishment of the Imperial Japanese army. The Imperial troops sent a huge force of 300,000 soldiers under Kawamura Sumiyoshi, modern in all aspects of warfare, using howitzers and observations balloons, to the island of Kyūshū to fight Saigō Takamori.
Saigō Takamori's rebels numbered around 40,000 in total, until they dwindled to about 400 at the final stand at the Battle of Shiroyama. Although they fought for the preservation of the caste of the samurai, and officers often wore samurai cuirasses, they did not neglect Western military methods: they used guns and cannons, and all contemporary depictions of Saigō Takamori represent him wearing the uniform of a Western general. At the end of the conflict, running out of material and ammunition, they had to fall back to close-quarter tactics and the use of swords, bows and arrows. In a parallel to the movie, they also fought for a more virtuous form of government (their slogan was "新政厚 499;", "New government, High morality").
In contrast to the Boshin War, no Westerners are recorded to have fought on either side of the Satsuma rebellion. Specifically, Saigō Takamori did not fight side-by-side with foreign soldiers during the Satsuma Rebellion. During the Boshin War, Saigō may have been supported by British and American military advisors,[6] but the only documented case of foreigners actually fighting for a Japanese cause was that of the French soldiers supporting Enomoto Takeaki.
Although the Katsumoto character is based on Saigo Takamori, the last battle in the film is based not on his last stand but on another battle in which a group of disgruntled retainers attacked the new Imperial Army with no firearms or western weapons that took place at roughly the same time.
Further foreign assistance
A third French Military Mission to Japan (1884-1889) was later sent. However, due to the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War, the Japanese government also relied on Prussia as a model for their army, and hired two German military advisors (Major Jakob Meckel and Captain von Blankenbourg) for the training of the Japanese General Staff from 1886 to 1889. Other known foreign military consultants were the Italian Major Pompeo Grillo, who worked at the Osaka foundry from 1884 to 1888, followed by Major Quaratezi from 1889 to 1890, and the Dutch Captain Schermbeck, who worked on improving coastal defenses from 1883 to 1886.
Japan did not use foreign military advisors anymore between 1889 and 1918, until again a fourth French Military Mission to Japan (1918-1919), headed by Commandant Jacques-Paul Faure, was requested to assist in the development of the nascent Japanese airforce.
Westerners fighting alongside Japanese
Historically, the only major case of foreigners taking an active role in a Japanese civil war (aside from a limited Dutch naval support during the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637 - 1638) is that of the French military advisers under Jules Brunet (initially members of the 1867 French Military Mission), who joined the forces favourable to the Shogun under Enomoto Takeaki, during the Boshin war. They were deeply involved in the military organization of the Shogunate's forces, and fought (several of them were heavily wounded) almost to the end of the conflict. A few days before surrender, when the situation had become desperate, they left on the French frigate Coëtlogon which had been waiting at anchor in Hakodate. Some of these French officers did wear the samurai attire (such as the French Naval officer Eugène Collache), although most officers in the armies of the Bakufu, as well as of course their French colleagues, wore French military uniforms.
The Japanese in the late 19th century did hire foreign advisers to modernize their army, but they were mostly French, not American. Ken Watanabe's character was based on the real Saigō Takamori whose exact style of death is unknown. The accounts of his subordinates claim either that he uprighted himself and committed seppuku after his injury or that he requested that a comrade assist his suicide.[citation needed] In debate, some scholars[who?] have suggested that neither is the case, and that Saigō may have gone into shock following his wound, losing his ability to speak. Several comrades upon seeing him in this state, would have severed his head, assisting him in the warrior's suicide they knew he would have wished. Later, they would have said that he committed seppuku in order to preserve his status as a true samurai.
Additional inspiration
A historical American figure whose life story is somewhat mirrored by the Tom Cruise's character is Henry Andres Burgevine, though his involvement was in China's Taiping Rebellion.
Another possible inspiration of the movie is the life of William Adams, the first westerner given the rank of Samurai. William Adams, a ship captain who was shipwrecked in Japan in 1600, developed a unique friendship with Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the military government that ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868. Coming from different and unknown cultures, the exchange of information and knowledge was a key highlight to the relationship between Adams and Tokugawa. Shogun, a 1975 novel by James Clavell, is a fictionalised account of Adams' exploits.
Tom Cruise movie The last Samurai, is actually base on a real story and a lot of the character actually do exist. The original historical account recorded by the Brtish Publisher is actually extremely bias from a Samurai point of view, although the movie balanced it up, looking from a more general point of historical view.
One historical inaccuracy with the movie is that in reality, the Samurai did use modernized weapon of their time in their battle, although they choose to wore traditional armor as a form of political statment, although in their final battle they did return to using Samurai swords rather then rifles, due to lack of supplies.
Photo of the Real Miji Emperor from the Last Samurai
I copy the following information off Wikipedia
Really Long Link
Historical background
The Last Samurai combines real but disconnected historical situations, rather distant in time, into a single narrative. It also replaces the key Western actors of the period (especially the French) by American ones. Finally, it portrays a radical conflict between ancient and modern fighting methods, but in reality all sides of the conflict (the Satsuma Rebellion, and before it the Boshin War) adopted modern equipment to various degrees. Indeed, firearms had been in use centuries earlier in Japan and played an important part in the civil wars that created the Tokugawa Shogunate, but were later rejected as dishonorable and by the early 19th century the gunsmith's art had fallen into disuse. Many thematic, and visual elements of the film parallel the films of Akira Kurosawa, specifically Seven Samurai
Military modernization and Western involvement
The kind of military modernization described in The Last Samurai was already largely achieved by the time of the Boshin War ten years before, in 1868. At that time, forces favorable to the Shogun were modernized and trained by the French Military Mission to Japan (1867), and a modern fleet of steam warships had already been constituted (Eight steam warships, Kaiten, Banryū, Chiyodagata, Chōgei, Kaiyō Maru, Kanrin Maru, Mikaho and Shinsoku formed the core of the Bakufu Navy in 1868). The Western fiefs of Satsuma and Chōshū were also already highly modernized, supported by British interests and expertise. Even the appearance of Gatling guns in Japan goes back to that time (the Gatling guns were invented in 1861, and deployed during the 1868-1869 Boshin War by both sides, at the Battle of Hokuetsu and the Naval Battle of Miyako). Modernization had already advanced at a fast pace during the Bakumatsu period, many years before the installation of the Meiji Emperor.
Although Commodore Perry is credited with opening Japan to foreign contacts in 1854, American involvement in Japan was minimal thereafter. In-depth interaction, mainly commercial in nature, only started from 1859 with the Harris Treaty, and from 1861 American influence waned due to the demands of the American Civil War (1861-1865). The main powers involved with the modernization of Japan up to the 1868 Meiji Restoration were the Netherlands (initiation of a modern navy with the Nagasaki Naval Training Center and the supply of Japan's first modern ships, the Kankō Maru and the Kanrin Maru), France (Construction of the arsenal of Yokosuka by Léonce Verny, the 1867 French Military Mission), and Great Britain (in supplying modern equipment, especially ships, to a variety of domains, and in training the Navy with the Tracey Mission).
Meiji restoration
Following the Meiji restoration in 1868, the early Imperial Japanese Army was essentially developed with the assistance of French advisors again, through the second French Military Mission to Japan (1872-1880). An army of conscripts, mostly peasants replacing the former samurai class, was put in place with French assistance for the first time in March 1873. These troops were further modernized and their officers trained in military academies set up by the French, and would intervene against former samurai in the Satsuma rebellion in 1877. The Haitorei edict in 1876 all but banned carrying swords and guns on streets.
The Satsuma rebellion
The Satsuma Rebellion, the historical event described in The Last Samurai, was even more one-sided than in the movie, although the military techniques employed by each side were less contrasted. It occurred in 1877, ten years after the Boshin War, and ten years after the establishment of the Imperial Japanese army. The Imperial troops sent a huge force of 300,000 soldiers under Kawamura Sumiyoshi, modern in all aspects of warfare, using howitzers and observations balloons, to the island of Kyūshū to fight Saigō Takamori.
Saigō Takamori's rebels numbered around 40,000 in total, until they dwindled to about 400 at the final stand at the Battle of Shiroyama. Although they fought for the preservation of the caste of the samurai, and officers often wore samurai cuirasses, they did not neglect Western military methods: they used guns and cannons, and all contemporary depictions of Saigō Takamori represent him wearing the uniform of a Western general. At the end of the conflict, running out of material and ammunition, they had to fall back to close-quarter tactics and the use of swords, bows and arrows. In a parallel to the movie, they also fought for a more virtuous form of government (their slogan was "新政厚 499;", "New government, High morality").
In contrast to the Boshin War, no Westerners are recorded to have fought on either side of the Satsuma rebellion. Specifically, Saigō Takamori did not fight side-by-side with foreign soldiers during the Satsuma Rebellion. During the Boshin War, Saigō may have been supported by British and American military advisors,[6] but the only documented case of foreigners actually fighting for a Japanese cause was that of the French soldiers supporting Enomoto Takeaki.
Although the Katsumoto character is based on Saigo Takamori, the last battle in the film is based not on his last stand but on another battle in which a group of disgruntled retainers attacked the new Imperial Army with no firearms or western weapons that took place at roughly the same time.
Further foreign assistance
A third French Military Mission to Japan (1884-1889) was later sent. However, due to the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War, the Japanese government also relied on Prussia as a model for their army, and hired two German military advisors (Major Jakob Meckel and Captain von Blankenbourg) for the training of the Japanese General Staff from 1886 to 1889. Other known foreign military consultants were the Italian Major Pompeo Grillo, who worked at the Osaka foundry from 1884 to 1888, followed by Major Quaratezi from 1889 to 1890, and the Dutch Captain Schermbeck, who worked on improving coastal defenses from 1883 to 1886.
Japan did not use foreign military advisors anymore between 1889 and 1918, until again a fourth French Military Mission to Japan (1918-1919), headed by Commandant Jacques-Paul Faure, was requested to assist in the development of the nascent Japanese airforce.
Westerners fighting alongside Japanese
Historically, the only major case of foreigners taking an active role in a Japanese civil war (aside from a limited Dutch naval support during the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637 - 1638) is that of the French military advisers under Jules Brunet (initially members of the 1867 French Military Mission), who joined the forces favourable to the Shogun under Enomoto Takeaki, during the Boshin war. They were deeply involved in the military organization of the Shogunate's forces, and fought (several of them were heavily wounded) almost to the end of the conflict. A few days before surrender, when the situation had become desperate, they left on the French frigate Coëtlogon which had been waiting at anchor in Hakodate. Some of these French officers did wear the samurai attire (such as the French Naval officer Eugène Collache), although most officers in the armies of the Bakufu, as well as of course their French colleagues, wore French military uniforms.
The Japanese in the late 19th century did hire foreign advisers to modernize their army, but they were mostly French, not American. Ken Watanabe's character was based on the real Saigō Takamori whose exact style of death is unknown. The accounts of his subordinates claim either that he uprighted himself and committed seppuku after his injury or that he requested that a comrade assist his suicide.[citation needed] In debate, some scholars[who?] have suggested that neither is the case, and that Saigō may have gone into shock following his wound, losing his ability to speak. Several comrades upon seeing him in this state, would have severed his head, assisting him in the warrior's suicide they knew he would have wished. Later, they would have said that he committed seppuku in order to preserve his status as a true samurai.
Additional inspiration
A historical American figure whose life story is somewhat mirrored by the Tom Cruise's character is Henry Andres Burgevine, though his involvement was in China's Taiping Rebellion.
Another possible inspiration of the movie is the life of William Adams, the first westerner given the rank of Samurai. William Adams, a ship captain who was shipwrecked in Japan in 1600, developed a unique friendship with Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the military government that ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868. Coming from different and unknown cultures, the exchange of information and knowledge was a key highlight to the relationship between Adams and Tokugawa. Shogun, a 1975 novel by James Clavell, is a fictionalised account of Adams' exploits.
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