The Role of Western Powers in Boshin War

The Role of Western Powers in Boshin War

Introduction: The Romance of Boshin War: a Bloodless Imperial Revolution

The Boshin War is a civil war in Japan, opened in January 1868 and ended in May 1869. It is a revolt, which was risen by some domains (called Han in Japanese, includes Choushu, Satsuma, Tosa), under the flag of Meiji Emperor, against the Edo Bakufu (also known as Tokugawa Shogunate), which was the real ruler of Japan. (website of Wikipedia) The result was that Edo Bakufu, which had ruled Japan for more than 250 years, has been defeated and abolished, instead, ‘new government’ has been established in the name of Meiji Emperor, therefore settled the military and political foundation of Meiji Restoration.(website of Wikipedia)

This war then had been highly romanticized. It has been called as a ‘Bloodless Revolution’. (Hillsborough, 2009) and guided by the emperor. In fact, the domains who led this revolt claimed themselves as ‘Imperial faction’, since they have handled Meiji Emperor (who was fifteen years old) and allowed (or, what I prefer to say, forced) him to declare Tokugawa Yoshinobu (who was Shogun, the leader of Bakufu) as ‘the enemy of imperial court’. Yoshinobu has finally rejected to give up power (although he had promised some of their requests), assembled the force of Bakufu and opened a fierce battle near Kyoto (the Toba-Fushimi Battle). Even after his surrender, the ‘Imperial faction’ still had a series of battles against the remnants forces of Bakufu. (Wikipedia website)

Another fact which has been often concealed by Japanese nationalists was that the Boshin War was highly involved with western powers. (The Corner website)Particularly Britain and France, had provided support to the belligerents in this war, and there is argument pointing out that the USA had a great influence on that war and significantly accelerated the victory of ‘Imperial faction’ (Haraguchi,1995).

This paper will try to look at the western powers’ impacts...