Jiyu Banzai! A Japanese Timeline

[Roland Traveler]

The Golovnin Incident​

It was supposed to be a peaceful expedition. When the Diana left Kamchatka in May 1811, its goal was to chart the seas that surrounded the Kuril Islands. A simple task befitting a warship of her caliber, and one useful to Russia.
But things don’t always go the way we plan. After attempting to barter with the local Japanese authorities, Captain Vasily Golovnin of the Imperial Russian Navy and several of his crew were lured ashore and detained. While Diana's crew made an attempt to save their comrades, they were ultimately forced to withdraw. A year later, they would return under Acting Captain Pyotr Fillipov, as Pyotr Rikord had left to explain the situation to Moscow, to attempt to negotiate the release of Vasily Golovnin and the Russian prisoners. Instead of diplomats, they were met with cannon fire and a declaration that all prisoners were dead.
In response, Fillipov ordered the Diana to engage in retaliatory raids against the Japanese. Several hamlets were shelled and the Japanese merchant Takadaya Kahei was captured. Incensed, the Japanese government executed two sailors and threatened to kill Golovnin if the raids did not stop.
In June 1813, Pyotr Rikord would return from Moscow to take over negotiations with the Japanese. Rikord would prove himself an able diplomat, as over the next several months he managed to negotiate the release of the remaining prisoners in an extremely tense prisoner exchange. Golovnin would return home to Russia with a hero’s welcome, and would release a book on his time in captivity that would become an almost instant smash hit.
Despite the successful conclusion of the incident, Moscow simply couldn’t overlook the death of two of its sailors. Although the Napoleonic Wars would continue to occupy their attention until its final end in 1815, Russia made plans to take revenge. In 1817, a delegation from Moscow arrived in Ezo to demand reparations for the killed Russian sailors from the Golovnin Incident. After months of deliberation and negotiation, the Japanese refused. Following orders from Moscow, the Russians would put together a small squadron led by Pyotr Fillipov.
Pyotr Fillipov was the scion of well-to-do peasants who had convinced their son to seek a safe career in the Navy. An excitable and emotional man, Pyotr was notoriously overcautious among his former crewmates. While this may have made for a mediocre sailor, it made for a terrible leader. Fillipov would set sail from Okhotsk in July 1818 as the leader of the punitive expedition against Japan. Sailing down the Asian coastline, the Russian squadron arrived outside of Nagasaki in early August. After a standoff of several days, Fillipov finally ordered a bombardment of the city. Despite the dilapidated nature of the fortifications, the Japanese were able to successfully ward off the Russians due to a hit on Fillipov’s flagship, scaring him into calling a retreat. Although the Russians would attempt long-range bombardment afterward, the end result was fairly minor. Upon returning to Russia, Fillipov would be stripped of his rank and dismissed from the Navy due to his incompetence (and his background) and the entire adventure would be swept under the rug, only appearing as an irrelevant footnote in Russian history.
In Japan, the Battle of Nagasaki was taken as proof that Japan could sufficiently defend itself and that there was no need to import Western knowledge. Rather, the Russian attack inflamed the nationalist sentiments among the Shogunate’s elites, culminating in the passage of the Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels in 1823.

 

[Roland Traveler]

The HMS Carysfort​

The twenty years between 1823 and 1843 would be peaceful for Japan on the international stage. Although tensions remain with Russia to the north, Japan was mainly allowed to continue its policy of isolationism.
This state of affairs would be upset in 1843 when the HMS Carysfort wrecked on Shikoku after being blown off course while sailing to Hong Kong in the aftermath of the Paulet Affair. While Captain George Paulet uncharacteristically offered to trade for required supplies rather than annexing the island, the local Japanese forces rejected the overture. Acting under the Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels, they attacked the HMS Carysfort. After a brief exchange of gunfire culminated with the dismounting and firing of one of the ship’s batteries, the Japanese would retreat. Undeterred, they would harass the British sailors for several days until the ship was repaired. News of the incident would only reach Edo after the British had already left.
The British response to the Carysfort Incident would be one of severe annoyance. Twice in one year, Captain Paulet had sparked international incidents and necessitated the intervention of Rear Admiral Richard Thomas and the Pacific Station. Much to their chagrin, however, Paulet had not done anything untoward this time and was the aggrieved party. Seeking to punish the Japanese, and help salve the wound to British pride that was the recent Afghan adventure, Rear Admiral Thomas set sail for Nagasaki to demand the punishment of the officials involved and to compel Japan to open its ports.
The British arrival in Nagasaki Bay set off alarm bells in the local Bakufu administration, who immediately sent word to Edo. Word of the firepower of the British and their ongoing blockade of the port convinced the Bakufu that the situation was extremely dire. Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi himself would come down from Edo to take over negotiations.
The negotiations between Thomas and Tokugawa would be brief. While Thomas quickly dropped the demands for reparations and punishment due to no British sailors being harmed, he was able to gain rights to trade in Nagasaki, the opening of a British consulate in Edo, and the right for British ships to utilize Japanese ports for the purposes of refueling, maintenance, and the procurement of non-military supplies.

The Thomas Expedition would end up being a disaster for the Bakufu, severely weakening their internal prestige and exposing their weakness to the international community. In 1845 both American and Russian ships would arrive off the shores of Japan. While the Russians would be more respectful, only requesting the establishment of formal diplomatic ties between Russia and Japan, the United States would demand the complete opening of Japan’s markets.
While the Russian request was swiftly granted, the Americans would find themselves enmeshed in a web of diplomatic negotiations as both the Russians and the British sought to limit their interests. After several months of negotiation, the Treaty of Edo (1845) was signed by the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Japan, and the Russian Empire. Under the treaty’s terms, the Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels was officially repealed and the policy of Sakoku was ended. While it wasn’t exactly what they had wanted, Japan was opened to American, and indeed all foreign, interests.

 

[TimTurner]

Will be interesting to see if the Shogunate survives ITTL.

 

[Guaro]

Subbed!

 

[Roland Traveler]

Will be interesting to see if the Shogunate survives ITTL.

All I’ll say on this matter is that there will be no Meiji Restoration.

 

[Lantern]

Seems interesting. One thing I will recommend is you need to threadmark your chapter, cause it will be a pain later on.

 

[Roland Traveler]

Bakumatsu?​

The twin disasters of the Thomas Expedition and the Treaty of Edo threw the legitimacy of the Bakufu in the air. While it was true that Japan had yet to face a military defeat, it was little comfort for the people to know they could be cowed without even a shot being fired. The Bakufu, conservative as it was, was not run by fools. In an effort to improve their standing with the outside world and to regain the support of the people, the Bakufu enacted a policy of immense reform. Beginning with the ascension of the new Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu and the proclamation of the new Ansei Era in 1850, the Bakufu’s reforms were to bring Japan into the modern world.
Unfortunately for the Bakufu, it seemed as if destiny itself would conspire to halt their progress. Increased trade with the outside world required the raising of capital to purchase Western goods and to pay for Western teachers. The Bakufu was woefully unprepared for this, with a taxation system that relied on confiscating a portion of a village’s rice crop instead of a more modern taxation system. Attempts to reform this taxation system into something more effective was resisted by daimyo who feared the centralization would undercut their influence. As the years dragged on, the Bakufu would be forced to rely more and more on rice exports to raise the necessary capital for modernization.
Another negative of increased trade was the spreading of pandemics. Throughout the 1850s, cholera was endemic throughout Japan, with 1857 being a particularly bad year as an outbreak of smallpox helped kill some 400,000 people. When compounded on the humiliations felt by the Bakufu and the rising taxes, it appeared to many in Japan that not only was the Bakufu incompetently leading Japan, but they were insistent on taxing their people to death as well.
Perhaps the most insidious and dangerous occurrence for the Bakufu, however, was the spread (or in some cases, rediscovery) of Western ideas. The arrival of Christian missionaries would reveal the continued existence of the Kakure Kirishitans in Japan. Although the Bakufu would attempt to crack down on them, many would take refuge in port cities and be given work by Europeans while others would simply return to their old ways. In many ways, the Bakufu’s hostility to the Kakure Kirishitans was a self-fulfilling prophecy, as many would become fervent anti-Shogunate supporters and acquire a small amount of arms from sympathetic Europeans.
Western political ideas also found an audience in Japan as the flow of ideas turned from a controlled trickle into a veritable flood. While the daimyo tended to prefer the ideal of the elitist constitutional monarch, where they would still hold sway in government, a small group of young intellectuals would become fascinated by the Enlightenment and the American and French Revolutions. This cadre of would-be revolutionaries would come together in 1858 and form the Tohokai, a group dedicated to the overthrow of the Bakufu and the creation of a Western-style democracy.
The Tohokai would face immediate persecution despite their small size, and would be forced underground. This would end up becoming a boon for the group, as the disproportionately harsh measures utilized against them would make them heroes in the eyes of a peasantry growing tired with Shogunate rule. Even though they would covertly leave the country in 1859 to travel the West aboard an American ship, their very existence and the harsh measures deployed against them would turn them into a boogeyman for the Bakufu. The same would be true of several other groups dedicated to Western ideals as Bakufu repression merely made them more popular than they would have been otherwise.
Despite the rise in subversive groups in the later 1850s, many of which were due to the Bakufu’s own efforts, by 1860 the Bakufu would begin to regain its footing and would declare the beginning of the Bunkyu Era. Corruption and tax evasion was clamped down on and military reforms were finally beginning to pay dividends. A Western-style force was in the process of being created in Edo as the personal army of the Tokugawa, and a small fleet of Western ships had been gathered. To many in the Bakufu, it was time to breathe a sigh of relief as the time of crisis had seemingly passed.

 

[Roland Traveler]

The Kansai Revolt​

1863 and 1864 were hard years for the Kansai region. As the Bakufu clamped down on corruption in 1860, the local rice yields were accurately reported. This resulted in a rise in tax rate for the region between 1860 and 1865. In 1863, less rainfall had reduced the yield of the rice crop, threatening to leave the region without enough food. This was compounded in 1864 when blight struck the area. Even as local peasants banded together to beg for a reduction or postponement in taxation, some even hinting they would resort to the tried and true tactic of a peasant’s revolt, the local administration refused to budge. Not only did they wish to show their strength by punishing the region for the widespread tax fraud, the rice was desperately needed to provide cash to continue modernizing the armed forces.
The Kansai peasantry were ill willing to listen to the Bakufu’s reasoning. They were already going hungry, and here was the government after a decade of calamity continuing to work them to death. The final straw came when a band of soldiers dispatched to the town of Tsu in late summer 1864 discovered a horde of rice hidden by a farmer. He and his family were immediately charged with treason and the soldiers moved to give them a public execution.
The situation was tense as the prisoners were led to the outskirts of town. A crowd of hundreds gathered, many pleading with the soldiers to show mercy and forgive the family, that they were hungry, and that their town had suffered terribly due to the recent years. The soldiers, many of them from around Edo, remained stone-hearted. As the family was led down the final stretch to the execution site, the pleading turned to jeers as the crowd became increasingly hostile.
Although the soldiers would grow increasingly afraid, they would continue their path. As the farmer was made to kneel down and bare his neck, a rock was flung from the crowd. Although it didn’t land anywhere near the soldiers, they immediately demanded that whoever was responsible be turned over to them. Faced with sullen silence, one of them moved to grab someone from the front row. It was at that moment that a shot rang out. The soldier dropped, dead.
For several seconds, silence hung in the air as the shock of the incident sunk in. Finally the silence gave way to a roar. As the soldiers hurriedly tried to regroup and escape, the crowd surged forward. In a matter of moments, the soldiers were impaled on various farming implements and their equipment stolen. The growing mob would then turn its attention to the Bakufu authorities in the city, running rampant and slaughtering dozens of officials. The Kansai region had begun to burn.

The Bakufu’s response to the revolt was initially limited. Peasant revolts weren’t unknown, and it was rare that the central government had to get directly involved. Local daimyo were ordered to put down the rebels and get back to business. This would prove insufficient, as rebel forces rapidly spread across Kansai and overran daimyo holdings. Things would spread outside the region as peasants in Shikoku and Kyushu, emboldened by the events in Kansai, took up arms against taxation as well.
It would be winter before the Bakufu would send a proper army to put down the rebellion. Numbering some 7,500, they were Edo levies rather than the more professional Western-trained forces. Their advance into Kansai would be checked and reversed by the rebels, who became ever more confident of their abilities. Despite this, the field army would remove the stain on their record after they defeated a rebel attempt to march on Edo at the Battle of Fushimi. With this defeat, morale collapsed among rebel forces as the Bakufu once again advanced into Kansai. It would only be when word of the ongoing events in Osaka leaked out of the city that rebel morale would resurge and the Bakufu’s advance would halt.

 

[Roland Traveler]

From Revolt to Revolution​

The city of Osaka was no stranger to rebellion, and had in 1837 been the sight of one during the Great Tenpo Famine. As the Ansei era dragged on, anger once again began to simmer in the city. The recent impoverishment of peasants had resulted in the city becoming swollen by people from the countryside seeking food and jobs, and many of these newcomers would participate in the Kansai Revolt. Although the initial revolt would be put down, the city of Osaka would continue to simmer with anger as reports of Bakufu defeats trickled in from the countryside.
Two weeks before the Battle of Fushimi, a ship from the Kingdom of Hawaii pulled into port. In addition to its normal cargo, two members of the Tohokai were carried in its hull. Over the next seven days, they would go around the city and spread whispers of something occurring at the docks in the coming days. Their words would come true when young revolutionary Toshio Minagawa, head of the Tohokai, came ashore.
Minagawa had spent his years in exile travelling through Europe and the Americas, where he had become a celebrity due to his status as an outlaw in Japan. In the United States he would even gain the title “Japanese Washington” due to him being mythologized as a fighter for freedom and came into contact with several wealthy and famous people, such as Frederick Douglass, John Insley Blair, and King Kamehameha IV. When word of the rebellion in Kansai reached him while visiting the King in Hawaii, he sent out letters to his comrades scattered across the globe and began an immediate preparation to return to his homeland. With the help of the King, he would prepare a ship stocked with foodstuffs and a small amount of weapons.
After a calm journey across the Pacific, Minagawa and his confederates would land in Osaka in the early morning. After capturing the customs agents attempting to search his ship, Minagawa would exit the port and begin distributing food to a growing crowd. As word of his arrival spread around the city, the crowd rapidly swelled from dozens to hundreds, and then to thousands. Around ten in the morning, Minagawa launched into a fiery speech. Denouncing the Bakufu,he declared that the time of the Bakufu was at an end and that he would not rest until he had led an army into Edo and overthrown the oppressors of the Japanese people.
While initial reaction to his speech was muted, Tohokai members planted in the crowd began to chant “Jiyu Banzai” and “Tenno Heika Banzai”. Slowly, the chant began to swell until the entire crowd, including soldiers sent to arrest Minagawa, was shouting. By midday, the now mutinying soldiers marched alongside Minagawa to the local garrison, where Minagawa would deliver an impassioned speech begging them to join the revolt and help free their fellow Japanese. Moved by his words, and likely helped by the very large and very angry mob around them, the garrison agreed to join the revolt. No longer was the current crisis a mere peasant revolt, it was a full blown revolution.

The aftermath of the Osaka Mutiny was incredibly hectic as the Tohokai moved to secure their revolution and their heads. In an effort to define their revolution and gain more support, they published the Osaka Declaration on November 5. In short, it called for the abolition of the Bakufu, the reformation of Japan’s bureaucracy (especially the taxation system) along Western lines, the establishment of a democratic system of governance, and a massive land reform to break up the daimyo. Wary of being accused of Republicanism, the Declaration also enshrined the Emperor as a divine figure who was the physical embodiment of Japan and fully supported his right to the throne.
Alongside the Osaka Declaration, the Tohokai would send out representatives to the various rebelling locations in Japan to ask them to join their movement, established the Revolutionary Japanese Army, and began the organization of a proper government. The most important of these would be the Revolutionary Japanese Army, which would rapidly grow to 15,000 soldiers as peasants joined its ranks. Initially poorly equipped and without much discipline, it would rely heavily on its former professional soldiers in the opening months of its existence.
The Tohokai, having spent most of their existence abroad, were keenly aware of the value of foreign aid. An embassy to Hawaii and the United States was organized to ask for recognition and to raise funds from donations while spies attempted to contact the British and Russian consulates in Edo. Additionally, the Tohokai would dispatch a team of diplomats, including several high ranking Tohokai members, to the Kingdom of Korea in an attempt to gain humanitarian aid to help stabilize the areas under Tohokai control and to gain the assistance of their fleet in keeping the sea routes to Osaka and the southern islands open.

In Edo, the Osaka Declaration was met with absolute panic. The mutiny of the Osaka garrison fed fears of a wave of mutinies throughout Japan, undoing all progress against the revolt and potentially causing the Bakufu’s downfall. After a day of furious debate, the course of action for the immediate future was determined. Although there was significant temptation to attempt to recreate the victory of Tokugawa Ieyasu some 250 years prior, it was decided that the safest course of action would be to retire for the winter, secure the territory under their control, and crush the revolutionaries in the summer.
This decision would lead to the reemergence of the split in the Bakufu between pro and anti-Bakufu daimyo. While the outbreak of revolt had resulted in the creation of a united front that papered over the growing cracks, the Osaka Declaration would convince the so-called Imperial Faction that the Bakufu had outlived its usefulness. Its failures to overcome daimyo resistance to reform, its failures to deal with the Western Powers, and now its failure to put down the Kansai Revolt before it became too dangerous had taught them the exact same lesson it had taught the peasantry: it was time for the Bakufu to go.

 

[Deleted member 147978]

From Revolt to Revolution​

The city of Osaka was no stranger to rebellion, and had in 1837 been the sight of one during the Great Tenpo Famine. As the Ansei era dragged on, anger once again began to simmer in the city. The recent impoverishment of peasants had resulted in the city becoming swollen by people from the countryside seeking food and jobs, and many of these newcomers would participate in the Kansai Revolt. Although the initial revolt would be put down, the city of Osaka would continue to simmer with anger as reports of Bakufu defeats trickled in from the countryside.
Two weeks before the Battle of Fushimi, a ship from the Kingdom of Hawaii pulled into port. In addition to its normal cargo, two members of the Tohokai were carried in its hull. Over the next seven days, they would go around the city and spread whispers of something occurring at the docks in the coming days. Their words would come true when young revolutionary Toshio Minagawa, head of the Tohokai, came ashore.
Minagawa had spent his years in exile travelling through Europe and the Americas, where he had become a celebrity due to his status as an outlaw in Japan. In the United States he would even gain the title “Japanese Washington” due to him being mythologized as a fighter for freedom and came into contact with several wealthy and famous people, such as Frederick Douglass, John Insley Blair, and King Kamehameha IV. When word of the rebellion in Kansai reached him while visiting the King in Hawaii, he sent out letters to his comrades scattered across the globe and began an immediate preparation to return to his homeland. With the help of the King, he would prepare a ship stocked with foodstuffs and a small amount of weapons.
After a calm journey across the Pacific, Minagawa and his confederates would land in Osaka in the early morning. After capturing the customs agents attempting to search his ship, Minagawa would exit the port and begin distributing food to a growing crowd. As word of his arrival spread around the city, the crowd rapidly swelled from dozens to hundreds, and then to thousands. Around ten in the morning, Minagawa launched into a fiery speech. Denouncing the Bakufu,he declared that the time of the Bakufu was at an end and that he would not rest until he had led an army into Edo and overthrown the oppressors of the Japanese people.
While initial reaction to his speech was muted, Tohokai members planted in the crowd began to chant “Jiyu Banzai” and “Tenno Heika Banzai”. Slowly, the chant began to swell until the entire crowd, including soldiers sent to arrest Minagawa, was shouting. By midday, the now mutinying soldiers marched alongside Minagawa to the local garrison, where Minagawa would deliver an impassioned speech begging them to join the revolt and help free their fellow Japanese. Moved by his words, and likely helped by the very large and very angry mob around them, the garrison agreed to join the revolt. No longer was the current crisis a mere peasant revolt, it was a full blown revolution.

The aftermath of the Osaka Mutiny was incredibly hectic as the Tohokai moved to secure their revolution and their heads. In an effort to define their revolution and gain more support, they published the Osaka Declaration on November 5. In short, it called for the abolition of the Bakufu, the reformation of Japan’s bureaucracy (especially the taxation system) along Western lines, the establishment of a democratic system of governance, and a massive land reform to break up the daimyo. Wary of being accused of Republicanism, the Declaration also enshrined the Emperor as a divine figure who was the physical embodiment of Japan and fully supported his right to the throne.
Alongside the Osaka Declaration, the Tohokai would send out representatives to the various rebelling locations in Japan to ask them to join their movement, established the Revolutionary Japanese Army, and began the organization of a proper government. The most important of these would be the Revolutionary Japanese Army, which would rapidly grow to 15,000 soldiers as peasants joined its ranks. Initially poorly equipped and without much discipline, it would rely heavily on its former professional soldiers in the opening months of its existence.
The Tohokai, having spent most of their existence abroad, were keenly aware of the value of foreign aid. An embassy to Hawaii and the United States was organized to ask for recognition and to raise funds from donations while spies attempted to contact the British and Russian consulates in Edo. Additionally, the Tohokai would dispatch a team of diplomats, including several high ranking Tohokai members, to the Kingdom of Korea in an attempt to gain humanitarian aid to help stabilize the areas under Tohokai control and to gain the assistance of their fleet in keeping the sea routes to Osaka and the southern islands open.

In Edo, the Osaka Declaration was met with absolute panic. The mutiny of the Osaka garrison fed fears of a wave of mutinies throughout Japan, undoing all progress against the revolt and potentially causing the Bakufu’s downfall. After a day of furious debate, the course of action for the immediate future was determined. Although there was significant temptation to attempt to recreate the victory of Tokugawa Ieyasu some 250 years prior, it was decided that the safest course of action would be to retire for the winter, secure the territory under their control, and crush the revolutionaries in the summer.
This decision would lead to the reemergence of the split in the Bakufu between pro and anti-Bakufu daimyo. While the outbreak of revolt had resulted in the creation of a united front that papered over the growing cracks, the Osaka Declaration would convince the so-called Imperial Faction that the Bakufu had outlived its usefulness. Its failures to overcome daimyo resistance to reform, its failures to deal with the Western Powers, and now its failure to put down the Kansai Revolt before it became too dangerous had taught them the exact same lesson it had taught the peasantry: it was time for the Bakufu to go.

I smell an earlier Boshin War. Very interesting TL, liked and watched anyhow.

 

[Hattori Saizo II]

Choshu would happily help out the peasant rebels. But it's up in the air for the likes of Satsuma.

 

[Roland Traveler]

Choshu would happily help out the peasant rebels. But it's up in the air for the likes of Satsuma.

While I will admit to initially putting criminally little thought into the various daimyo (indeed, my initial outline had no mention of anti-Shogunate forces who weren’t fighting for the rebellion), I don’t think I’ll have them jumping in behind the peasants. The initial rebellion was against high taxation, with Choshu seems to have been guilty of, and by now it’s metastasized into something that wants to sweep away almost everything related to the daimyo. While no doubt the anti-Shogunate faction in the government will use the revolt to advance their own agenda, trying to co-opt it through alliance is akin to Tsarist Whites trying to form an alliance with the Soviets.

 

[Roland Traveler]

The Land of Morning Calm​

The Joseon Korea that entered the 1800s seemed in many ways similar to Japan. Both were relatively isolated nations obsessed with social order, both were wary of growing Russian influence in the Far East, and both were to come under ever greater threat from the Western Powers. While Japan would face sluggish modernization, the Kingdom of Korea would jump at the need to reform after the defeat of China in the First Opium War. Absolutely terrified at the defeat of the Middle Kingdom and centre of the world, Korea felt its only hope at surviving was to emulate the West.
Korea had taken its first steps toward modernization in the aftermath of a peasant revolt in 1812 led by Hong Gyeong-nae when it moved to clamp down on corruption and to alleviate the tax burden on the peasantry. King Sunjo would oversee a census that organized the Korean peoples into groups of households and would begin the suppression of Catholics. While his efforts would do much to help extirpate corruption and return the bureaucracy to its meritocratic ideal, he would die in 1834 and be succeeded by his son Crown Prince Hyomyeong, who would take on the title of King Munjo.
King Munjo was a unique man, one who preferred the arts to the business of politics. Nonetheless, he was an experienced politician and an avid reformer like his father. In the early years of his reign, he would do much to undercut neo-Confucian power in Korea and to help raise the Silhak movement to prominence. In particular, he would help decrease the power of the Andong Kim clan and narrowly keep his head on multiple occasions.
The news of the defeat of China in the First Opium War and the Treaty of Edo in Japan would shake Korea to its very foundations as the two nations that had threatened it time and time again were in turn humbled by foreign powers. In response, King Munjo would begin a series of reforms dedicated to importing Western knowledge. As part of his reforms, he would suspend persecution of Christians within Korea, an act that both pleased the Silhak Faction and made sure to remove one more reason for the Western Powers to invade Korea. The centerpiece of his reforms was signing a treaty with France in 1853, hoping to use them as a counterweight against the British. It was through this connection that Korea would purchase four steam frigates and would bring in Western advisors. The frigates would be reworked, with iron plating being installed over key parts of their hull and their engines intensively studied.
Korea would open itself up to French business, establishing a joint venture into developing the anthracite coal fields and iron ore veins of Pyongyang in 1855. The following year the government would construct a steel mill in Pyongyang, with French engineers being brought in to teach Korean engineers how to construct and run factories. French shipwrights would also arrive in Busan and Incheon to oversee the expansion of Korean ports and the impartment of Western building techniques.
France would not be the only Western nation that Korea would turn to. Wary of being dominated by any one power, Korea would invite American and Dutch interests into Korea. American and Dutch missionaries and businessmen would flock to Korea, investing in railroads and mines in the south. Citizens from all three nations invited would open schools in Korea, especially missionary schools, resulting in the flourishing of a now-unrestricted Christianity.
The Korean monarchy was not foolish when it came to allowing Western presence in their country. To avoid the foreign domination of Korea’s economy, any foreign endeavors established in Korea would require the Korean government to own at least half the equity. Additionally, foreign organizations would have agree to Korean oversight and promise not to support any subversive activities against Korea. Any organizations found to be in violation of their promises would be subject to immediate nationalization without compensation. While the terms of working in Korea were extremely harsh by Western standards, a mixture of fear of being beaten to the punch by others and hoping to utilize the foot in the door to expand their influence made sure that Korea would not be short on initial investors.
The extremely rapid change in Korean society resulted in immense disruption and discontent. While the peasantry would be supportive of the reforms due to the reintroduction of meritocracy, breaking down the yangban’s stranglehold on advancement, and the final abolition of slavery, many in the yangban and Neo-Confucianists would resent their loss of privilege and the introduction of what they viewed as dangerous and anti-Korean elements into the nation. Things would come to a head in 1857 when Neo-Confucians launched a coup attempt in the Officer’s Revolt.

The Officer’s Revolt was by no means a pre-planned rebellion, but rather the outgrowth of growing tensions between locals and foreigners in Hanseong. On August 7, an argument broke out between French merchants and a local shopkeeper that soon escalated into a brawl. When soldiers arrived, instead of calming the situation as ordered, they fired into the French quarter. By midday, the foreign legations were under attack. Local officers gave orders to their soldiers to drive out the foreigners before marching on the Royal Palace. By the end of the day, Neo-Confucians within the government threw their support behind the revolters and proclaimed their dedication to restoring Korea to its proper state.
This would prove to be very premature, as soldiers of the French-taught First Righteous Army arrived overnight and set up positions around the Royal Palace. After driving off the revolters during the night, the army would march into Hanseong and put down the revolt. Although the Koreans would refuse to pay reparations, they agreed to turn over the ringleaders over to the French, Americans, and Dutch and help rebuild the damaged quarters as compensation.
The most significant outcome of the Officer’s Revolt was the death of King Munjo. Although the King had almost single handedly reshaped Korea, he had been of fluctuating health ever since contracting an illness in his early twenties. Although he had managed to overcome it then, the persistent poor health it left him with would eventually catch up as the stress of the Officer’s Revolt and the threat on his life proved too much. A week after the Revolt’s suppression, King Munjo would pass on, leaving the throne to his son King Heonjong.
King Heonjong was in no mood for clemency toward the people who he viewed as his father’s killers. With the ringleaders of the rebellion turned over to the Western nations, he turned the full attention of his wrath on the Andong Kim clan. Although his grandmother’s family had much of their power reduced under his father, they had avoided destruction due to the how entrenched they were and no proof being found in the assassination attempts against King Munjo. Despite this, their luck would run out with the Officer’s Revolt. King Heonjong would have dozens of members of the family executed and/or sacked from their positions as part of a purge of Neo-Confucianists and in an effort to consolidate power. By 1860, the clan had their hold on power permanently broken and King Heonjong was able to rule as an absolute monarch.

By the time the Japanese Civil War broke out in 1864, Korea was still in the process of completing its industrialization and boasted a fairly powerful military constructed along Western lines. In particular, their navy counted among its ranks 30 vessels, of which 2 were ships of the line, two were ironclads, eight were frigates, and the remainder were various smaller vessels ranging from sloops to troop transports. To help facilitate swift communication between Hanseong and military detachments away from the capital, telegraph lines were laid down between major cities within Korea, and a military railroad was constructed stretching from Busan to Pyongyang.
The arrival of Tohokai diplomats in Busan was met with extreme interest by King Heonjong. Ever since the Japanese invasions centuries ago, Japan had been seen as a significant threat to Korean security. As such, the failure of the Bakufu to modernize and the country’s collapse into civil war was an extremely welcome arrangement in Korea. The Tohokai’s request for aid was an unexpected, but also extremely welcome, development. As far as King Heonjong was concerned, if the Tohokai were granted aid and succeeded, a regime indebted to Korea would exist in Japan. If the Tohokai were granted aid and failed, well Japan was already considered a threat, any prolonging of the civil war would only do good for Korea. With these two things in mind, King Heonjong authorized the dispatch of the Korean military to aid the Japanese revolutionaries. While the Tohokai would request that Korean soldiers not set foot in Japan, Korea would agree to provide naval support and to dispatch their most promising officers as attachés to the Revolutionary Japanese Army. Perhaps most importantly for the Tohokai, he also authorized the shipment of humanitarian aid to help the people living under Tohokai control.

 

[Roland Traveler]

Securing the Revolution​

While the Tohokai would be able to gain the allegiance of most of the revolting areas, the fact remained that the majority of their forces were highly autonomous peasants who refused to leave their home area. The Tohokai would attempt to centralize control by dispatching dedicated party members to the major areas of revolt. This would be met with significant resistance, as local forces did not wish to replace one tyrant with another. As a result, the Tohokai would be pushed onto the back foot in southern Honshu and in Kyushu as the refusal to cooperate would allow the previously overwhelmed Bakufu forces to regroup and counterattack.
The one area where this would not be the case was in Shikoku. Shikoku was spared from the worst of the revolts, with only a handful of uprisings breaking out. Despite this, their rebellions would prove to be the most resilient. When the Tohokai arrived in Osaka, the Shikoku rebels jumped at the opportunity to join them. In early 1865, as the RJA was organized, the Army of Shikoku was officially created. Originally a mere 1,200 men, the ongoing guerilla actions on the islands would result in a swelling of the Army’s strength to over 8,000 and nearly the entirety of the Awa Province falling to the rebels. When Korean officers arrived, they would report that the Army of Shikoku had remarkably high morale and a near professional level of discipline and coordination despite the vast majority of its soldiers having no formal training.
While the successes on Shikoku increased the morale of the RJA in Osaka, the Army of Kansai remained nervous about their abilities. Aside from a few cannons in the Osaka garrison, the army lacked any artillery and the men to effectively utilize them. The army was also made up of extremely green officers leading extremely green men, all of whom had no idea if they would be able to hold up in battle. When the Bakufu army marched south from Edo in spring 1865, its foes marched to meet them both eager and scared to fight their first battle.

The two armies clashed in the Second Battle of Fushimi on July 12 and 13. After an initial charge by the samurai was cut down by withering fire, the Bakufu and RJA spent the next day skirmishing before the RJA managed to turn the Bakufu flank during the night and force a retreat. Although Korean officers would push for a pursuit of the Bakufu, the RJA elected not to pursue their foe due to the disorganization of the army. While they would set out several days later to pursue the Bakufu army, the RJA would never bring them to battle and the campaign season would peter off into a series of skirmishes before both sides retreated to winter quarters.
In Osaka, the Second Battle of Fushimi was met with celebration as a wave of relief broke over the center of revolution. The RJA had proven its resilience and they had kept their heads. While they were disappointed that the enemy had not been destroyed, they were content with being able to march again next year. The arrival of Tohokai member and French Foreign Legion veteran Soma Kakazu, alongside several comrades from his Legion days, in fall 1865 would provide the RJA with a much needed injection of professionalism. Kakazu would be placed in charge of the army and would spend the winter thoroughly drilling them. Despite his best efforts, this would be of limited utility on an army-wide scale as the expansion of the army required more officers who had yet to learn the lessons of the past year. Rather than disperse their veterans, it was decided to organize new soldiers into their own regiments. It was hoped that this would lead to a greater amount of camaraderie and the creation of elite shock regiments that would be able to beat anything the Bakufu could throw at it.

While the military situation was extremely important, the Tohokai realized that their continued presence on this world relied on the support of the peasants. With the initial revolt being due to high taxation and the growing prospect of famine, they knew that not only was it suicidal to try and squeeze the peasantry, it was almost certainly pointless. Instead, they would organize the basics of a new currency called Kin. Ironically, the Kin would be a fiat currency due to the lack of a reserve of precious metals. Nonetheless, the Kin would start off strong as a propaganda campaign by the Tohokai would do much to convince people that the notes would provide freedom from the crippling taxation system of the Bakufu. The Kin would gain another boost to its credibility when Korea announced it would accept a limited amount of Kin as payment for trade. These two factors would help alleviate inflation and build confidence in the currency.
In addition to currency reform, the Tohokai also began a sweeping campaign of land redistribution. All land owned by the daimyo was to be seized and redistributed to local villages. While it may not have been much of a concrete change for the average farmer, the mere fact that their community owned the land they worked on created an immense upwelling of goodwill toward the Tohokai. This land reform was agreed to be merely a wartime measure, however, as the Tohokai was increasingly divided on how exactly their revolution should take shape.
Upon returning to Japan, the Tohokai would reveal just how differently their experiences had shaped them. Reading the various philosophies growing in Europe had introduced them to topics ranging from anarchism, to nationalism, to utopian socialism. Although the original members still remained close friends, two main factions would grow in the party. The Peace and Prosperity faction formed the moderates, who were more concerned with overthrowing the Bakufu and establishing a democratic state that could find a place in the world. The Food and Land faction formed the Leftist Bloc, who wished to create a Japanese version of socialism to uplift the peasantry and bring Japan into the modern world. The main arguments between the two factions would grow out a disagreement in how far the revolution should go, rather than any fundamental disagreement in ideology.

 

[Roland Traveler]

The Counterrevolution​

Compared to the Tohokai, the Bakufu was an extremely unappealing force. Its immense reluctance to change anything had severely angered both the peasantry and more independent minded daimyo alike and its failure to put down the Kansai Revolt had delivered a body blow to its already limping legitimacy. Despite this, the ongoing civil war was viewed by some in its ranks as a blessing in disguise. Several daimyo had been crippled by the uprising and one of the most problematic, Choshu, was busy fighting rebels in its own backyard. If the Bakufu could crush the revolt, the chances were it could use that victory to crush all its foes at once.
Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu was of a less optimistic opinion about the situation. He viewed the ongoing catastrophe as one of his own making, brought on by a mixture of complacency and fear in rocking the boat. Instead of trying to diversify his sources of income, he had insisted on the continuing high taxation rates that had driven the peasants to revolt. With the Bakufu facing an unprecedented crisis, and with victory not within easy reach, he decided to throw caution to the wind in the efforts to modernize.
Seeing the Korean intervention in the war breaking the blockade of the rebels, Yoshinobu moved to secure Chinese, Russian, or British intervention on his behalf. While China was interested, growing unrest in the south stayed their hand, as did the poor state of their navy. Instead they would agree to pay a small subsidy in exchange for Japanese support in future conflicts with the West. When approached, Russia would politely decline to make any statement on the civil war besides hoping for its swift conclusion. Britain would show some minor interest, but the price of their intervention was too high for the Bakufu to secure. Despite this, the procurement of Chinese monetary support and European neutrality in the conflict would be considered a victory by Yoshinobu.
Yoshinobu would also move to curb the power of the daimyo. Gathering all remaining daimyo in Edo, he would deliver a vicious dressing down of their behavior and placed the blame for the rebellion primarily at their feet. While many were visibly livid at their treatment, the majority were sufficiently humbled to make Yoshinobu feel safe to begin reforms damaging to their power. He declared that all taxes would be collected by Edo and that former daimyo holdings were to be converted into provinces under the Bakufu’s control. While Yoshinobu would make the concession that the position in charge of overseeing the provinces would remain in the hands of the now fiefless samurai, the power had clearly shifted toward Edo.
With the daimyo now legally non-existent, Yoshinobu would feel free to move forward with economic reforms. Copying the Tohokai rebels, he would institute a new currency called yen. Unlike the Tohokai, however, the yen was backed by the Bakufu’s metal reserves. Despite this, the currency would have a hard time gaining legitimacy as samurai and peasants alike resent the Bakufu. This would result in the yen’s usage remaining low when compared to the usage of old copper, silver, and gold coins. Nonetheless, this first step would lay down the necessary framework to extend a proper currency system across Japan.
But all of Yoshinobu’s reforms would be naught if his armies were unable to crush the revolution. In order to avoid this, Yoshinobu would extend the Western-style training from just the elite core to the entire Bakufu army. While he was currently hamstrung from equipping them at the same level due to fears that the required taxation would simply inspire revolts in Bakufu territory, he could at least implement the discipline and training into the rest of the army. Despite this, the Bakufu army would be mainly composed of soldiers of poor morale, with many of the professional soldiers being kept at home to contain unrest or due to the daimyo refusing to send them to join the main army.

The aftermath of the Osaka Declaration had inflamed anti-Shogunate feelings among the so-called Imperial Faction of daimyo. Tired with the Bakufu’s inability to adapt to the modern day, they sought to create a new government centered around a re-empowered Emperor. The Second Battle of Fushimi and Yoshinobu’s dressing down of the daimyo would serve to turn the political unity brought about by the revolt into a full-blown civil war inside a civil war. Several major daimyo began to ignore Bakufu orders, with reports of conflicts between Bakufu and Imperial forces breaking out. In particular, the southern daimyo of Choshu and Satsuma would break away from the Bakufu and declare the creation of the National Protection Army. Although the Tohokai separated the two, it was clear that a final end to the conflict would not be brought about until two of the three factions had been destroyed.
The National Protection Army took its job very seriously, and would begin pushing back against the rebels in southern Honshu, with Choshu forces retaking the entirety of their dominion by October 1865. In Kyushu, the Satsuma would drive the rebels underground, although they would not be able to completely destroy them and would face persistent guerilla actions. On Shikoku, Tokushima would face an internal struggle between those who wished to maintain loyalty to Yoshinobu and those who viewed the National Protection Army as the best way to reclaim Awa. The National Protection Army’s early successes gave it a much greater sense of legitimacy than the faltering Bakufu, yet the more observant of its leadership recognized that with the Korean navy in the war, their financial resources and communications with each other would be severely impacted. For Satsuma and Tokushima, this was especially dangerous as Satsuma relied on trade and Tokushima was isolated on Shikoku from its potential allies.
In Mutsu province, the Uesugi would lead the establishment of a neutral faction that would not officially oppose the Bakufu, but would refuse to follow its orders. They would take care of any rebels that appeared in their territory, but would not contribute troops or resources to the conflict. While Yoshinobu was initially tempted to strike at this faction, their lack of hostility and the suddenly dwindling resources available to him made him think otherwise. He needed to conserve his resources to defeat the Imperials, not those who would fall back in line after his authority had been reasserted.

 

[Roland Traveler]

Early 1866: Chugoku​

The Tohokai reacted to the formation of the National Protection Army and its advances in Chugoku by sending 4,000 soldiers south alongside a detachment of Korean officers to take control of the situation. While some continued to resist the Tohokai’s attempt to assert control, the seeming inevitability of defeat without falling in line convinced most remaining rebels to join up. Although most of their soldiers were more skilled in guerilla warfare or inexperienced, the newly created Army of Chugoku, placed under command of newly promoted officer Nanbu Nakakatsu, could claim some 12,000 men under arms. After spending a month encamped at Izumo to allow men to gather and to help fill them with a religious fervor, the army marched west.
The first job of the new Army of Chugoku would be to halt the advance of Choshu forces toward Kansai. Choshu forces had encamped at Hiroshima over the winter and had put down nearly all unrest in their rear, allowing them to bring 16,000 men to bear. Faced with a quantitatively and qualitatively superior army but still needing to halt them, Nakakatsu and his Korean advisors devised a plan to break apart the enemy and defeat them in detail. A column of 2,000 soldiers, composed almost entirely of RJA veterans, were placed under the command of Nakakatsu’s best commanders and were ordered to march on Hiroshima while the remainder of his forces began making feints toward the important castle town and port of Fukuyama.
Choshu forces were commanded by Mori Jiro, the son of Mori Narimoto. Mori Jiro had been given a traditional Japanese education in his childhood, but would be sent to France to receive training in European military methods in the 1850s. As such, his training was mainly centered around fighting in the Napoleonic style, utilizing strictly organized units on the offensive and defensive tactics revolving around entrenching and utilizing massed firepower to wear down the enemy. Unfortunately for Jiro, his troops lacked the same training or firepower that his French teachers had available, something that he planned on countering through the use of skirmishers.
Reports of two RJA forces in the area reached Jiro in early March. Unable to leave Hiroshima unprotected, Jiro elected to leave behind a garrison of 6,000 men while the remainder marched with him to defend Fukuyama. He would arrive in the city ten days later on March 21st. After hearing that the city of Niimi had fallen to RJA forces on the 27th, he took his forces northward to catch the RJA in the field and avoid a siege.
Nakakatsu and Jiro would meet on the Jinseki Plateau north of Fukuyama. After the vanguard of Nakakatsu’s forces captured Jinseki-cho, they would stumble into pickets of Jiro’s forces to the south. A confused skirmish would break out, eventually resulting in both sides withdrawing with minimal losses. Being closer to his troops, Nakakatsu would receive word of the skirmish first and would launch his soldiers into a forced march southward to fall upon the enemy.
Mori Jiro’s response to the skirmish would be to order his men into battle formation and to begin a slow advance toward Jinseki-cho. Soon after beginning his march, however, forward elements of Nakakatsu’s forces would smash into his right flank. His troops, not expecting combat and still forming up on the march, were scattered as the RJA punched through. Fortunately for Jiro, the wooded nature of the battleground meant that the RJA would not realize that they had not engaged his vanguard until he was able to regroup his forces. Despite being able to regain control over his army, the fact still remained that the RJA had cut his line of retreat. Utilizing hastily felled trees as fortifications, Jiro would oversee his troops’ resistance against RJA attacks for several hours until nightfall. After the RJA forces in his rear withdrew, fearful of being stampeded in the night, his men began a retreat back toward Fukuyama. Two days later, his exhausted but intact army would reenter Fukuyama, pursued by Nakakatsu. The RJA would settle into a siege as Jiro allowed his forces to rest and conscripted the locals into constructing barricades in the streets while he set up headquarters at Fukuyama Castle.
After two weeks of siege, Nakakatsu had become restless. He preferred open warfare instead of the slower siege warfare. Additionally, he was fearful that the longer he spent besieging Fukuyama, the more likely it was that his force to the south would be defeated and the Choshu’s superior numbers would be brought against him. With these thoughts in mind, he sought to take Fukuyama by assault.
Nakakatsu was keenly aware that his forces were very unsuited for what he was about to ask of them. Lacking any artillery or siege equipment, he would have to rely on his light infantry while also ensuring he did not take excessive casualties. By his own calculations, if his forces lost 2,000 men, his chances of victory would take a steep drop. To avoid this, he sought to deceive Jiro and convince him to surrender.
On the night of April 13, he ordered his men to prepare a wooden cannon and several fake cannons. The following day, he asked to speak with Jiro. He would threaten Jiro with the bombardment of Fukuyama and the destruction of the town unless he surrendered. After Jiro refused to surrender, believing that Nakakatsu’s threat was a bluff, Nakakatsu ordered the firing of the wooden cannon. Shocked by the seeming presence of RJA artillery, Jiro elected to surrender his forces instead of being bombarded without any recourse. After confiscating their arms, the RJA would parole Jiro’s men to avoid needing to take care of them. Under direct orders from Nakakatsu, Jiro would be taken prisoner and kept from committing Seppuku until Korean ships could come to pick him up and take him to Osaka.
After settling lingering accounts with Jiro and his forces, Nakakatsu would leave 1,500 men in Fukuyama and march south to link up with his men.

Further to the south, the RJA column dispatched toward Hiroshima arrived outside the city and began to make demonstrations. Utilizing deception, they convinced the garrison to avoid sallying out by making their numbers seem much larger than they were. Although less than 2,000 men sat outside the city, its garrison estimated a force of at least 12,000 faced them. By the time they would discover the deception, Nakakatsu was already marching south to place Hiroshima under a proper siege and Korean ships had appeared in the harbor to blockade the city.

 

[TimTurner]

So who is winning so far?

 

[Roland Traveler]

So who is winning so far?

Kansai and Shikoku are stalemated, Kyushu is in the hands of the National Protection Army, and the RJA just managed to achieve a large victory in Chugoku. So far nobody has suffered a decisive defeat, but the momentum (in the southwest at least) is with the RJA.

 

[Roland Traveler]

Early 1866: Shikoku​

As 1866 dawned, the island of Shikoku was divided into three parts: the National Protection Army supporting the Uwajima Domain in the west, Bakufu loyalists in the Tosa and Sanuki Domains in the center and northeast, and Tohokai forces in the Awa Domain. Of the three, the Uwajima Domain would be the strongest due to being reinforced by the NPA from Kyushu. Despite this, none had the strength to effectively push the others.
While the RJA had managed to secure Awa, the stiffening resistance meant that their guerilla fighters would have to transition into becoming a proper army to fight the conventional forces arrayed against them. This process would be significantly aided by the strong esprit de corps and coordination many of the guerillas expressed. After electing officers from among their own men, they organized themselves into five regiments of around 2,000 men each. While two regiments would act as a home guard, the remaining three would prepare themselves to seize Sanuki and its sugar fields.
The Bakufu loyalists would be placed in a harsh position as they faced enemies from east and west, in addition to having their two centers of power being split apart. Despite this, morale would remain high in Bakufu forces on Shikoku as a fatalistic aura settled over them. Those who had remained loyal to the cause numbered around 6,000 and were prepared to die before admitting defeat. For the time being, the Bakufu would commit itself to a defensive posture and a harassment campaign against its enemies.
The Uwajima Domain slowly became host to nearly 20,000 soldiers as local peasants were conscripted and Satsuma forces slowly made their way across the Bungo Channel. While Korean efforts to interdict their movement had done some damage, Satsuma artillery had managed to drive off their ships at key moments. The arrival of Satsuma forces would massively increase the strength of the National Protection Army on Shikoku and give them the strength needed to take the initiative on Shikoku.
Conflict on Shikoku would exit its lull in early March as NPA forces set out to capture Kochi and cripple the Bakufu loyalists. Their first clash would come at Nakamura, southwest of Kochi, on March 27th. Due to the Bakufu garrison of 600 men making their stand near the Iwamoto-ji, a temple whose current form dated back nearly 200 years,the local Uwajima commander elected to avoid utilizing their firearms and to close distance to avoid damaging the site. After NPA forces marched through a hail of gunfire, they would engage in a bitter melee around the temple until forced to retreat. The first proper battle between the National Protection Army and the Bakufu would end with the NPA losing 218 men and retreating while the Bakufu would lose 84.
After the initial defeat at Nakamura, the NPA would reorganize and send in 4,000 men with orders to take any measures necessary to take the town. After forming up and launching a coordinated attack from multiple directions, they would discover that Nakamura had already been abandoned. After sending out scouting parties to make sure that the Bakufu loyalists were no longer in the area, the army once again began its march on Kochi.
The road to Kochi would be a brutal one, as Bakufu loyalists relentlessly harassed NPA forces all the way there. As they finally arrived outside the city, the 13,000 strong NPA army would find some 2,300 Bakufu loyalists inside the city waiting for them. Initial attempts to breach the city were repelled, forcing the NPA to settle in for a protracted siege. Although they had a pair of cannons due to arrive any day, their utility was questioned when utilized against what seemed to be from initial assaults a suicidally determined enemy who refused to fight in the open.
The question of cannons would soon be overshadowed by a new problem. On the night of April 4th, 100 men from the Kochi garrison had sallied out. While they had taken heavy losses, they managed to fight their way to a supply dump and set fire to the powder stored there. While not deadly to the siege, the explosion had killed several soldiers and destroyed a significant portion of their gunpowder stores. In response, rudimentary fortifications were constructed around supply dumps and their guard increased. Although several other attempts would be made to replicate the raid, the NPA was able to stop them from succeeding as the siege settled down into a boring monotony of raid and counterraid.

On the opposite side of Shikoku, the RJA Army of Shikoku prepared to advance into the Sanuki Domain. Although they were able to capture Hiketa and several towns south of Takamatsu, they would come across similar troubles as their NPA enemies to the west. Fanatical Bakufu resistance forced them to prepare for a siege of Takamatsu and to call in Korean naval aid. Although the Koreans would spend several weeks shelling the city and the RJA would launch constant probes, Takakatsu would hold firm. Eventually, the Koreans would withdraw from their blockade so they could resupply before being needed to place Hiroshima under siege. With their artillery support withdrawing, the RJA elected to withdraw as well and to try to lure the Bakufu into open battle.
RJA efforts to lure out the Bakufu would fail. Although they would fight numerous small-scale skirmishes, the RJA would be forced to bottle up the Bakufu forces in Takamatsu and hope that they could find a way to capture the city rather than winning the decisive victory they had looked for outside of it.
While the RJA lacked the necessary equipment for a proper siege, they still had plenty of ingenuity. To cut off the city from being able to fish, RJA forces crossed over to the island of Megijima, just off of Takamatsu, and set up sniper’s posts and a small naval base. From here, the RJA would look out for any ships exiting or leaving the harbor and would dispatch small ships to disrupt their movement. While by no means perfect, the blockade managed to noticeably interdict the flow of food into the city.

 

[Roland Traveler]

Early 1866: Central and Northern Honshu​

What could arguably be considered the main theatre of war was the conflict between the Bakufu and Tohokai in Kansai. Defeat for either side here would deliver the overwhelming majority of Japan’s resources to the victor, allowing them to potentially crush the National Protection Army under sheer weight of numbers. It was also home to the power centers of both the Tohokai and the Bakufu, the loss of which would cripple both factions even without considering the resources of Honshu.
The primary problem facing the Bakufu was almost cripplingly low morale. The Kansai Revolt, the rise of the National Protection Army, and the intervention of Korea had all left Bakufu forces with a feeling that their cause was doomed and that resistance merely prolonged the inevitable. While they were willing to go into battle, Bakufu commanders had to be wary of either overcommitting their forces or being perceived as losing too badly. This cautious approach to combat was somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy, as it meant that Bakufu forces tended to withdraw from battles at the first sign of trouble instead of fighting it out. The army reforms in the aftermath of the Court Address did much to improve matters, but it also revealed a deeply seated rot in which many of the soldiers were outright hostile to attempts to train them. This attitude would be literally shot out of them after a mutiny was bloodily put down by loyalist units. By the time spring arrived, the army had been whipped into a decent enough fighting shape. By summer, news of the Battle of Nakamura and the torching of NPA gunpowder at Kochi helped rekindle hope among Bakufu forces that their cause had a chance. Although the army was far from the well disciplined and highly motivated force that Yoshinobu wanted, it was competent and confident enough to allow for more pitched battles than the previous campaign season.

Perhaps the biggest failure of the Tohokai in the entire war would be their perpetual inability to truly gauge how poor of a shape the Bakufu’s army was in during the opening stages of the war. While their own army may not have been in the best condition either, their higher morale and fervor meant that had the RJA ever pushed themselves harder in pursuit of their opponents they likely would have completely destroyed the enemy as a cohesive battle formation.
But any concentration on the past is meaningless. The RJA failed to destroy the Bakufu and the war in Kansai continued to drag on. Preparations for the 1866 campaign season revolved mainly around making good the RJA’s deficiencies. With the decision to have veterans concentrated into individual regiments instead of spread across the army, RJA Supreme Commander Soma Kakazu chose to emphasize the training of soldiers in the rapid creation of field fortifications. While not every soldier could be expected to remain calm under fire in an open field, they could remain confident from behind their defenses.
The other major area that Kakazu concentrated on was the nearly non-existent artillery arm. Due to the RJA’s origins as a peasant rebellion, it lacked both artillery and the artillery crews needed to utilize them. Although eight cannons were liberated from Osaka, they were of poor quality and often lagged behind the army, only arriving in the aftermath of battle due to being treated as something of a siege train instead of a proper battlefield weapon. Kakazu sought to change this, and began training men in how to properly handle artillery. After months of petitioning, Kakazu was allowed to purchase twenty surplus 12 pounder Napoleon field cannons from the United States for the cost of $60,000 through Korean mediums. The cannons would arrive on May 4th, mere days before the Army of Kansai left its winter quarters. Its crews lacked anything more than basic training on how to handle their guns, but Kakazu was insistent that the RJA utilize its artillery.
The main target for 1866 was the subject of intense debate. By March, the list had narrowed to three targets: the Imperial capital at Kyoto, the important town of Nagoya along the Tokaido Road (a road linking Kyoto and Edo), or the city of Kofu at the base of Mt. Fuji. While Kyoto was treated as an open city due to informal agreement between the Tohokai and the Bakufu, debates on whether to violate this agreement came down to whether it was believed that the Bakufu could be brought to a decisive battle through desperation to protect the Imperial capital. Eventually it was decided that this strategy was unnecessarily antagonistic and would waste resources on a target that would only tangentially help them get to Edo.
With Kyoto ruled out, it was clear that the RJA would take the offensive, the only question was how far it would attempt to reach. While Kofu would place the RJA within easy striking distance of Edo, it was feared that it would be an overreach. Comparatively, capturing Nagoya would help to protect Kansai, would secure a major stop along the Tokaido Road, and would allow the RJA to remain close to its supply base should things go badly. It was also considered to have similar issues with Kyoto due to the small distances between it and Osaka. Eventually it was decided to have three stages of the offensive. The minimum goal for the year was to take Nagoya, with the Army of Kansai ordered to at the very least make attempts to march on Sunpu further up the Tokaido Road. If they still had momentum, then the RJA would make a play toward Kofu.
Despite it being outside of his required duties, Soma Kakazu would elect to personally accompany the Army of Kansai over significant protest from his compatriots. In a speech to Tohokai elites, he would declare that it was his duty as the one who determined how the army was trained to see how they held up in battle. Privately, he expressed serious concerns over the effectiveness of the artillery arm, the effect of the army being forced to slow down to match it, and the effects of needing to requisition and feed the horses necessary to transport them.

The 1866 campaign season in central Honshu began with the Bakufu marching out of their winter quarters at Nagoya on May 6th. Arriving near Nara on the 10th, they would force the Army of Kansai out of Osaka to meet them. The Battle of Nara would result in a nasty shock for the Bakufu when RJA artillery opened up on their lines. Although panic almost set in among the Bakufu soldiers, quick action by their officers and their new training kicking in allowed them to reorganize and withdraw into the town proper. Not wanting to damage the historic site, Kakazu personally intervened and ordered the town surrounded except for the road back to Nagoya and systematically cleared out. The Bakufu commander quickly recognized exactly what was occurring, and ordered a retreat before an avenue of death could be created. The Battle of Nara may have been a defeat for the Bakufu, but its army had proven it had the resilience necessary to potentially win the war.
Resilience was not the only thing the Bakufu needed, as the arrival of artillery on the battlefield meant that they would need to avoid fighting in open terrain if they didn’t want severe casualties. Taking inspiration from the fighting on Shikoku, Bakufu forces began to engage in hit and run tactics and avoiding open battle. Cavalry in particular was used to harass RJA forces and areas under Tohokai control, drawing from the cavalry raids launched during the American Civil War.
While the Tohokai may have wanted to simply ignore the raids as unimportant to final victory, they were aware that doing so would inflame public sentiment against them and force people to support the Bakufu for their own wellbeing. The Army of Kansai was forced to part with some 5,000 men to garrison the region against raids and to help organize local militias. To deal with the men harassing their army, they established numerous pickets and decided to force the Bakufu to battle by marching on Nagoya post-haste. The army, now numbering 35,000, smashed through any attempts to delay them and captured Nagoya on June 4. The Bakufu army had managed to evacuate most of its men, the remainder staying behind as raiders who would be flushed out over the next several months, but was powerless to stop the RJA from continuing onward. A garrison of 15,000 was left in Nagoya while the rest of the army surged along the Tokaido Road toward Shizuoka.
Seeing the need to stop the RJA advance, Bakufu forces, numbering 26,000, marshalled at the town of Hamamatsu. Hamamatsu was a coastal town along the Tokaido Road, but more importantly for the Bakufu its flanks were secured by mountains and Lake Hamana to the north. If the RJA wanted to continue their advance, they would either have to find another way around, limiting their artillery’s utility, or they would have to punch through the narrow road along the water’s edge.
The RJA arrived at Hamamatsu on May 25 and began scouting out Bakufu positions. Their artillery was set up, but neglected to fire in order to conserve ammunition. As the RJA and Bakufu engaged in potshots across their battlements, the weeks dragged on. Eventually a force that hadn’t been involved in the war for over a year reared its head to intervene: the Tokugawa Navy. Appearing off the coast in a foggy morning after deciding that the Koreans were not going to arrive, the four frigates of the Tokugawa Navy began taking potshots at RJA positions. Initially there was panic in RJA lines as the source of the bombardment was completely unknown. Scouts were dispatched across the lake to determine if the Bakufu had brought their own cannons to bear, spending hours fruitlessly searching before the fog cleared and the masts of frigates flying the black and white naval ensign became visible.
Fortunately for the RJA, the frigate crews were inexperienced with shore bombardment and had fired essentially blind into the morning fog. The result was that the damage inflicted was minimal and that the RJA was able to move its own cannons to the shore to return fire. While their range was insufficient to reach the frigates, they could at least force them to remain at a range where their fire would be highly inaccurate and have little effect. For all intents and purposes, the RJA artillery had been removed from the battle for Hamamatsu.
Kakazu took control of the army at this juncture. Unable to pursue his original battleplan of pounding Bakufu positions until they were forced to withdraw, he elected to personally lead a flanking attack through the northern mountains. After the arrival of 8,000 reinforcements from Nagoya, Kakazu took these veteran soldiers and advanced northward under the cover of darkness. In the dead of night, he fell upon the 6,000 men guarding the northern shore of Lake Hamana and systematically wiped them out. Although it cost him a fourth of his own men, he had scattered the northern guards and gave his men a few hour’s rest before marching southward.
Kakazu arrived on the northern flank of the Bakufu army three hours after survivors from the northern guard arrived to give warning. Fearing their encirclement yet again, Bakufu forces would launch a hasty offensive against Kakazu. For the second time in a day, Kakazu’s men were forced to engage in fierce fighting. Exhaustion would soon set in as their lines wavered, forcing a retreat. It would only be when Kakazu set off a firework, brought along specifically to signal the main army to attack, that relief would come as the RJA attempted to advance along the coast. Completely exhausted and whittled down to half their original strength, Kakazu’s men withdrew to the small town of Kiga on the northern shore of Lake Hamana. Two days later 5,000 men from the main army would arrive to replace them and allow the men to return to camp. The First Battle of Hamamatsu had ended in a bloody Bakufu victory with 5,000 men lost on their side and 5,500 lost by the RJA.

To the north, the Uesugi would enter into negotiations with Yoshinobu that dragged out months. Yoshinobu’s refusal to accept anything but their acceptance of his reforms as a key part of any agreement would eventually scuttle attempts to reconcile the two sides. It would not come to open conflict, but Yoshinobu made his determination to bring all of Japan under his domination clear. It also forced him to take new measures to appease the peasantry and gain new recruits for his army. He would begin to offer tax incentives to towns around Edo that could provide a percentage of their men as soldiers, starting at a tax reduction for 5% and going all the way up to four years without taxes if at least 75% of a town’s men agreed to become soldiers for up to four years.
While a great gamble financially, it led to tens of thousands of new recruits showing up, with some records indicating as many as 200,000 answering the call. This influx was far beyond anything Yoshinobu had foreseen, and he ended up sending all but 60,000 home. To avoid being viewed as a liar, Yoshinobu granted the entirety of Musashi Province a 50% decrease in taxes for the next four years. Mainly equipping these new recruits with matchlocks, Yoshinobu put them through their paces as an army to finally crush the Tohokai before bringing the rebellious daimyo to heel. While he was loath to admit it, it wasn’t the upstart lords that was his greatest threat, but the peasant rebellion turned revolution. When word of the First Battle of Hamamatsu reached him, he was able to respond by dispatching 20,000 fresh recruits to help his army recover from their losses.