This week: conscription in Japan. What’s it like to be conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army? How are conscripts treated,…
Aaand we’re done. This week, some final thoughts on the period and its key players before we put the Meiji…
This week, we turn to the final drama of our series — the samurai rebellions that will break out in…
This week, Saigo Takamori is going to sidetrack the whole government by pulling the idea of invading Korea off the…
This week, we cover the major issues of the new government. Who’s in charge? What do they want to do?…
This week, we take a look at the new balance of power now that the Tokugawa are gone. Who’s…
This week: the “short-lived” part of “the short-lived Ezo Republic” comes to fruition, and what is now Meiji Japan begins…
This week, we’ll cover the military campaigns of 1868. Edo will (surprisingly anticlimactically) fall, the north will rebel, and Matsudaira…
In early 1868, the armies of the loyalists and the Tokugawa bakufu will clash outside Kyoto. We’ll discuss the…
This week, we cover 1867: the final year of the Tokugawa shogunate (sort of). Caught between a loyalist rock…