TALES FROM HISTORY

The Young Samurai who Sacrificed Themselves in the Name of Honor

The tragic, yet noble, tale of the Byakkotai White Tigers

Statue on Iimori Hill, where the young byakkotai looked out over the town of Aizu, Fukushima.

Background

The mid-1800s were a time of turmoil in Japan.

For the 264 years of the Edo Era (1603–1867), Japan had been ruled by the Tokugawa shoguns. Those years of strict control were a time of relative peace. The borders were closed. Foreign interaction was limited to a few tightly regulated port cities, most famously Dejima, a small man-made island off the coast of Nagasaki City.

In 1854, Japan was shaken by its first treaty with a Western power, as the shogun yielded to the intimidating forces of Commodore Perry and his American warships. The floodgates opened to Western trade and influence.

Commodore Perry’s fleet in Edo Bay, 1854. (Public domain)

In 1867, the last Tokugawa shogun, Yoshimune, officially resigned and ceremonially returned rule of the country to the emperor, the 14 year old Prince Mutsuhito, who we remember as Emperor Meiji.

Not everyone was happy with these changes.