Act 5, which deals with the "Boshin War" and "Stonewall" finally gets to Japan.
Moonlight night.
Smelling sweet melon
The fox moves his nose …
(Sirao)
And in Japan it so happened that in October 1867 the almighty shogun Keiki-Yoshinobu from the Tokugawa clan, a clan that ruled Japan for more than two and a half centuries, decided on an unheard-of act - to resign and transfer all power to the still very young fourteen-year-old emperor Mutsuhito Meiji … Until that moment, the emperor in Japan was a purely nominal ruler, and all affairs in the country were run by the truly omnipotent sei-i-tai shogun - the commander-in-chief of the army against the barbarians, simply the shogun, and his samurai government - the bakufu. The shogunate was a feudal structure of a totalitarian regime brought to the absolute. The voluntary transfer of power from the shogun to the emperor meant a truly great event. The military medieval nobility, which was fed by the shogun's bounty, was replaced by new nobles and the third estate, who supported the now new overlord - the emperor. The shogun realized that he was not able to hold on to power, and chose a wise decision - he ceded it himself. However, Yoshinobu hoped that the Tokugawa House would retain his privileges. But it turned out differently. On January 3, 1868, the emperor not only proclaimed himself the sovereign ruler of the country, but also announced the confiscation of the lands and property of the Tokugawa clan. Yoshinobu had no choice but to throw the samurai troops loyal to him at the imperial headquarters in Kyoto, that is, to start a rebellion against the "bad advisers" of the young emperor. Another civil war broke out in the country, called the "Boshin War" ("Boshin Senseo"), or literally: "War of the Year of the Dragon." Already on January 27, 1868, the shogun's troops were defeated near the villages of Fushimi and Toba, after which he fled to Osaka, and from there moved to Edo (Tokyo). A fierce struggle began between the shogun's supporters and the emperor's party.
"Kotetsu" - "Steel carapace" - the first battleship of the Japanese fleet.
Well, it all started with the fact that in 1854-1858. the Western powers, having defeated decrepit China in the opium wars, decided to "open" Japan as well. Until 1842, the Japanese fired at all foreign, that is, in their opinion, "barbaric" ships that tried to land on their shores, but now the attitude towards foreigners has changed, the arrival of Commander Matthew Perry in 1852 and 1854 completely forced the shogun and his bakufu to open ports for the USA, England, France, Holland and Russia, which immediately imposed onerous treaties on feudal Japan, which caused an increase in indignation, primarily among the samurai, who did not want to “bow to the West”. When the English merchant Richardson was killed by extremist samurai in 1862, the authorities decided to ignore the protest of the British consul and supported the samurai nationalists. Moreover, on June 23, the fateful 1863, the bakufu announced the closure of all ports for foreigners, and the next day it intended to declare war on all foreign "barbarians". In the Choshu principality, enthusiasm was so great that the American ship Pembroke was fired upon in the roadstead.
Surprisingly, even in 1864, the Japanese still used these guns! It was called "this" - hinawa-ju!
But the "barbarians" responded to their challenge very quickly and smoothly: the American frigate "Wyoming" under the command of Captain McDougle immediately sunk two Japanese ships and, together with the French landing from the ships of Admiral Jaurès, actually destroyed the city of Simonesseki, while the squadron of the British vice -Admiral August Cooper bombed and wiped out the city of Kagoshima. Shogun Iemochi - the predecessor of Yoshinobu and a completely mediocre personality, agreed to all the demands of foreigners, paid an indemnity and even began a punitive campaign against the samurai of the Teshu and Satsuma principality, who at that time put forward the slogan "Down with the shogun, with the emperor against the barbarians!" But in July 1866, during another punitive expedition, the southerners defeated the Bakufu troops. Iemochi fell ill and died, and it was then that the clever and liberal Yoshinobu, the shogun, came to replace him, who decided to modernize both the army and the navy according to the European model. The rate at which the Japanese were borrowing the latest technical achievements of the Europeans amazed them even then. And they decided to take advantage of it. In 1867, a French military mission arrived at the shogun's headquarters, led by Jules Brunet, who had just fought in Mexico. Under the general command of the Japanese general Otori Keisuke and the Frenchman Jules Brunet, four brigades were formed, led by French officers: Fortan, Le Marlene, Kazeneuve and Boufier. The technical infrastructure and arsenals were created under the supervision of engineer François Verny. The most modern weapons were purchased for the new Japanese army.
That's how they taught them to use modern weapons! A still from the movie "The Last Samurai".
And just then, in the United States, for 40,000 dollars, the battleship Stonewall was bought on the occasion. But as he sailed across the Pacific, discord arose between the shogun and the emperor. Yoshinobu was too smart and influential and … what if he had pushed the young emperor out of power this time too? Who would his new supporters be then? But the Japanese think that everything that happens is … karma!
Stonewall under sail. During the passage across the Pacific Ocean, the ship often went under sail. The team was saving coal.
But on April 24, 1868, when the battleship finally arrived in Yokohama, occupied by the imperial troops, neither his commander nor his team even suspected what was happening in Japan … Their business was simply to bring the ship to its destination.
Well, now the time has come to write down in more detail that "product" for which the Japanese paid such a significant amount of money at that time. As you know, the ship was built in France, at the shipyard of the company "L'Armand Frere" in Bordeaux. It was laid down in 1863, launched in 1864, and completed in 1865.
Stonewall had a brig rig.
But his sister ship "Prince Adalbert" for some reason, a brigantine rig. In addition, he had a differently designed bow end - a ledge, where the Danish battleship had a real gun port with slightly larger firing angles than the Sphinx.
The performance characteristics of the vessel were as follows: the displacement was 1479 t official, 1440 t "normal", 1560 t full. The length at the waterline is 50, 48 m, and 52, 36 m (between the perpendiculars), the width was 8, 78 m, 9, 92 at the constructive waterline. Draft 4, 94 m (bow), 5, 02 m (stern), freeboard 5, 78 m, hold depth 5, 18 m.
The hull had a composite set and was assembled from metal structures, and had a wooden planking, on top of which its underwater part was plated with thin copper sheets to protect it from fouling. The bow ended with a strongly protruding battering ram (spyrone - that was how this "decoration" was then called), which was a continuation of the keel. At a distance of about 2/3 of the length from the stem, the keel diverged to the sides from the centerline, and formed a kind of arch. This provided the ship with excellent ramming capabilities. Remember, the Virginia's battering ram broke off after the Cumberland battering ram. On "Stonewall" at whatever angle it would not crash into the side of the enemy, such an incident would not threaten him.
The ship had two propeller shafts, two propellers and two rudders. The vertical board at a height of 0.8 m from the waterline had a bend inward. Between the front and rear armored casemates there was a thin bulwark, which had to be removed during the battle. There were three guns, as already noted. One in the bow casemate with a port under the bowsprit, and two in the stern, round, with four embrasures. It was believed that since the shells of the enemy's cannons could not penetrate his armor, then … why did he need a lot of guns? The ship had a high chimney, two masts and a full brig rig.
Model of the battleship "Kotetsu" - the flagship of the Japanese Imperial Navy.
Act six, or "flame in the night."
Quail in the fields
Kwokhchut, kwohchut - must have decided
That the hawk sleeps.
(Basho)
The shogun's confrontation with the emperor ended in defeat for Yoshinobu. American and British advisers managed to create for the emperor, albeit a small, but well-trained and quite modern army at that time, while in the fifteen thousandth army of the shogun, only a small percentage of the people were armed with modern weapons. No matter how the French tried, they did not manage to arm the shogunian army, so even a threefold superiority in numbers did not help him. In addition, therefore, many patriotic samurai were so naive that they sided with the emperor, which they later regretted, which, in general, happened not only in Japan. As a result, in May Edo - the capital Yoshinobu surrendered, and he himself was deprived of all titles, rights and fortune … put under house arrest. And here it is just right to think about karma again, only now not of the former shogun, but of the Stonewall ship, which had an amazing karma - to be always late. In principle, he was late this time too, but due to a number of specific circumstances he still managed to fight!
The fact is that the Japanese at that time had their own ideas about the oath, therefore, the officers of Yoshinobu did not consider the surrender of the suzerain a sufficient reason to end the resistance! Therefore, the shogun's fleet, commanded by Admiral Takeaki Yenomoto, as well as three thousand samurai Otori Keisuke and several French instructor officers crossed over to Ezo Island (Hokkaido), and decided to continue the fight there. Emperor Meiji immediately ordered the French military mission to leave Japan, but Jules Brune decided not to obey this order, not wanting to leave his students at such a difficult hour for them. In a letter to Napoleon III, he loftily explained that "he decided to die or serve the cause of France in this country."
Tokugawa Yoshinobu flees after being defeated in the battle at the villages of Fushimi and Toba. Japanese uki-yo engraving.
And on December 25, 1868, all these "last samurai" took, and even proclaimed … a republic on the American model! Surprisingly, the old-regime samurai had nothing against such a "democracy", that's even how. More important was the genealogy of the party that is fighting for power. "Our" - so even if the republic, "not ours" raise the sword against the emperor! Admiral Yenomoto was elected suck - the first and only president in the history of Japan.
The emblem of the Republic of Ezo or the Northern Alliance.
Far from immediately, the world powers decided for themselves which of the two governments they should recognize as legitimate. Emperor Napoleon III, in opposition to the British, decided to support the "American" republic, but the American republic staked on the Japanese emperor. For a long time, the Americans decided "who to be friends against," but nevertheless they decided and in January they finally handed over the detainee to "Stonewall" to the legitimate, in their opinion, owner. The ship was named "Kotetsu" and became the flagship of the new Japanese Imperial Navy. Here again we need to digress a little and say a few words about the peculiarities of the Japanese language. The fact is that the word "ko" in Japanese is extremely ambiguous. There, in general, the same word can mean completely different things, depending on the stress. For example, ka'ki means oyster, kaki 'means persimmon. Likewise, "ko" is a tortoise shell, and just a shell, and much more. And tetsu is steel. That is, literally the name of the ship meant "Steel Shell". And so, having obtained this indestructible ship, the emperor decided to destroy the nest of conservatives with one blow and sent a fleet and a landing of 8000 soldiers to Ezo. His adversary, Admiral Yenomoto, had quite modern steam ships purchased in different European countries, so that the war at sea for the republic at the beginning was very successful. On January 28, 1868, the flagship of the rebel fleet Kayo Maru in Awa Bay near Osaka attacked two Imperial transports, the Hoho and Heiun, which in turn were covered by the imperial flagship Kasuga. In the battle, "Kasuga" was damaged by artillery fire and fled from the "battlefield", but the "Hoho" lagging behind him was blown up by his own team, which did not want to surrender. But "Kayo Maru" was lost during a storm in November 1868, and the Americans gave the "Kotetsu" to the emperor.
Now it has become obvious to everyone that the Republicans have lost: experts considered the steel battleship "invulnerable", and its voyages across the ocean showed that it was also "unsinkable." It remained to hope for a chance, and it was here that the French advised the Japanese to take advantage of this very opportunity - that is, to attack the imperial ships unexpectedly and take them by surprise. Meanwhile, the imperial squadron of Kotetsu, Kasuga, Mo-sun, Hiryu, Teibo and Yoharu was slowly approaching Hokkaido. The first three ships arrived in Miyako Bay earlier than the others, and it was then that the time for the insidious blow "from around the corner" came. On March 25, 1869, at nightfall, the Republican ships Kaiten, Banru and Takao entered the Miyako raid, commanded by French instructors. Since Henri Nicole was originally from Bordeaux, and was familiar with the shipyards of Armand and the characteristics of the Sphinx, he was entrusted with command of the flagship Kaiten. Moreover, the American flag flew on it, and the Russian flag on the Banru. Approaching the imperial battleship, the attackers immediately raised the flag of the republic with a five-pointed star and together rushed to the attack. Nicole decided to repeat the feat of the "Kaiser" at Liss and tried to ram the battleship on a wooden ship, and then take it on board!
However, the description of this attack in different sources varies greatly. For example, in one of them it is reported that the commander of the ship was still a Japanese, not a Frenchman, and he wanted not to ram the battleship, but only to board it. Moreover, the matter did not go well from the very beginning, since the paddle steamer cannot stand side by side with the propeller ship - the wheel covers interfere. In addition, the side of the Kotetsu was higher than the side of the Kaiten, and the assault group had to move to its deck through this very wheeled casing.
All this was so unexpected that the team of the battleship did not immediately realize what was what, but nevertheless realized and opened fire on the attackers from two Gatling mitrailleuses installed on the bow and stern artillery casemates. The fire was then transferred to the Kaiten bridge, where the Japanese commander of the ship was killed.
Meanwhile, the ships Kasuti and Mosun were alerted, their gunners took their places at the cannons, and fire was opened on the Republican ships, so that the coming night was lit up with flashes of fire. They began to retreat, and so hastily that the "Takao" stumbled into a rock in the dark, got a hole and sank not far from the coast, and the French instructor Eugene Collache, who was on board, escaped, but was captured …
The end follows …
