Comments on: Milton — Samurai William

By: Gerald Jackson

Gerald Jackson — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 21:26:27 +0000

A very interesting essay. Because it is significant in the later story of Adams, you may be interested to learn more about the Portuguese arrival at the southern Japanese island of Tanegashima in 1543. Sure, the Black Ship became important later but what initially gave the Prtuguese such a big impact was their introduction of the musket. This was quickly copied by the Japanese and spread like wildfire, playing an important role in the battles that led up to the Tokugawa victory. Only later (after the consolidation of the Tokugawa shogunate) were muskets virtually banned and the modern myth created that samurai had fought traditionally until the arrival of Admiral Perry etc. (The movie “The Last Samurai” perpetuates this myth.) The important role of muskets is brought out a bit in Clavell’s “Shogun” but, for a more detailed and fascinating account, I would recommend you look at Olof Lidin’s “Tanegashima – The Arrival of Europe in Japan”. Fuller details can be found at the Univ. of Hawaii Press website (http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu).

By: John

John — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 02:44:32 +0000

When I read the title I thought that this was going to be a post about Lafcadio Hearn.

By: Jim Bennett

Jim Bennett — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 06:46:48 +0000

Complementary to the books recommended by James is Walter McDougall's Let the Sea Make a Noise", a history of the Northern Pacific. An example of the illuminating details include the fact that the losing clan in the Japanese civil wars was exiled to Okinawa. Since they became almost the only Japanese with any practical knowledge of navigation, they became the basis of the Imperial Navy in the Meiji era. Their rivals, who had exiled them, became the nucleus of the Japanese Army. Thus, Army-Navy rivalry in Japan went a lot deeper than the Army-Navy game in the US, with consequences for subsequent history.