preview

What Is The Primary Cause Of War In The Last Samurai

Decent Essays
“The Last Samurai” is an epic war film, inspired by the events of the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion led by Sagio Takamori. In the film, a traumatized civil war veteran by the name of Nathan Algren is hired to train soldiers in the Imperial Japanese Army and aid their suppression of the Satsuma Rebellion. During their first battle, Algren is captured by samurai and after avoiding execution begins to learn their way of life before helping them defend against the Imperial Army. While the film keeps true to some aspects of the period, several facts including the reason for the rebellion, Japanese relations with the United States and the warriors experience with firearms are all portrayed in a manner inconsistent with the time period.

While the U.S and Japan had established trade and many weapons were sold to Japan in the aftermath of the Civil War, the U.S had little involvement in the way of nation building with Japan. As opposed to an American adviser you would have been far
…show more content…
This was not simply the samurai versus the emperor as a majority of former samurai were loyal to the emperor nor was it a simple reluctance to modernize. The primary cause of the rebellion was the revocation of the samurai's elite status and privileges as the country attempted to unify its citizens around the emperor. Many samurai though had thought that through participation in previous wars that their status in the empire was secure and they could not see continuing to serve the country without their higher status.

Though “The Last Samurai” is an incredibly inaccurate film, significantly downplaying the scope and cause of the conflict and ignoring significant parts of Japanese history that would have made many parts of the movie implausible or not impossible. The film for what it is though is fine if not fairly entertaining. If you are looking for something more accurate to the time period though I would look
Get Access