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1. KFist (kfist@pl.smuglo.li)'s status on Friday, 13-Sep-2019 02:13:02 UTC KFist
   The single smartest decision borne out of the Meiji Restoration was to reintegrate pro-Imperial forces into the new regime by making them part of the nominal nobility and giving them bureaucratic sinecures that could become real positions of power.
   
   Rather than giving those lords that were on the losing side shitty domains, force-suicided sons, or purposely shitty places in the new regime like the Tokugawa Shogunate did, the Meiji regime simply reintegrated those willing to work towards a new Japan and outright killed everyone who didn't agree.
   
   Even people like Enomoto Takeaki, who founded an entire breakaway republic outright refuting the Emperor's dominion were given cushy and influential positions. Only really headstrong people like Saigo Takamori were irredeemable and mostly because they fought to the death or killed themselves.
   
   It's a really interesting juxtaposition. Saigo was instrumental in kick-starting and leading the Meiji Restoration but ultimately found himself at odds to it, before dying at the Battle of Shiroyama ten years later. Meanwhile Enomoto Takeaki prolonged the end of the war and was the last hold-out before becoming rehabilitated and fully integrated into the Meiji regime, becoming a vice-admiral and foreign minister by the end of the century.
   • Bernie repeated this.
   • Bernie (codewiz@mstdn.io)'s status on Monday, 16-Sep-2019 02:30:03 UTC Bernie

     in reply to

     @kfist This reminded me of The Last Samurai, where the Meiji restoration serves as background for the story of the fictional samurai Katsumoto, who opposes the western-style government for reasons that are initially incomprehensible to the American captain played by Tom Cruise.

     This movie has two distinct parts: it starts to tell the story from the point of view of the western protagonist, but then it flips halfway, almost becoming a classic Asian movie!

     https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Samurai

   • Bernie (codewiz@mstdn.io)'s status on Monday, 16-Sep-2019 09:45:57 UTC Bernie

     @kfist Well, an accurate historic view would have been a flop in Western theaters. Introducing a western observer was a narrative expedient to introduce the viewers to a different world and historic context. I think The Last Samurai is already taking considerable risk for a Hollywood production in pushing all those non-western values along with a ruinous ending.

     Far from being my favorite samurai movie, this is definitely my favorite Western-made one.