The Ishin Side of history

In the spirit of "Know thy enemy" I was wondering if anyone is
interested in some information on the backbiting/treachery amongst
themselves of the Ishin's "Three Great Men" Katsura, Saigo & Okubo?

I picked up a book called The Yamato Dynasty (The Secret History of
Japan's Imperial Family) by Sterling and Peggy Seagrave

(available in various types of editions isbn on my hardcover copy is
0767904966 it was less than $10 used on amazon including shipping)

From what I read today its sounds like these three were as back
stabbing as a bunch of high school girls all after the same football
player boyfriend.

Brief examples--

A) Saigo waited till katsura & Okubo were both out of the country to
forward his own agenda of getting the Emperor to go along with invading
Korea to solve the "samurai problem" i.e. send them to invade Korea and
the ones that weren't killed (the idea was to thin their ranks)
could/should stay in Korea in various positions thus sparing the
Japanese government the necessity to see that they had gainful
employment etc.

B) Katsura formally resigned but hung around anyway just to be a thorn
in Okubo's side.

So if there interest on anyone's part besides mine I'll make some notes
and post them when I can

--
Barbara Sheridan
http://www.barbarasheridan.net

We must get all sides of the story:D
Yeah...I really want to know what happened to Katsura politically in
the later years

Logical way to deal with the samurai problem...have them throw their
lives away in an invasion and if you think about it the idea was
probably to have them settle in what was going to be their colony,
Korea, a good way to remove them from their old ties to their
han...killing 2 birds with one stone.

--- In SHQ@yahoogroups.com, Barbara Sheridan wrote:
> B) Katsura formally resigned but hung around anyway just to be a thorn
> in Okubo's side.
>
> So if there interest on anyone's part besides mine I'll make some notes
> and post them when I can
>
> --
> Barbara Sheridan
> http://www.barbarasheridan.net

Barbara Sheridan <bsher213@...> wrote:

>>I was wondering if anyone is

interested in some information on the backbiting/treachery amongst
themselves of the Ishin's "Three Great Men" Katsura, Saigo & Okubo?<<

Always!!! Bring it on! Give me more dirt to accuse Saigou of murdering Sagara.

>>From what I read today its sounds like these three were as back stabbing as a bunch of high school girls all after the same football player boyfriend.<<

This *so* reminds me of Sanosuke's reactions to Ookubo in anime RK... his turned away face in disgust as Megumi explains to Yahiko who the Three Great Imperialists were... his refusal to be as polite to him as Kawaji thinks he should be... "dirty governments like this one DESERVE to be overthrown... we'd all be better off for it!"... his telling Kenshin not to listen to Ookubo, that he's as dirty as the rest, just using Kenshin... Kenshin's reply: "Sano really hates the Meiji government from the bottom of his heart, that he does." "Got a problem with that?!"

Good boy, Sano! :-D

>>A) Saigo waited till katsura & Okubo were both out of the country to forward his own agenda of getting the Emperor to go along with invading Korea to solve the "samurai problem" i.e. send them to invade Korea and the ones that weren't killed (the idea was to thin their ranks) could/should stay in Korea in various positions thus sparing the Japanese government the necessity to see that they had gainful employment etc.<<

I love how Ookuba returned just in time to squash that idea. From general readings I've done on Saigou (sorry... no citations... it was a period of exploration & I didn't keep track), Saigou also made an "offer" to go to Korea himself, knowing he was more than likely to be killed and that would give Japan a reason to launch an attack on Korea. Wasn't that noble of him???? (yeah, right...)


phil (growling)


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