Jules Brunet
Captain Jules Brunet was a member of the first French military mission to be sent to Japan in order to help modernize the armies of the shogunate. He was a Polytechnic graduate, specialized in artillery. He arrived in Yokohama beginning of 1867.
The mission was able to train the Shogun's army for a little more than one year, before the Shogunate lost to the Imperial forces in 1868. The French military mission was then ordered to leave Japan by Imperial decree.
However, Jules Brunet chose to remain. He resigned from the French army, and left for the North of Japan with the remains of the Shogunate's armies in the hope of staging a counter-attack.
The final stand occured in the northern island of Hokkaido, in the city of Hakodate, were Jules Brunet helped set up a Republic "The Ezo Republic", with the leader of the Japanese shogunate strengths Admiral Enomoto as the President.
The last Shogun strengths lost in June 1869 after a final battle between 800 shogunate soldiers and an 8000-strong Imperial army.
Jules Brunet was sent back to France for trial. He was quickly rehabilitated by the time of the war between France and Prussia in 1870, and later rose to the position of Commander-in-chief of the French army ("Chef d'Etat Major") under the Minister of War Chanoine (his superior officer at the French Military mission when he was in Japan) 30 years later in 1898.
Referenced By
Last Samurai | The Last Samurai
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