The First and Last French Samurai

If I mention The Last Samurai by Tom Cruise and the Republic of Ezo of Jules Brunet, the former, with no doubt, is the more familiar household name. Yet, the 2003 Hollywood epic movie was largely based on the real life of a French officer called Jules Brunet. In early 1867, a French mission sent by Napoleon III arrived in feudal Japan swayed by the Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu . Yoshinobu wanted to modernise his army and the French soldiers should train his samurai on how to use modern weapons and war tactics. Brunet, one of the members of the mission, was an artillery expert and in August was promoted to the post of captain. Japan was engulfed in an internal conflict that was about to abolish the samurai caste who had held supreme power for almost seven centuries and overthrow a regime that had self-secluded the nation for more than 200 years.

The conflicts lasted over one year and became known as the Boshin War. The conservative samurai class fought the Imperial army to keep the country closed and the Shogun in power. Their defeat reinstated the Emperor Meiji as the head of the state and thrust the nation into a period of transformation that frightened even the most liberal modernisers – historically named the Meiji Restoration.

But what happened to the French troop? They were the Shogun’s allies and were ordered by the newly formed Imperial government to leave the country… and leave the country they did, apart from Brunet. Brunet had become enamoured with Bushido (the code of conduct of samurai) and everything pertaining to the life of these Japanese medieval warriors. He wrote a letter to Napoleon III resigning from his post and allied himself to a group of dissidents, lead by Takeaki Enomoto. They escaped to the most northern island of Japan, known today as Hokkaido and founded a republic, the first in Japanese history – the Republic of Ezo, electing Enomoto as its President and Brunet as the Second Commander-in-Chief of the army. Unfortunately, it was a short-lived utopia. On the next year, the Imperial army reached them in Ezo and the republic was dissolved.

Brunet and the other French advisers were wanted by the Imperial government, but were evacuated from Hokkaidō by a French warship (the corvette Coëtlogon, commanded by Dupetit-Thouars) and then taken to Saigon by the Dupleix. Brunet then returned to France. The new Japanese government requested Brunet be punished for his activities in the Boshin War, but his actions had won popular support in France and the request was denied. Instead, he was suspended for six months and rejoined the French army in February 1870, with only a slight loss in seniority. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 Brunet was taken prisoner at the Siege of Metz. After the war he played an instrumental role as a member of the Versailles Army in the suppression of the Paris Commune in 1871. He was made an officer of the Légion d’honneur in September 1871 and posted as aide de camp to the Minister of War.

Later on, Brunet’s former ally, Admiral Enomoto, had joined the Imperial government. Emperor Meiji plaid a policy of reconciliation and pardoned preeminent characters who had fought against his army. Ecnomoto became Minister of the Imperial Japanese Navy and through his influence, the Imperial government not only forgave Brunet’s actions but awarded him a medal in 1881 and another one in 1885, among those the Order of the Rising Sun. The medals were presented at the Japanese Embassy in Paris.

The First and Last French Samurai

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