The Forgotten Story of How British Redcoats Took on Japanese Samurai

the history of the British Empire saw its famous red coated soldiers become renowned across the world let's face it they fought everyone from those damned American colonists Splitters to the Zulus and to the Russian cacs few types of historical soldiers have left us such a strong cultural Legacy something so visual like the red coat but there is one that gives Old Tommy Atkins a room for his money Yep this guy the Japanese Samurai it may surprise you to know that these two iconic Warriors actually fought one another at the height of the Victorian age stay

tuned to learn how they came to do battle bayet against Katana and who emerged Victorious It's a fascinating story and one that also includes the first American ever to be awarded the Victoria Cross before we get stuck in though I want to quickly say a special thanks to historian and friend of the show Josh Pro proven for researching and co-writing this episode you can find a link to his YouTube channel below and also to his book about this conflict Japan had always been an enigma to the Western Powers it was a place of mystery that

had closed itself off from the rest of the world for hundreds of years open up open up by the middle of the 19th century pressure was being placed on Japan to open up her ports to trade between 1853 and 1854 the strength of the European warships and the example that had been made of China in the Opium Wars was enough to finally get treaty concessions out of the Japanese government and in 1858 Britain's Lord Elgen was finally able to negotiate the first anglo-japanese commercial treaty this finally helped to pave the way for foreign Merchants to

do business with Japan Britain's first conso general to Japan was a man named sir ruford alock he was beguiled by the time capsu that was the late Edo period and it is a complicated period so let me try and briefly explain closed off to foreign influence since the early 1600s Japan had been governed by a dynasty of men who held the title of Shogun which was like a general isimo of the emperor the Shogun had come from the house of Tokugawa and ruled from a city called Ido which is modern day Tokyo since the 17th

century over the intervening three centuries the great pieace as it was known had seen a distinct Japanese culture flourish including of course those distinctive Samurai Warriors these heavily armed men were imposing Warriors who amongst other things formed the Bodyguards of the Japanese nobility at first the samurai were Curiosities to the Europeans and Americans but after only five years of foreign intervention things began to change Japan soon began to suffer from its own political turmoil the foreigners were now seen as part of the problem and there was growing animosity towards them throughout 186 a succession of

Samurai attacks were recorded against the legation staff of several Nations culminating with the assault on the British liation at the Temple of toeni in July of 1861 the attack was unsuccessful due to The Bravery of the guards including locally recruited Japanese warriors who were themselves Samurai despite that though several members of staff were wounded just over a year later there was another assassination attempt aimed at the acting console liutenant Colonel St John Neil two centuries of the royal Marine light infantry were killed by a renegade Samurai called itai gumpe he was mortally wounded by a

pistol shot fired by a marine Corporal named crimp he then committed suicide this was the first recorded time that British soldiers had faced a Japanese opponent in combat lessons were learned from it and from then on British staff always carried pistols wherever they went in September of the same year a number of Travelers were set upon on the road near Yokohama one of them named Charles Lennox Richardson foolishly approached the sedan chair or Nory man of a local bigwig they were known as daos because of the rules in Japan at the time they almost forced

the hand of the guards to respond violently Richardson was killed and his two male companions were badly wounded the sole female present Mrs borale frightened half to death managed to escape on her runaway horse war was only narrowly averted when the shogun's government agreed to pay an Indemnity and blame was shifted onto the Dao himself who came from a region known as Satsuma to be fair Britain did not want a war with Japan they didn't want to repeat to the Opium Wars which had been in expensive only the merchants were itching for a war with

the Japanese war is very good for business it was estimated that a war in Japan would require at least 12,000 infantry and over £100,000 a month in expenditure that's big money in those days by the end of 1864 though just for security reasons a sizable British force was now deployed in Japan it consisted of companies from the 20th and 99th regiments of foot the Royal Marine light infantry the Royal artillery and the beluchi Regiment of the Indian army by the way guys I just want to interrupt for 2 minutes to ask you to share this

video with anybody you think might be interested and also to subscribe to my mailing list over at Redcoat history.com newsletter when you do so you'll receive a free ebook about the Battle of isand Lana and receive a monthly email from me with interesting links and stories about military history all right guys let's get back to the story it was now that things began to come to a head those earlier attacks I spoke about the British demanded that the Dao be punished however the ongoing political turmoil meant that the Japanese government was not really in a

position to punish him this led to the bombardment of the Satsuma capital of Kashima in 1863 Admiral Augustus Leopold Cooper an experienced officer who had served in both Opium Wars and the typing Rebellion brought a squadron of Britain's China Fleet into the bay and attempted to put the fort under blockade the Satsuma Shaw batteries manned by Samurai Gunners opened fire a fun fact is that that day one of the Samurai Gunners was future Admiral Togo who went on to be commander-in-chief of the Japanese Navy during the Russo Japanese war of 1904 to5 the Japanese Gunners

managed to badly damage the British Flagship HMS Eur Alis I think that's how you say it and kill her two most senior officers as they stood talking to Cooper but the British broadsides did eventually silence those Shore batteries and set most of the town on fire but no Landing party was sent ashore the Japanese guns weren't spiked and Admiral Cooper sailed away leaving things quite inconclusive one interesting side note is that an account from the time says that the band of the yalis during the bombardment was playing oh dear what can the matter be oh

dear so things were far from over between the British and Japanese those red coats and those Samurai were still going to have a chance to clash bayet versus gatana in September of 1864 an international ftill was gathered at Yokohama and sailed to The Straits of shimonoseki which had been closed to foreign shipping by the Dao of chos 14 ships of war from Britain France Holland and the United States were to set sail to chos domain and demand he open the Straits or destroy his Forts and cannons negotiations failed and both sides prepared for a fight

Admiral Cooper was once small backing charge and as the ships approached they bombarded the Japanese Shore batteries then the naval Brigade and the Royal Marine Battalion with the French and Dutch seamen and Marines 1300 men in all were landed ashore with the goal of destroying all the Japanese fortifications British interpreter Ernest sat remembered the mission and watching the Blue Jackets race each other to seize the batteries he said as if they were out on a picnic every man for himself while the rest marched along the line of batteries dismounted the guns burned the carriages and

blew up the magazines good lads there was no significant opposition until the British began to reach the beach and they suddenly came under a heavy musk and artillery fire according to Colonel Sutter or possibly Suther of the Royal Marines parties of the enemy had shown themselves between the trees on either side of the valley an open fire with field and Mountain pieces and musketry which they withdrew out of sight towards the of the valley whenever my men Advanced I determined to hold the forts on either side of the valley and occupy the men in dismounting

the guns and destroying the carriages and exploding the magazines Sutter and Alexander were aided by the Navy as satow remembers the Dutch ship Medusa moved up and threw a few shells in among them while HMS persus Amsterdam and HMS arus fired over the hill from their station before tanara this quieted the Zeal of our Warrior foes for a while the Japanese Defenders were now pushed back to a stock shade at the end of a wooded Valley Captain Alexander and Colonel Sut met to discuss strategy where are these men who are annoying us I have enough

men to take any battery asked the Marine Alexander sketched out what he knew and cried all right I'll take the left side of the valley and you the right the Marines in their red jackets and the Navy in their blue raced one another for the glory of being the first towards the Japanese no way okay I just like to look good for you you do look good a thank you satow remembered Sailors running on now stopping to take aim at an enemy from behind one of the pine trees that lined the edge of the road

and then on again there was no order or discipline some of them wasted their ammunition on imaginary foes on the hillsides captain Alexander of the yalis fell and broke his ankle he was carried to the rear by a man named Seaman cely who was himself already wounded meanwhile the color party was all but shot to pieces in the course of the fighting it was a tough old scrap but both of the petty officers protecting the flag carried by midshipman Duncan Gordon boys were hit others were even struck with arrows that the Japanese were firing despite

this heavy fire the raw Marines and the naval Personnel managed to overrun the Japanese positions the Japanese Defenders fled satow wrote that when distant a few hundred yards with a loud cheer from all the leading company rushed on the succeeding company while still advancing returning the enemy's fire which he continued from the parit of the moat and the top of an 8ft wall back in the front side of the Palisade our men were never checked and Russian on swarmed over the wall and won The Stockade for courage Under Fire Boy captain of the afteru Thomas

price and Henry cely who you remember helped to evacuate the wounded captain of the ship were awarded the Victoria Cross interesting fact Henry cely was in fact A Yank one of our cousins from Over the pond and was the first American in history to be awarded the Victoria Cross can you see cely was mentioned by his Superior officers as being wounded while scouting the position before the attack and then maintaining his place in the ranks during it according to his own account he even rescued one of his officers as discussed and evacuated him to the

rear he said in his own words I just picked him up like I had many a bag of tatters down in the sagad de Hawk County and pretty soon we was out of Harm's Way me and the captain he was a fine fellow as the captain and never a thought I gave in getting him away from the rebel bullets of course I didn't hang back none but as for being at the head of the company after the captain was wounded there were others as knew more and me about being boss I love that account brilliant

I wish I could have done it in an American accent but as regulars of this show will know accents is not my strong point Admiral Cooper was satisfied that they had done the job right this time and that there would be no indication of failure like at kagoshima The Straits were reopened to foreign shipping and much as with Satsuma the chu also now became clients of the Europeans in the aftermath the British had lost eight men killed and 48 wounded while the Japanese losses were never really known despite Cooper's satisfaction parament back in London was

not pleased that British consules were ordering otherwise unauthorized bombardments of foreign cities and would soon order sir Rood to return to Britain but now there was a growing rivalry between the Shogun on one hand and the emperor loyalists on the other who would rule Japan due to the increasing rivalry between the shogun's faction and that of the emperor in developing power struggle over who would rule Japan and the obvious superiority in European Weaponry the Japanese focus on expelling foreigners did begin to wne there were those still angry individuals who took up the fight on their

own desperate to be rid of these damned foreigners one example was shimu SEI a ronin or Samurai without a master masterless Samurai who looked to test his convictions and worth by killing stray Europeans in November of 1864 s and another man attacked and killed two officers of the British 20th regiment near Kamakura no one knows for sure exactly what happened as only the bodies were discovered but a report in the times describes devastating wounds here's a quote the neck of the former Baldwin half severed and his cheek cut off the arm and cervical vertebrae of

the latter cut through in two or three different places and his body disfigured all over with gashes The Killing was evidently the work of some of those armed Bravos whom the daos keep in their service for purposes of violence and assassination obviously he means the samurai this time though the Japanese government did decide to make an example of SII they captured him and he was executed any further potential for war with Japan was reduced when the so-called bosin or bin war broke out between supporters of the Shogun and the emperor this critical struggle restored Imperial

rule this war largely bypassed the foreigners although there was a skirmish at the town of cobay in which company of the 9th foot and a force of US Marines drove off some regular Japanese troops from Bizen who had opened fire on the European diplomats the Japanese were pursued by Red Coats and American Marines plus some armed civilians to a streamed where SATA recorded that at the first volley from our side the enemy turned into a field by the side of the road and fired at us from below a bank on our returning their fire they

all took to flight we pursued them every now and then firing at one or other who had failed to get undercover but finally they took to the hills and disappeared completely surprisingly no casualties were mentioned except for a few wounded civilians and a ship's boy then in March 1868 there was a very dramatic incident that finally proved the superiority of British pistols over samurai swords as a British delegation returned to Ido to meet up with the emperor they were attacked Consul Harry parks and a Detachment from the 9th Regiment of foot turned a corner as

two Swordsmen attempted to rush down either side of the column cutting rapid rid ly as they went one of the attackers was actually stopped by a Japanese official who cut the attacker down and beheaded him good work however the other Samurai managed to wound parks's horse injure several of the mounted escort and hurl himself against the bayet of the Red Coats hoping to break through them he kept running and Swinging his Katana hoping to kill as many red coats as possible Ernest satau who was witnessed to almost everything it seems wrote that upon them he

hurled himself cutting one man over the head and inflicting a severe wound but here his career came to an end for one of the soldiers put out his foot and tripped him up and the others drove their bayet into him but even this didn't stop him they were hardcore the wounded Samurai darted on crouched like a tiger and swung his sword with Incredible speed but he hadn't counted on the exceptional skills of one of the Brits there alanon mitford he was a member of the liation staff and he lived to tell the tale he said

I knew enough of Japanese swordsmanship to be aware that it was no use to try and avoid his blow so I rushed in underneath his guard and wrenched his bleeding sword out of his grip I handed him over to the men of the ninth but he managed to wriggle away from them and bolted down a passage into a courtyard the injured Samurai was then cornered by another officer shot with a pistol and taken prisoner the incident was good for Parks because it allowed him to negotiate from a strong position with the new regime the reforms

introduced by Emperor Magi Swept Away the traditions of the old warrior class of Samurai before any more violence could break out between the Samurai and the red coat it had been an exciting and exotic time for those British Red Coats deployed in Japan though the fighting never developed into a fullscale war we did see the two Warrior classes face off against one another and a lot of mutual respect developed indeed the Japanese and British were allies until World War II I'll be back next week with another amazing story from British military history so please do

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