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The Last Samurai - Why Tom Cruise Lied to You
Everything you learned from that Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai isn't entirely accurate.
In this episode, we are tracking the real history of the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 and the incredibly chaotic fall of Japan's warrior class. We cover:
The Panic Move: How Commodore Matthew Perry arriving with gunboats forced Japan to modernize at insane speeds.
Emotional Arson: How the new Meiji government abolished domains and replaced samurai stipends with bonds. This was essentially "emotional arson with a filing cabinet".
The Sword Ban: How the government passed the Haitorei Edict, making the…
The skinny
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