The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. From Kagoshima Through the Siege of Kumamoto Castle

HE SATSUMA REBELLION of 1877 was the final act of organized military resistance to the reforms of the Restoration Government. This civil war pitted a well-trained samurai army commanded by Saiga Takamoril and deeply imbued with the traditional concepts of feudal Japan against the Imperial Army of 'conscripted farmers'. The Imperial Army certainly had several advantages-the ability to mobilize the resources of most of the nation, a continuing supply of manpower, and overwhelming material superiority. For a nation with a conscription system less than four years old, government troops had remarkably competent leadership matched by heroic performances of the rank and file. Tactically sophisticated, the imperial forces quickly seized the rebel base area, carried out landings behind enemy lines, and made successful amphibious assaults under naval gunfire support. The only advantages enjoyed by the rebel Satsuma army were high morale and better training. But generally unable to recruit more men other than those who had rebelled initially, Saiga was forced to carry on the war with the ever-diminishing original number of soldiers and was soon short of both troops and weapons. No amount of elan or intrepidity could compensate for the advantages enjoyed by the imperial forces, and the material eventually triumphed over the moral. In retrospect, perhaps, one may judge that the rebellion should never have occurred: the issue was decided before the first shot was fired. But it did take place, and the price was high. More than 60,000 imperial troops fought against the rebels and they suffered 16,000 casualties, 7,000 of these being combat deaths. Only a few hundred of the 30,000 Satsuma troops survived the conflict. The most important result of the military victory won by the imperial forces was political. For the first time since the establishment of the Restoration Government in 1868 the oligarchy could pursue its policies and programs for a modern centralized state free from worry over the possibility of organized military resistance. The most important military result was the convincing proof that a conscript force