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FILM LIST
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The Last Samurai offers a Japanese History
Lesson. "The Last Samurai" arrives in video stores this week, with its cover art featuring the heroic figure of Tom Cruise decked out in Samurai regalia. To all appearances, Cruise's character is the "Last Samurai" in question. But is he? I'll come back to that later. The action takes place in the 1870s, in a Japan struggling to balance modernization with traditional values. Here's a guide to help viewers sort out the film's references to Japanese imperial politics, the samurai code of honor, and the aesthetics of cherry blossoms. Q. Nathan Algren (Cruise's character) plays an American Civil
War veteran who's hired as an adviser to the Japanese military.
Why did Japan hire foreign advisers? The bossy presence of Westerners in Japan created a crisis among the country's leaders. Some wanted to expel the foreigners by force. Others feared that aggression might lead to a humiliating defeat for Japan, and even, potentially, colonization. Japanese leaders ultimately chose to become students of Western ways, hoping to strengthen themselves and eventually compete economically and militarily with the West. It was a great strategy. Just a few decades after embracing modernization, Japan successfully walloped Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, forcing some respect from Europe and the U.S. This was all the more remarkable considering that most other Asian (as well as African and Middle Eastern) countries were getting colonized by the imperialistic Westerners. Q. So, a character like Nathan Algren might have been a military
advisor to the Japanese? So who had the world's best military? The Prussians (later to be known as the Germans) were the ones barking out orders to Japanese conscripts in the 1870s. Q. The film shows a young Japanese emperor getting ordered around
by older advisors. Is that accurate? Q. Did the film present samurai culture accurately? There's some truth there. Samurai did value a cultural artfulness, which meant not only sophisticated skill in weaponry, but also the ability to marvel over a cherry blossom's beauty. Many did live by bushido (the warrior's code) which emphasized loyalty, bravery, and above all, honor. And samurai were known to choose suicide over disgrace, though perhaps not as commonly as myth would have it. But the myth's got some holes as well. For one thing, many samurai fought Meiji modernization not for altruistic reasons but because it challenged their status as the privileged warrior caste. Meiji reformers proposed the radical idea that all men essentially being equal, any commoner could be taught to fight. Not a message samurai liked hearing. The film also misses the historical reality that lots and lots of Meiji policy advisors were former samurai, who had voluntarily given up their traditional privileges to follow a course they believed would strengthen Japan. And they were right, as later events would show. Q. Did samurai reject modern weapons? Q. OK, back to that cover art. Who is the "Last Samurai?"
But I'm afraid the movie's message is that Nathan himself is the Last Samurai. In one key scene, the American, sporting a kimono and a samurai sword, arrives in Tokyo and proceeds to teach the Japanese emperor how to live like a "true" Japanese. Brings a tear to the eye, it does. Q. What's a good book for more information? Joliet Herald News, May 2, 2004. |
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