Sakamoto Ryōma and the Meiji restoration / Marius B. Jansen

"Sakamoto Ryōma (坂本 龍馬, January 3, 1836 December 10, 1867) was a prominent figure in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate during the Bakumatsu period in Japan. One of his most noted accomplishments during this period was to negotiate a peace between Chōshū and Satsuma provinces, two powerful provinces that had long been hostile to each other, and then united them against the Bakufu. Ryōma often used the alias Saidani Umetarō (才谷 梅太郎) during this period, as he was often hunted by Bakufu supporters, such as agents of the Shinsengumi. He was attacked and murdered, along with his companion Nakaoka Shintarō, at an inn in Kyoto. Although many suspects have been named, the identity of the assassins has never been confirmed."--Wikipedia

Sakamoto's Japan
The response to the West
The loyalist years
Service with Katsu
The Satsuma-Chōshū alliance
The Kaientai
The eight-point program
Restoration
The restoration in Tosa

By the middle of the 19th century, Japan saw itself facing Western imperial ambitions. Having observed the fate of India and of China, it now sought different means. The result was the Meiji Restoration, a unified national state struggling to achieve international equality and leadership in Asia. It was, in effect, a real revolution. In this book the author recounts the Restoration story by examining the career of Ryoma Sakamoto, originally from Tosa, one of the fiefs that played an important role in Restoration politics. Though originally against such Western intruders as Commodore Perry and his followers, Ryoma understood that the only way to counter the West was to emulate it. He envisioned a Japan inspired by the kind of equality that he had observed in the United States. Ryoma, idealistic, individualistic, realized that in order to compete with an industrial outside world, Japan must itself change--after centuries of the Tokugawa Shogunate, leadership had grown impotent. He advocated strengthening the country. Japan had to modernize and in order to do so the government had to be overthrown