Everything about Jules Brunet totally explained
Jules Brunet (
2 January,
1838-
12 August,
1911) was a
French officer who played an active role in
Mexico and
Japan, and later became a General and Chief of Staff of the French Army in 1898.
Jules Brunet was a member of the first
French military mission to be sent to the
Empire of Japan in order to help modernize the armies of the
shogunate.
Early life
He was born in
Belfort, in the
Alsace region of eastern France. He graduated from the
École Polytechnique in 1857, where he specialized in
artillery.
Jules Brunet first participated in the
French intervention in Mexico (1862-1867) sent by
Napoleon III, where he received the
Légion d'honneur. He then arrived in
Yokohama, in the beginning of 1867, as a member of the first
French Military Mission to Japan.
First French Military Mission to Japan
The military mission was able to train the army of
Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu for a little more than one year, before the
Tokugawa shogunate lost to the Imperial forces in 1868 in the
Boshin War. The French military mission was then ordered to leave Japan by Imperial decree.
However, Jules Brunet chose to remain. He resigned from the French army, and left for the North of Japan with the remains of the Shogunate's armies in the hope of staging a counter-attack. In a letter to
Napoleon III, Jules Brunet explained the plan of the Alliance, as well as his role in it:
» "A revolution is forcing the Military Mission to return to France. Alone I stay, alone I wish to continue, under new conditions, the results obtained by the Mission, together with the Party of the North, which is the party favorable to France in Japan. Soon a reaction will take place, and the Daimyos of the North have offered me to be its soul. I've accepted, because with the help of one thousand Japanese officers and non-commissionned officers, our students, I can direct the 50,000 men of the Confederation." Jules Brunet, Letter to Napoleon III.
The Boshin War
Image:BrunetAndTeam.jpg|thumb|The French military advisers and their Japanese allies in Hokkaido - use a cursor to investigate
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Jules Brunet took a very active role during the
Boshin War, between partisans of the Shogun, with whom Brunet sided, and partisans of the restoration of
Emperor Meiji. Jules and Cazenave were present at the
Battle of Toba-Fushimi. They left Osaka and returned to Edo on January 12th, together with
Enomoto Takeaki onboard the
Fujisan. Enomoto was bringing with him various documents, objects, and a treasure of 180.000
ryos, from
Osaka castle. They arrived in Edo on January 14th.
After the fall of Edo, he fled north with
Enomoto Takeaki, he helped set up the
Ezo Republic, with the leader of the Japanese shogunate's navy, Enomoto Takeaki, as the President. He also helped organize the defense of Hokkaidō in the
Battle of Hakodate. Troops were structured under a hybrid Franco-Japanese leadership, with Otori Keisuke as Commander-in-chief, and Jules Brunet as second in command. Each of the four brigades were commanded by a French officer (
Fortant,
Marlin,
Cazeneuve,
Bouffier), with eight Japanese commanders as second in command of each half-brigade.
The final stand occurred in the northern island of
Hokkaidō, in the city of
Hakodate, where in June 1869, the shogunate forces lost the
a final battle between 800 shogunate soldiers and an 8000-strong Imperial army.
In an interesting postscript to his involvement in the Boshin War, Brunet spoke highly of Shinsengumi vice-commander
Hijikata Toshizo in his memoirs. Praising Hijikata's ability as a leader, he said that if the man had been in Europe, he most certainly would have been a general.
Rehabilitation
Jules Brunet, with the rest of the French soldiers, was evacuated by the French corvette
Coëtlogon, commanded by
Dupetit-Thouars, and then transferred to the
Dupleix in Yokohama on which he was transported to
Saigon. From Saigon he sailed to France onboard a commercial cruiser. Benefitting from popular support for his actions in Japan, Jules Brunet didn't receive judgement, in spite of the Japanese request. He was quickly rehabilitated by the time of the
Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), but was taken prisoner by the Germans at the
Siege of Metz. After the war, he played a key role as a member of the Versailles Army in the suppression of the Paris insurrection of
La Commune in
1871.
In May 1881 and again in March 1885, Jules Brunet received medals from the
Meiji Emperor, which were given to him at the Japanese Embassy in Paris. It seems his former ally
Enomoto Takeaki, then Minister of the
Imperial Japanese Navy, played a key role in this late recognition.
Jules Brunet rose to the position of General and Chief of Staff of the French army ("Chef d'Etat Major") under the Minister of War
Chanoine (his former senior officer at the French Military mission in Japan) thirty years later in 1898.
Jules Brunet was partly the inspiration for the character of Nathan Algren in the 2003 movie
The Last Samurai.
Drawing and paintings by Jules Brunet
Jules Brunet was a talented painter who left numerous depictions of his travels in Mexico and Japan.
Image:ChogeiJapaneseSailors1867.JPG|Japanese sailors on the Chōgei, May 13th, 1867.
Image:JapaneseBakufuInfantryApril1867.JPG|Japanese Bakufu Infantry (Osaka, 29 April 1867).
Image:BakufuTroopsIn1867.JPG|Bakufu troops near Mount Fuji in 1867.
Further Information
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