AI Snips
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Host Lived Near Hakodate's Restoration Battlefield
- The last Tokugawa holdouts were naval forces defeated at Hakodate in 1869, a battle near where the host later lived in Hokkaido.
- The host notes his bus stop was three blocks from where the head of the Shin-sen Gumi was killed.
Iwakura Mission Created A Systematic Westernization Plan
- The Iwakura Mission (1871–1873) surveyed the West to build a deliberate blueprint for modernization instead of ad hoc student exile programs.
- Ito Hirobumi, Kido Takayoshi, and Okubo Toshimichi pushed centralization, Westernization, and militarization after the mission's findings.
Import Experts To Rebuild Institutions Fast
- To westernize quickly, Meiji Japan imported experts to overhaul institutions across law, military, education, agriculture, and medicine.
- Around 3,000 foreigners worked directly for the government training Japanese in new systems and practices.