The Jōshitai: Unsung Heroines of the Boshin War
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Book Overview
Previously published as The Jōshitai: Unsung Heroines of the Boshin War by Sumiko Nakano.
REVISED AND EXPANDED THIRD EDITION
This third edition has been completely rewritten and expanded as an evidence led historical study. It supersedes both earlier editions and should not be treated as a corrected reprint. The illustrative portraits and narrative profiles from the earlier version have been removed in favour of documented evidence, full source notes and clearly identified uncertainty.
SIX WOMEN WERE REMEMBERED TWICE. THEY WERE NOT THE SAME SIX.
History remembers the Jōshitai as an organised women's unit led by Nakano Takeko into a heroic last stand. The Japanese sources preserve something less orderly and considerably more revealing.
In 1890, a writer who said he had personally known Takeko described six women. A later survivor tradition remembered six again, but not the same six. An early account placed the fatal shot through Takeko's chest. Later memory moved it to her forehead. One of the most influential Aizu histories called the women a unit while also recording that the army had refused to incorporate them because they were women.
Drawing on Japanese language campaign records, early biographies, survivor testimony, local histories, material evidence and commemorative sources, Sumiko Nakano reconstructs what can be established, what remains disputed and how uncertain events became national legend.
This edition includes:
- A source critical reconstruction of the fighting west of Wakamatsu
- A comparative examination of the competing Jōshitai rosters
- Five original maps
- Four archival source panels
- Six evidence graphics
- Comprehensive source notes, a Japanese language bibliography and an index
Their courage does not depend on an invented command structure, a perfect roster or a cinematic death. The truth is less orderly than the legend. It is also more human.
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