(Voice actor) Mr.David Radtke

In 1830, a great thinker named Shouin Yoshida was born in Choshu. Shouin Yoshida was the most feared thinker by the Tokugawa regime. They feared Shouin Yoshida’s influence and executed him. In Jisshi Park in Nihonbashi-Kodenmacho, Chuou ward, Tokyo, there is a monument with the words “The place where Shouin Yoshida died” engraved. Shouin Yoshida started as a strategist (operation planner) for Choshu (now Yamaguchi prefecture). Other domains had strategists too, but Shouin Yoshida was different from the other strategists. That was his willingness to act. In 1842, China (Qing) lost the Opium War against the UK. Upon learning the result, Shouin Yoshida was surprised. That is because the strategies he was studying was developed from ancient China’s art of war. Shouin Yoshida felt a sense of urgency. Furthermore, the UK signed a one-sided treaty with Chine and made massive profits through trade. Shouin Yoshida realized what happens when one loses a war and he felt pressured. -- At this rate, Japan is going to follow the same fate as China -- From this sense of urgency, Shouin Yoshida tried to learn even more. In Sun Tzu’s Art of War, there is a thinking that goes “know your enemy, know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never be defeated.” This means that if you go into battles knowing your strengths and your opponent’s strengths, you will not lose any battles. Shouin Yoshida tried hard to learn Japan’s strengths and the West’s strengths. He traveled throughout Japan and in 1854, he tried to smuggle out of the country by slipping onto the ship of Perry, the American who came to Japan. However, the plan failed and Shouin Yoshida was captured. Smuggling oneself out of the country was a crime punishable by death. But under the Tokugawa regime’s leadership, Shouin Yoshida’s aggressiveness was praised and his passion to act for Japan won approval, so he got away with just being sent back to his hometown Choshu. Having been sent back to his hometown in Choshu, Shouin Yoshida opened Shoukasonjuku, a private school, and educated the youth. Shouin Yoshida passed down the importance of learning and taking action to his pupils. However, the Tokugawa regime gave in to the pressures from foreign counties and signed a trade treaty with five countries including the US, England, and France. For this, Shouin Yoshida felt a sense of crisis yet again that “Japan might become colonized.” So, what did Shouin Yoshida do? Read on to find out.