Satsuma Rebellion Battle of Shiroyama, 1877

Conflict: The Battle of Shiroyama was the final engagement of the Satsuma Rebellion (1877) between the samurai and the Imperial Japanese Army. Battle of Shiroyama Date: The samurai were defeated by the Imperial Army on September 24, 1877. Armies Commanders at the Battle of Shiroyama: Samurai Saigo Takamori350-400 men Imperial Army General Yamagata Aritomo30,000 men Battle of Shiroyama Summary: Having risen up against the repression of the traditional samurai lifestyle and social structure, the samurai of Satsuma fought a series of battles on the Japanese island of Kyushu in 1877. Led by Saigo Takamori, a former highly respected field marshal in the Imperial Army, the rebels initially besieged Kumamoto Castle in February. With the arrival of Imperial reinforcements, Saigo was forced to retreat and suffered a series of minor defeats. While he was able to keep his force intact, the engagements reduced his army to 3,000 men. In late August, Imperial forces led by General Yamagata Aritomo surrounded the rebels on Mount Enodake. While many of Saigos men desired to make a final stand on the mountains slopes, their commander wished to continue their retreat back towards their base at Kagoshima. Slipping through the fog, they managed to elude Imperial troops and escaped. Reduced a mere 400 men, Saigo arrived in Kagoshima on September 1. Obtaining what supplies they could find, the rebels occupied the hill of Shiroyama outside of the city. Arriving in the city, Yamagata was concerned that Saigo would once again slip away. Surrounding Shiroyama, he ordered his men to construct an elaborate system of trenches and earthworks to prevent the rebels escape. Orders were also issued that when the assault came, units were not to move to each others support if one retreated. Instead, neighboring units were to fire into the area indiscriminately to keep the rebels from breaking through, even if it meant hitting other Imperial forces. On September 23, two of Saigos officers approached the Imperial lines under a flag of truce with the goal of negotiating a way to save their leader. Rebuffed, they were sent back with a letter from Yamagata imploring the rebels to surrender. Forbidden by honor to surrender, Saigo spent the night in a sake party with his officers. After midnight, Yamagatas artillery opened fire and was supported by warships in the harbor. Reducing the rebels position, the Imperial troops attacked around 3:00 AM. Charging the Imperial lines, the samurai closed and engaged the government conscripts with their swords. By 6:00 AM, only 40 of the rebels remained alive. Wounded in the thigh and stomach, Saigo had his friend Beppu Shinsuke carry him to a quiet spot where he committed seppuku. With their leader dead, Beppu led the remaining samurai in a suicidal charge against the enemy. Surging forward, they were cut down by Yamagatas Gatling guns. Aftermath: The Battle of Shiroyama cost the rebels their entire force including the renowned Saigo Takamori. Imperial losses are not known. The defeat at Shiroyama ended the Satsuma Rebellion and broke the back of the samurai class. Modern weapons proved their superiority and the path was set for the building of a modern, Westernized Japanese army that included from people of all classes. Selected Sources Satsuma Rebellion OverviewHistory of the Samurai

Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human...

‘Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences (Derrida, 1978: 278 Ââ€"293) may be read as the document of an event, although Derrida actually commences the essay with a reservation regarding the word event, as it entails a meaning which it is precisely the function of structural Ââ€" or structuralist Ââ€" thought to reduce or suspect (278). This, I infer, refers to the emphasis within structuralist discourse on the synchronous analysis of systems and relations within them, as opposed to a diachronic schemata occupied with uncovering genetic and teleological content in the transformations of history. br brThe event which the essay documents is that of a definitive epistemological break with structuralist thought, of the†¦show more content†¦The guiding thread Derrida chooses is Levi-Strauss opposition between nature and culture. (I am in parts paraphrasing elements from page 282 Ââ€" 287). Derrida writes that Levi-Strauss encounters a scandal, which is the incest prohibition (283). The scandal is in that the prohibition is simultaneously universal and thus natural, while also at the same time as a system of norms and interdicts (283): it is cultural. The contradiction encountered by Levi-Strauss is that the difference established in the nature/culture binary opposition is erased or at least questioned. Due to this erasure of difference the origin of this prohibition becomes unthinkable as the whole of philosophical conceptualisationÂ…is designedÂ… (283/284) to leave the possibility of the conceptualisation unthinkable, that is, the meaning of the construction of mean ing, difference having been erased, becomes itself impossible to bring to account. br brLevi-Strauss, by way of this realization, is forced to move from metaphysics to metacommentary (cf. Jameson, 1988) because even though he

John Wyrndham the author of The Chrysalids as an extraordinary writer Essay Example For Students

John Wyrndham the author of The Chrysalids as an extraordinary writer Essay John Wyrndham the author of The Chrysalids is an extraordinary writer who has created this book in the state of two totally different worlds. Wyrndham has based this book on the different views toward blasphemies and how the characters all have a different approach on the subject. The three greatest ranges in different reactions to Blasphemes would come from the characters: Joseph Strorm, Aunt Harriet, and Sophie Wender. Joseph Strorm is the character in the novel that has the greatest disliking toward Blasphemies. Joseph is the father of David Strorm. He is a strong believer in God and his life is based around his religion: The Norm is the Image of God. p. 27 In the book the reader gets the idea that Joseph is not a very good father and is very strict: Ill deal with this. The boys is lying. Go to your room. p. 51 He is a cruel and inhumane person to anyone who has or is involved with a deviation. The reader would see this attitude when Aunt Harriet visits the Strorms and brings her deviant child with her: Send her away. Tell her to leave the house and take that with her. p. 71 Joseph did not show any sympathy at all toward his own sister in law. Aunt Harriet is the sister of Davids mother Mrs. Strorm. She enters the story half way through the book, where she goes to Mrs. Strorm seeking help. Yet the help she is looking for is not something Mrs. Strorm agrees with: Nothing much! You have the effrontery to bring your monster into my house, and tell me its nothing much! p. 70 Aunt Harriet is very loving, strong, and she fights for what she thinks is the right thing: I shall pray God to send into this hideous world, and sympathy for the weak, and love for the unhappy and unfortunate. p. 3 Aunt Harriet is also the proof of what happens to people who have a deviation or are trying to protect someone with a deviation: Aunt Harriets body has been found in a river, no one mentioned a babyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. p. 74 She is a very will hearted woman who is one of the very few people in this time that has the will to speak her mind. Sophie Wender is also another female fighter in this book. David and Sophie are close childhood friends when she is separated from the community because she has a sixth toe. Yet David and Sophie meet again in the Fringes about ten years later. David is one of the few protectors of Sophies secret of her deviation: Will you keep a secret an important secret for her sake? p. 12 Sophie reminds me of Aunt Harriet a lot with he ways they look at their problems. They both face their problems for what they are: I was still staring at it when she flung her arms around my neck and kissed me, with more determination than judgment. p. 49 When Sophie and David meet up again it is under the circumstances that David was the one being hunted as a blasphemy. Now Sophie is hiding Davids secrets and has become Davids protector: Theyll never think of looking for you here, why should they? p. 176 Sophie ends up dying in a battle against the search party that was after David. The Chrysalids is a book that has such a range in different emotions toward different people. Wyndham is showing the issues of discrimination and makes you feel what it is like. Joseph, Aunt Harriet, and Sophie all have a different part in the issue of discrimination. Yet all three ended up dead in the end and that just proves why discrimination is so pointless.

Authur Miller Essay Example For Students

Authur Miller Essay With the Death of a Salesman during the winter of 1949 on Broadway, Arthur Miller began to live as a playwright who has since been called one of this centurys three great American dramatists. He has also written other powerful, often mind-altering plays: The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, A Memory of Two Mondays, After the Fall, Incident at Vichy, and The Price. And who could forget the film The Misfits and the dramatic special Playing for Time. Death of a Salesman was not Arthur Millers first success on Broadway. Two years before, when All My Sons opened at the Coronet Theater, Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times wrote: The theater has acquired a genuine new talent. The play also won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Donaldson Award (voted upon by Billboard subscribers). Since the debut of All My Sons he has noted: The success of a play, especially ones first success, is somewhat like pushing against a door which is suddenly opened that was always securely shut until then. For myself, the experience was invigorating. It suddenly seemed that the audience was a mass of blood relations, and I sensed a warmth in the world that had not been there before. It made it possible to dream of daring more and risking more. He did however push the limits when he released his controversial piece Death of a Salesman. And, he gained even more acclaim. Soon he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. He was quickly catapulted into the realm of the great, living, American playwrights; and once was compared to Ibsen and the Greek tragedians. After his graduation from Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, young Miller worked as a stock clerk in an automobile parts warehouse for two and a half years until he had enough money to pay for his first year at the University of Michigan. He finished college with the financial aid of the National Youth Administration supplemented by his salary as night editor on the Michigan Daily newspaper. Before his graduation with a BA degree in 1938, he had written a number of plays, winning a $500 Avery Hopwood Award in 1936 and a $1,200 Theater Guild National Award in 1938 for an effort entitled The Grass Still Grows. Then, having returned to New York in 1938, he joined the Federal Theater Project. But, before his first play had been produced, the Project ended. Dismayed and setback, he went to work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Here he wrote radio scripts that were later heard in the Columbia Workshop and on the Calvacade of America. He also wrote two books during this period: Situation Normal (1944) and Focus, two novels about anti-Semitism (1945). He had not, however, given up playwriting. In November of 1944, his play, The Man Who Had All the Luck opened on Broadway. Unfortunately it became much less of a success than he had hoped. Its unfavorable reception disheartened Miller, and he decided he would write one more play. If that were not successful, he would give up. Thats when in 1947 he wrote All My Sons, his first real success, which established him as a significant American playwright. Soon after he wrote The Crucible in 1953, which became a Broadway hit, and won a Tony Award. This thrilling retelling of the witch trials and hangings in Salem, Massachusetts (1962) riveted audiences. But it reflected a more ready issue, the quot;McCarthy eraquot; of his time. The autobiographical tone of After the Fall in 1964 also evoked controversy as well as praise. And it was through knowledge of the Brooklyn waterfront that he was able to form his characters in A View from the Bridge in 1955. .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d , .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d .postImageUrl , .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d , .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d:hover , .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d:visited , .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d:active { border:0!important; } .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d:active , .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ub70e31f9492eef97aea7bb88b219ab9d:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Atomic Bomb 2 Essay More of his native city came through later when he wrote in The Price, about a New York policeman (1968). Millers later works include The Creation of the Word and Other Business (1972) and The American Clock (1980). , In 1980 Miller won four Emmy Awards following the television debut of Playing for Time, the true-life dramatic special about the experiences of an all-woman orchestra in a Nazi concentration camp. The show itself received the Emmy for an Outstanding Drama Special, and Miller received one for Outstanding Writing. Vanessa Redgrave won as Outstanding Actress, and Jane Alexander, as Outstanding Supporting Actress. In addition to his novels, Miller has written two books of reportage: In Russia and Chinese Encounters, both accompanied by photographs by his wife Inge Morath, a professional photographer. His book Salesman in Beijing is based on his experience in China where he directed Death of a Salesman. Then, in 1987, Miller published his autobiography Timebends: A Life, in which he recalls his childhood in Brooklyn, the political turmoil of the 1950s, and the later half of the century. Miller continues to write, winning the 1995 Oliver for his most recent play Broken Glass.