Occupation of southern Hokkaidō

The rebels, numbering around 3,000 and traveling by ship with Enomoto Takeaki reached Hokkaidō in October 1868. They landed on Washinoki Bay, behind Hakodate on October 20. Hijikata Toshizo and Otori Keisuke each led a column in the direction of Hakodate. They eliminated local resistance by forces of Matsumae Domain, which had declared its loyalty to the new Meiji government, and occupied the fortress of Goryōkaku on October 26, which became the command center for the rebel army.

The fortress of Goryōkaku, headquarters of the rebel army.

Various expeditions were organized to take full control of the southern peninsula of Hokkaidō. On November 5, Hijikata, commanding 800 troops and supported by the warships Kaiten and Banryo occupied the castle of Matsumae. On November 14, Hijikata and Matsudaira converged on the city of Esashi, with the added support of the flagship Kaiyo Maru, and the transport ship Shinsoku. Kaiyō Maru was shipwrecked and lost in a tempest near Esashi, and Shinsoku also was lost as it came to its rescue, dealing a terrible blow to the rebel forces.

After eliminating all local resistance, on December 25, the rebels founded the Ezo Republic, with a government organization modeled after that of the United States, with Enomoto Takeaki, as President (総裁). The Meiji government in Tokyo refused to recognise the breakaway republic.

A defense network was established around Hakodate in anticipation of the attack by the troops of the new Imperial government. The Ezo Republic troops were structured under a hybrid Franco-Japanese leadership, with Commander in chief Ōtori Keisuke seconded by Jules Brunet, and each of the four brigades commanded by a French officer (Fortant, Marlin, André Cazeneuve, Bouffier), seconded by eight half-brigade Japanese commanders. Two ex-French Navy officers, Eugène Collache and Henri Nicol further joined the rebels, and Collache was put in charge of building fortified defenses along the volcanic mountains around Hakodate, while Nicol was in charge of re-organizing the Navy.

In the meantime, an Imperial fleet had been rapidly constituted around the ironclad warship Kōtetsu, which had been purchased by the Meiji government from the United States. Other Imperial ships were Kasuga, Hiryū, Teibō, Yōshun, Mōshun, which had been supplied by the fiefs of Saga, Chōshū and Satsuma to the newly formed government in 1868. The fleet left Tokyo on March 9, 1869, and headed north.

Miyako Bay

The Imperial navy's revolutionary ironclad Kōtetsu.

The Imperial navy reached the harbor of Miyako on March 20. Anticipating the arrival of the Imperial fleet, the rebels organized a daring plan to seize the powerful new warship Kōtetsu.

Three warships were dispatched for a surprise attack, in what is known as the Battle of Miyako Bay: the Kaiten, on which were riding the elite Shinsengumi as well as the ex-French Navy officer Henri Nicol, the warship Banryu, with the ex-French officer Clateau, and the warship Takao, with ex-French Navy officer Eugène Collache on board. To create surprise, the Kaiten entered Miyako harbor with an American flag. They raised the Ezo Republic flag seconds before boarding the Kōtetsu. The crew of Kōtetsu managed to repel the attack with a Gatling gun, with huge losses to the attackers. The two Ezo warships escaped back to Hokkaidō, but the Takao was pursued and beached itself.

Landing of Imperial forces

The Imperial troops, numbering 7,000, finally landed on Hokkaidō on April 9, 1869. They progressively took over various defensive positions, until the final stand occurred around the fortress of Goryōkaku and Benten Daiba around the city of Hakodate.

Japan's first major naval engagement between two modern navies, the Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay, occurred towards the end of the conflict, during the month of May 1869.^[1]

Before the final surrender, in June 1869, the Ezo Republic French military advisors escaped to a French Navy warship stationed in Hakodate Bay, the Coëtlogon, from where they returned to Yokohama and thence to France.

After having lost close to half their numbers and most of their ships, the military of Ezo Republic surrendered to the Meiji government on June 27, 1869.

Modernization

Although the modernization of Japan is generally explained as starting with the Meiji period (1868), it actually started significantly earlier from around 1853 during the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate (the Bakumatsu period). The 1869 Battle of Hakodate shows two sophisticated adversaries in an essentially modern conflict, where steam power and guns play the key role, although some elements of traditional combat clearly remained. A great deal of Western scientific and technological knowledge had already been entering Japan since around 1720 through rangaku, the study of Western sciences, and since 1853, the Tokugawa shogunate had been extremely active at modernizing the country and opening it to foreign influence. In a sense, the Restoration movement, based on the sonnō jōi ideology was a reaction to this modernization and internationalization, although, in the end, the Meiji Emperor chose to follow a similar policy under the Fukoku kyōhei ("rich country, strong army") principle. Some of his former supporters from Satsuma, such as Saigō Takamori would revolt against this situation, leading to the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877.

French involvement

A group of French military advisors, members of the 1st French Military Mission to Japan and headed by Jules Brunet, fought side-by-side with troops of the former Tokugawa bakufu, whom they had trained during 1867–1868.

The Battle of Hakodate also reveals a period of Japanese history when France was strongly involved with Japanese affairs. Similarly, the interests and actions of other Western powers in Japan were quite significant, but to a lesser extent than with the French. This French involvement is part of the broader, and often disastrous, foreign activity of the French Empire under Napoleon III, and followed the campaign of Mexico. The members of the French Mission who followed their Japanese allies to the North all resigned or deserted from the French Army before accompanying them. Although they were speedily rehabilitated upon their return to France, and some, such as Jules Brunet continued illustrious careers, their involvement was not premeditated or politically guided, but rather a matter of personal choice and conviction. Although defeated in this conflict, and again defeated in the Franco-Prussian War, France continued to play an important role in Japan's modernization: a Second Military Mission was invited in 1872, and the first true modern fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy was built under the supervision of the French engineer Émile Bertin in the 1880s.