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00:00July the 8th, 1853.
00:09A fleet of ships is bearing down on the peaceful harbour of Edo Bay.
00:17For the people of Japan, change is coming.
00:21For over 200 years, the country has closed itself off from the west.
00:26But now, it faces a violent confrontation.
00:33With American aggressors, Japan's future is on a knife edge.
00:43Some believe they must fight to preserve their unique way of life.
00:49Others will sacrifice everything to avoid war.
00:56This is like the most steampunk clash of cultures you've ever seen.
01:01Suddenly, the threat of the west has become real.
01:06This is a true emergency of the sort that for generations people haven't known in Japan.
01:12The Japanese are aware of western aggression, but they probably have never thought it would come to their doorstep.
01:18Three men hold the future of Japan in their hands.
01:23A rigidly controlling ruler.
01:27An ambitious American naval commander.
01:30And a proud samurai, caught between Japan's glittering past and uncertain future.
01:39The worst mistake that any civilisation can make is to suppose that by walling itself in, that it can survive.
01:48Ancient Egypt.
02:03The Roman Empire.
02:08The Aztecs of Mexico.
02:13And the samurai of Japan.
02:16Four great civilisations.
02:21Each a pinnacle of human ingenuity and achievement.
02:26Each lasted for centuries.
02:31Their people thought they would endure forever.
02:36Until suddenly...
02:38Everything changed.
02:41These civilisations faced challenges that are all too familiar today.
02:55Climate catastrophe.
03:00Pandemic.
03:05War.
03:06Challenges for which ancient societies had few solutions.
03:20But what if there was a place that had the answers to what went wrong?
03:24A place full of secrets and stories.
03:30A repository of memory stretching back through time.
03:34The British Museum, home to more than 8 million artefacts, is a record of how and why the greatest civilisations rose to power and then spectacularly fell.
03:53It's treasures are the human traces that survived disaster.
04:01But might they also hold lessons for our own future?
04:08Every civilisation throughout history has had an expiry date.
04:11With great societies, the seeds of their destruction are sown within the society.
04:18They're already there.
04:24No civilisation ever thinks it's going to fall.
04:28But the question is, what can we learn from the past?
04:31In the Pacific Ocean, off the eastern shores of Asia,
04:57Japan, in the middle of the 19th century, is entirely unique.
05:18It's different from anywhere else in the world.
05:20It's several islands, there's a huge population, a very educated and literate population.
05:32The city of Edo, modern-day Tokyo, is home to over a million people, and one of the largest cities in the world.
05:45Japan is a place of elaborate temples.
05:47Japan's distinctive culture is a product of a deliberate policy.
06:17It's a place of isolation.
06:25120 miles from the coast of mainland Asia,
06:30Japan has closed its borders to much of the outside world for over 200 years.
06:37Japanese are forbidden to travel abroad on pain of death, so it's developed this phenomenal culture, which is of its own.
06:48At peace for the last two centuries, the Japanese have developed a highly stylised set of rituals for everyday life, from the way to drink tea, to how to wear a kimono.
07:02Any society that has peace instead of warfare, instead of putting all the money into making weapons, you can put your money into things like culture and arts.
07:13The intricate craftsmanship that has emerged reveals the lengths the Japanese will go to in pursuit of perfection.
07:25Unlike the Japanese will go to sail very much with no to하노.
07:28What you have in Japan is this culture of creating these small and beautiful sculptures,
07:53which are barely there.
07:55It's an extraordinary thing because they're very, very small.
08:21What's special about netsuke is that they are basically miniature sculptures for the hand.
08:28They're made for you to feel during the day, to run your hands over and discover.
08:37Here's a netsuke of a rat.
08:41It's eating a beanstalk, two very beady eyes made out of buffalo horn.
08:47Turn it round and there is its tail curled all the way round under one of its paws.
08:58You can just see there beautifully.
09:00Intricately carved from ivory or hardwood, these are miniature snapshots of Japanese life.
09:15What you have within netsuke is a whole raft of subject matter, which comes out of Japanese mythology, folkloric traditions, food, storytelling, eroticism, fashion.
09:34All these things become amplified.
09:37They're fascinating for the level of craftsmanship and the miniaturization of whole worlds.
09:48And the degree to which they incorporate symbolism and fine materials and are beautiful, but also in a very clear way, functional.
10:03So you have to imagine wearing a wonderful kimono and you've got no pockets.
10:08So how are you going to carry around all the things you might need for your daily life?
10:13So you have an external pocket.
10:16It's called a sagimono, a hanging pocket.
10:22This one is made from boxwood.
10:24And up here is the netsuke.
10:27And this is the way that you hold your hanging pocket from the belt of your obi.
10:42There is no way that netsuke can happen elsewhere.
10:45It's one of these extraordinary sort of efflorescences in a culture.
10:52They're not looking outwards.
10:55They're looking inwards.
11:00But beyond Japan's shores, the world is changing fast.
11:08Isolationism is usually madness for any except the most powerful societies.
11:14You're not only isolating yourself from foreign cultural forces, but you're in danger of isolating yourself from all the
11:21developments of science, of technology, and then you become vulnerable to external enemies.
11:29By the 1850s, Europe is being powered by an industrial revolution.
11:34New technology is transforming everything from steam-powered transport to the mass production of ever more powerful weapons.
11:47And it's fueling an appetite for conquest.
11:53Industrialization has driven this need for colonization.
12:08The raw materials of iron, coal, cotton, tea, all of this is driving Europeans to try and carve out empires.
12:18They are trying to get as many colonies as possible to give them not only wealth, but stability across the globe.
12:24It's impossible to overstate the importance of technology as a driving force.
12:33European powers found themselves able, because of their superior weapons technology, to march into other people's country and to achieve devastating victories at relatively low cost.
12:44And now there's a dynamic new player on the world stage.
13:01The United States is a growing power.
13:04They have ships that are trading around the Pacific.
13:07What they want is for their ships to be able to take on food and other supplies.
13:15So they begin to consider Japan as a place that no one else has yet, quote unquote, opened to the West.
13:26Japan becomes the target.
13:37The man in charge of this mission is US Commodore Matthew Perry.
13:45Perry is from a naval family.
13:47He is pretty proud of his own rightness.
13:50He fought in the war with Mexico.
13:53He's also chased pirates in the Caribbean.
13:56He's a big Navy guy.
13:59Perry is a technological visionary.
14:01This is a man who is dreaming of not only the US as a Pacific power, but the US as a naval power driven by steamships.
14:16Steamships are amazing, but they require regular refueling.
14:21And that means the US has to be absolutely certain that its ships can regularly refuel all across the Pacific.
14:28The Americans want very much to be able to coal up their ships at Japanese ports.
14:39Perry is a man who likes to do his homework.
14:42So he's read up in the New York Public Library a little bit about the Japanese.
14:47And I think he's come to the view that the Japanese will really only respond to a show of power.
14:58On November the 24th, 1852, Perry sets sail for Japan.
15:15His squadron of four warships, two of them steam powered, is designed to intimidate the Japanese into submission.
15:22Perry carries a letter spelling out American demands.
15:28But he has no idea who he will be dealing with.
15:33Perry doesn't understand very much about the political situation in Japan.
15:41Not very many people do.
15:42He mistakenly addresses his letter demanding the opening of ports and trade to the emperor.
15:52Not realizing that the emperor is not in control.
15:58Japan has had an emperor for more than a thousand years.
16:02But he is little more than a symbolic figurehead.
16:05The real power lies elsewhere.
16:07The real power lies elsewhere.
16:36These are the shoguns.
16:41And shogun is a supreme warlord over all the other 200 plus warlords in the country.
16:50Shogun is a word that Westerners are quite familiar with.
17:11What it actually means is like foreigner-crushing generalissimo.
17:15We see in the center the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate.
17:23And around him are arrayed his 14 successors.
17:30For 250 years, the Tokugawa family has ruled Japan.
17:35There are no significant rivals to their power.
17:43So it's a reign of exceptional duration and exceptional success in many ways.
17:53It's a bit like a mafia power family.
17:56What you get is a warlord who doesn't rule with just an iron fist.
18:00It's sort of an iron fist in a silk glove.
18:02The shogun's job is to placate, is to manipulate and is to convince everybody to keep the peace.
18:12It is the Tokugawa clan who have tried to eliminate contact with the West.
18:26In the 17th century, they implemented a policy of seclusion called Sakoku.
18:40Closing the country off from what they see as dangerous outside influence.
18:45The foreigners were referred to as Nanbanji, meaning Southern barbarian.
19:00Back in the late 1500s, the Portuguese and also the Spanish made their way into Japan, traders and missionaries.
19:11And they started to meddle in Japanese politics.
19:14They made quite a few converts to Christianity.
19:17And some of these converts were regarded as a bit suspect because it's not really clear where their loyalties lie.
19:21And so when this policy of more or less complete isolation was put in place, it made a great deal of sense.
19:29It was border control.
19:30The Tokugawa shoguns allow trade with their immediate neighbours China and Korea.
19:46But limit European imports to the Dutch alone.
19:50And restrict them to the harbour of Nagasaki.
19:59Here, 20 or so Dutch merchants are confined to a tiny artificial island, just 600 feet long, called Dejima.
20:11They are the only Westerners allowed to do business with the Shogun.
20:15They were trading with the Dutch, but only because the Dutch said, we're not going to do anything other than trade with you.
20:31We're not going to introduce European ideas, or particularly Christianity.
20:34If you don't allow trading partners, if you don't allow the importation of new ideas, new competing philosophies and technologies, it is simply an easier landscape to control.
20:50It's often an illusion of control because you can't control what exactly happens beyond your borders.
20:56The Tokugawa family's power base is the thriving city of Edo.
21:09The latest Shogun to inherit the title knows his control of the country also depends on enforcing a rigid social hierarchy.
21:27Everybody knows their place, and it's this sense of cultural unity which really binds Japan together and creates this unique tradition, this unique society.
21:45At the top of the ladder are around 300 warlords, the Daimyo.
21:55Beneath them are Japan's enforcers, an elite class of warriors and bureaucrats known as the Samurai.
22:03What defines you as a Samurai is carrying out whatever duty you've been given by your Lord, doing it exactly as you've been asked and sacrificing whatever you need to sacrifice to get it done.
22:17Of 30 million Japanese, around 2 million are Samurai.
22:24They're absolutely at the top. They're almost a different species, I think, from other Japanese. That's certainly how they regard themselves anyway.
22:33Among the many Samurai, one is destined to lead the fight against Western influence.
22:57His name is Saigo Takamori.
23:03Saigo Takamori is sort of the ultimate Samurai.
23:08He has a very stern Samurai education.
23:12He learns all the martial arts and he is very interested in the moral systems that are behind the Samurai world.
23:19Saigo is a man with a really deep ethical code. He has a lovely slogan he often uses, revere heaven and love one another.
23:34He takes the status and the duties of a Samurai very seriously.
23:44Saigo is a traditionalist. And by that I mean he thinks the old ways should be preserved.
23:51In Japan, nothing embodies the status of a Samurai more than his sword.
24:09In all its extraordinary detail.
24:18Saigo Takamori
24:32weapon. It's a symbol of loyalty, duty, honor, and pride.
24:40Called a katana, this is one of the most lethal and effective swords ever created.
25:06It can slice through skin and bone. The result of generations of craftsmen perfecting their
25:16skills.
25:19It is made in a way that no other sword is made. Those two pieces of metal are melded together.
25:32It is also the sharpest sword in the world.
25:38On the thinner cutting edge of the blade is this beautiful crystalline structure that's
25:42called the Hamon. And there's a whole vocabulary to describe the shape and the qualities of
25:49the Hamon. It can be likened to the night sky or to mist or dew.
25:59Handles are covered in stingray skin for extra grip and wrapped in silken cords. All decorated
26:09with intricate symbols from Japanese folklore.
26:14Every single katana or sword are different and it has different story. It becomes part
26:20of you. It's become who you are.
26:24Traditionally, sword skills are important for every samurai. The sword is also a reminder
26:33of the samurai's status as authority figures in Japan.
26:38Only the samurai at this point are allowed weapons of any kind. So to walk around town
26:43carrying those swords is to tell everybody else who you are and what your standing is
26:48in Japan.
26:50Commoners in the street are going to back away from you. They might bow as you go past.
26:56So you've got a really strong sense that the country is really built around you and your
27:02values.
27:05It's the samurai and their sense of honour that holds the rest of Japan together.
27:26As the sun dips low over the coastal city of Edo, the harbour of Kurihama, south of Edo Bay,
27:36is settling down for the evening when out of the haze, four hulking ships appear, bristling
27:45with cannon.
27:48American naval commander Matthew Perry has arrived.
27:53Perry's idea is shock and awe. That's what he wants to achieve.
28:00There's a great deal of menace to the way Perry approaches Japan. He has the cannon fire from
28:07offshore. He really wants to awe the Japanese with a sense of his power, with a sense of
28:12the technology that he's bringing.
28:17A group of senior samurai invites Perry to a meeting inside a hastily built pavilion on
28:24the shore.
28:26The Japanese officers realised that this small squadron of ships can completely outgun all
28:33the naval fortifications that Japan has set up around Edo Harbour.
28:38For Perry, these samurai looked a bit unimpressive. He saw that the weapons they were holding in
28:47the United States would be back in a museum. They'd be in someone's attic. These things are
28:51not credible modern weapons at all.
28:53Perry gives them an ultimatum. He says, either you sign this trade deal with us. You've got a year to do it.
29:03We're being reasonable here. You have a whole year to sign this treaty. Or your other
29:08alternative is we come back in a year and we attack.
29:12He gives the Japanese a little white piece of cloth.
29:21He says, if I don't get what I've asked for, there's going to be a war. And when you've had
29:26enough, you can wave this little piece of white cloth and surrender.
29:33Gunboat diplomacy meant making your will stick, whether you were right or wrong, whether what
29:39you were doing was just or unjust, because you had the firepower to make your will stick.
29:50As Perry steams away from Edo Bay, Japan faces a momentous choice. To agree to American terms
29:59or go to war.
30:11Across the country, some samurai, like Saigo Takamori, fear for the survival of the traditional order
30:19they love and uphold.
30:22Saigo, like many of his contemporaries, in 1853, thinks these westerners are
30:28largely monstrous. They're coming from halfway around the world to bother a country that
30:33has done nothing to them.
30:36Saigo fears a collapse of Japan as he knows it.
30:41And he believes that they need to be driven away decisively and quickly.
30:46All eyes now turn to the great Tokugawa leader, the shogun, as the nation waits for his decision.
31:04The shogun is trying to square his job, which is to crush the barbarians, keep the foreigners
31:11out of Japan on the one hand, with the brute fact of overwhelming American power on the other.
31:19But it's a very difficult one, and he spends months agonising really over what to do.
31:29But can the shogun really count on his samurai to defend Japan?
31:34The answer is found in a stunning artefact, handed down through generations of a samurai family.
31:57Armour is embedded in a samurai family's history, its lineage.
32:10It's valuable not only in a material sense, but in a heritage sense, as part of what being a samurai was.
32:19Armour in Japan is formed from plates that are sewn together.
32:43The main part of the armour covers the chest, so there's two plates of iron in this suit.
32:50And then attached to that are lacquered plates that compose the shoulder guards.
32:58And there are sleeves that often have chain mail within them.
33:03And shin guards.
33:08Its mask is built to scare you.
33:11It's meant to be intimidating as well as functional.
33:15Helmets might incorporate an interesting motif, and in this particular case, it's a dragon.
33:31This is part of the fearsome aspect that you want to present on the battlefield.
33:35Samurai armour may once have proved effective against sword and arrow.
33:47But it is now purely ceremonial.
33:50No match for the latest guns and cannon fire.
33:53After the shocking revelation of American technology, being a samurai is no longer a defence.
34:05His armour, the thing that for generations has protected him, has protected his family, has protected his country, is now the thing which makes him weak.
34:17The whole thrust of history shows that the old, old cliché, the best guide to peace is to prepare for war.
34:30It's all still true. It always has been.
34:34In the end, there will always be enemies, there will always be aggressors out there who see things through a different prism.
34:39Eight months after the Americans' first landing in Japan, Commodore Perry returns to Edo Bay with a larger fleet.
34:53To demand an immediate answer from the shogun.
35:10It's time for the shogun to make his decision.
35:14He's got a choice in a way, but in another way he's got no choice, because if he doesn't sign that treaty, he is basically saying, you know, America can invade and colonise.
35:29By signing the treaty, he has a sliver of control left, maybe.
35:33The best way for the shogun to deal with this is to give them a little bit of what they want and hope that they don't ask for anything else.
35:50That's the least worst thing that the shogun can do at this point.
35:56The shogun agrees a deal with Perry.
35:59What the treaty does is it basically opens up trade in the seaports along Japan's coast.
36:13The agreement is the first of what become known as the Unequal Treaties.
36:20The treaties are extremely disadvantageous to Japan.
36:25Economically, they put tariffs, import-export duties, not under Japanese control, but under international control.
36:35They are unable to protect their own markets.
36:38These are deemed to be infringements on Japan's national sovereignty.
36:43The shogun has been forced to make a humiliating climb down.
36:59Now he needs to cast his actions in a positive light.
37:03One remarkable work of art captures how his supporters tried to record this defeat as a victory.
37:16The Perry scroll is this long scroll which you unfurl and you read from right to left.
37:23You get scene after scene, little moments picked up from this return of Perry in 1854.
37:2816 images across 50 feet show the encounter between Perry's American delegation and the shogun's officials, and the efforts made by each side to impress the other.
37:46From the Japanese side, you have a display of sumo wrestling.
38:01From the American side, one of the things they offer is a demonstration of steam technology.
38:06So they have a little miniature railway track and a little locomotive on it.
38:15But the artist also tries to spin the occasion as evidence of Japanese superiority.
38:23What you see here are these sumo wrestlers who are physically larger than the American soldiers.
38:31And you see the Americans admiring the physiques of the sumo wrestlers, stroking their arms in a way that suggests a kind of admiration, adoration.
38:50A banquet scene shows the Japanese as dignified, while one American sneaks food into his hat.
38:58And others examine the maker's marks on the porcelain bowls.
39:05A dedication claims that this scroll is evidence of the shogun's prowess in defending Japan against the Americans.
39:13Some may have believed this version of events, but not the samurai, Saigo Takamori.
39:27Approaching Edo, just two days after the treaty is signed, he sees with his own eyes, Peri's fleet of monstrous gunboats.
39:44And understands that Japan's unique way of life and traditions are now under threat.
39:49This is the first time Saigo has seen tangible evidence with his own eyes of Westerners.
39:59And they, for him, are this strange, outrageous imposition.
40:04For Saigo, what's so damaging about the treaties is that the shogunate has reneged on its own promises to keep foreigners out of Japan and backed out of it without a fight.
40:19For now, Saigo and his fellow samurai must submit to American humiliation and to a shogun many feel has betrayed them.
40:35Har Tips
40:58Thirteen years later, and Saigo's worst fears are coming true.
41:02true. As well as signing deals with the Americans, the shogun has opened up Japanese markets
41:13to Britain, Russia and France. Western goods start to flood in. And many Japanese start
41:30to embrace Western ways. Even the shogun himself.
41:37If you look at the depiction of the shogun in the lower left corner, it's immediately
41:47apparent that he is different. He is dressed in a Western military uniform. He is seated
41:54in a chair. And unlike his predecessors, without a sword, which had typically been the symbol
42:02of the samurai class. He's still a samurai, but he's a different kind of military man now.
42:13Along with foreign goods come foreign people. It's fair to say that a lot of foreigners are
42:28drinking heavily, behaving badly, getting into fights, generally disrespecting Japanese culture.
42:34You've got a sense, I think, that the world isn't really as it should be anymore.
42:47Imagine you're a samurai. You're at the top of your society. And suddenly all the things
42:52that you've been told about foreigners, it's suddenly not a story anymore. It is real. It's
42:58in front of your eyes. And you realise how precarious your position really is.
43:07The process of opening a society, creating new trade relationships has, of course, both
43:14winners and losers. We see this in the modern world. There have been both winners and losers
43:19of globalisation. People, whether it be individuals or groups who feel like they've lost status,
43:26are far more likely to turn to rebellion or to violence.
43:35Saigo Takamori is one of a number of samurai who are reluctantly reaching the conclusion that
43:41the shogun's time is up. He's clearly failed to deal with foreigners effectively and something
43:47radical needs to change in Japan.
43:56Saigo forms an alliance with other disaffected samurai. Together, they are prepared to take
44:04action that was once unthinkable.
44:10The shogun, by letting foreigners come in, has betrayed the essence of Japan and is therefore
44:18actually illegitimate, even though on paper the shogun is the supreme military commander.
44:25He can't be. That's impossible.
44:30Saigo and his fellow rebels head north through the winter snow to the city of Kyoto.
44:37Saigo.
44:38Their hope is to win the backing of the one person whose support could change everything.
44:43Japan's spiritual figure head, the emperor.
44:51Saigo.
44:54This is a monarchy that can trace itself back to the 600s. It's a very old institution, but
45:02But it actually has not ruled rather than reigned for centuries.
45:11In theory, the emperor who's in Kyoto is right at the top of the country's politics.
45:17But in reality, he's hidden away in an imperial palace performing rituals, writing poetry,
45:23has no real day-to-day say at all in the control of Japan.
45:28But nevertheless, he has an extraordinary mystique around him.
45:32And so I think people like Saigo Takemori really want the shogun to be toppled and instead
45:37for the emperor to come back to the front line of politics.
45:44This movement calls itself Son no Joi, which means literally revere the emperor, expel
45:51the barbarians.
45:53And they are absolutely willing to kill and be killed in pursuit of that idea.
46:01Saigo and his fellow samurai persuade the emperor to declare the shogun's rule over.
46:09And put himself in charge.
46:14Saigo is absolutely at the center of this epoch-making moment in Japanese history.
46:19Saigo must just be an extraordinary sense of the moment having finally turned in his favor.
46:24Saigo must just be an extraordinary sense of the moment having finally turned in his favor.
46:28Saigo must just be an extraordinary sense of the shogun's rule over.
46:33Saigo must just be an extraordinary sense of the shogun's rule over.
46:38Three months later, the shogun faces a growing rebel army of samurai, backed by the emperor.
46:46Finally, the shogun agrees to leave Edo for good.
46:53After more than 250 years, the Tokugawa family's rule is at an end.
47:03The victorious samurai form a new government under the emperor.
47:07They base themselves in Edo, now renamed Tokyo.
47:14Saigo believes he's secured his country's future.
47:20But his fight for the soul of Japan is not yet at an end.
47:44Eight years after the shogun was deposed, the new government has promised to preserve ancient
47:49traditions, while embarking on a crash course of dizzying modernization.
47:57Once the shogun is got rid of, the new government takes power, but almost immediately they realize
48:03the situation they are in.
48:04This wasn't just a weak shogun.
48:06They realize there is no standing up to these foreign powers.
48:10The only way Japan is going to survive is if they modernize, and they modernize radically
48:15fast.
48:19The imperial government believes that only an industrialized nation can defend itself
48:24against western powers.
48:28But modernizing forces, once unleashed, are hard to control.
48:35The pace of change is breathtaking, and is captured in a high-tech, new art form, imported from the
48:42west.
48:44This is a new photography.
48:45Within a few years, you have railways coming
48:50in, you have new buildings going up.
48:55For centuries, people have walked, or they've gone in palanquins, or they've gone by water.
49:00All of a sudden, there are rickshaws all over the place.
49:06People start wearing western clothes, bustles and bonnets.
49:12At first, Saigo believes that some modernization might strengthen Japan.
49:27But over time, he worries that the changes are sweeping away his country's traditional values.
49:33Saigo's having to ask himself, is this what I signed up for?
49:38Is this what I was fighting for just a few years ago?
49:46In 1876, the government issues an edict that enrages many samurai, banning them from carrying
49:56their swords in public.
50:02The new government decides that in order to survive, it needs a modern army, and that
50:07means conscription.
50:10That means that any peasants can fight, any merchant can pick up a gun and go and fight.
50:16Not only that, they're all going to wear a military uniform.
50:20So what's the point of a samurai?
50:23Where do they fit in this new system?
50:25And of course they don't.
50:28Saigo has risked everything to put the emperor in charge.
50:34But now, even his government seems to have reneged on its promise to defend Japanese tradition.
50:43The whole point of rising up was to re-establish samurai values, put the country on a strong footing
50:50against this influx of foreign ideas and foreign pressures.
50:56This feels like an extraordinary betrayal.
51:01Saigo joins a growing movement as samurai, prepared to fight for the survival of their identity.
51:08For six months, Saigo has been leading a rebel army against the emperor.
51:20But it's a war they're not winning.
51:27They started off as 20,000 men and they're getting picked off, one by one, each battle at a time.
51:44And they know that this is their last, final stand.
51:51Now, Saigo must prepare for the decisive battle, to protect all that he holds dear in Japan.
51:59Saigo knows perfectly well that the end is coming.
52:04And so they party, and they exchange poems, and they drink, and they dance, and they sing, and they wait.
52:11And meanwhile the government's troops assemble.
52:14Saigo's troops assemble.
52:19These samurai are the last 500 samurai left.
52:23They're the ones who refuse to convert to the new system.
52:26The ones who refuse to put down their swords.
52:29The ones who kept the tradition alive.
52:32They're on the hillside, they've been shelled, and now they've no choice.
52:36They have to fight.
52:46They walk out into a hail of gunfire.
52:58Saigo is felled by a gunshot wound to the hip.
53:07There's no point in surrendering, because they are nothing without their identity as samurai.
53:14And so they decide to die.
53:27According to one story, Saigo turns to his very good friend and second, whose name is Beku Shinsuke,
53:33and says, Shin, my good friend, here is as good a place as any, let's do it.
53:53Beku cuts off his head.
53:55The world of the samurai, its culture, tradition, and values, dies with him.
54:13The fall of the samurai comes as the world is being transformed by the forces of globalization and western expansion.
54:32Turning Japan's policy of strong border control, effective for generations, into a weakness.
54:40the world is being transformed by the world.
54:42The world is being transformed by the world.
54:43For our human history, if you're buffered away from other ideas and other cultures,
54:48you're more likely to become vulnerable.
54:50This is a culture that is allowed to sort of fold in on itself, to intensify its own traditions.
55:05It's fantastically dangerous for any civilization that values its own society to fall behind technologically.
55:18We have to work and live with others.
55:20And if we try to shut ourselves away, as the Japanese did for a long period,
55:25as other societies have done, then I think we are doomed.
55:28I think we are doomed.
55:29Failed leadership.
55:51ship, climate catastrophe, war, disease, social breakdown, each one destructive on its own.
56:10But when the great forces of history come together, they can create a perfect storm,
56:16one that will come for every civilization in the end.
56:26What remains is this, the human traces of lost worlds, and the soul of history's great civilizations.
56:43Precious treasures passed down the generations, brimming with ingenuity, creativity, and beauty.
56:56Within them lie clues to the fate and folly of the greatest empires of the past.
57:09And warnings about the perils of our own time.
57:14The story that is being told to us through those artifacts gives us a much more rounded history.
57:34And there is a lot that history teaches us about what we are doing in the present.
57:40As our own world order feels increasingly precarious, will we heed the lessons?
57:51History is in many ways a story of societal evolution.
57:59And change is necessary for any society to survive.
58:03The question is, how do you do so in such a way that keeps a society stable?
58:09What can these ancient civilizations tell us about our own societies and our own vulnerabilities?
58:31And what can we do to prevent a similar collapse?
59:01national
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