Surprising Byakkotai Memorials

I wrote earlier about the trip to Mt. Iimori in Japan that our tour took us to in April. This is where those 19 young boys committed seppuku (ritual suicide by disemboweling) thinking that their castle had fallen and they had lost their battle.

The Byakkotai was meant to be a reserve unit composed of young 16-17 year old sons of the Aizu clan samurais. They were organized in different groups and the group that committed seppuku had been cut off from their fighters and they ended up high on Mt. Iimori where they saw the devastation and thought all was lost. Well, actually all was lost eventually.

 We'd gone up an escalator to visit their memorial where 20 young boys had done seppuku. One fellow had not died and was actually rescued by a farmer who took care of him.

We saw the grave site of the 19 boys who'd died. 

The other boy who'd survived actually went on to move to Sendai. When he passed away, his remains were sent to join his comrade in arms.

Well....

I was looking up the story of these Byakkotai boys and saw something about a memorial that we weren't informed of.

I found this on the Everything is Marshmallows blog site:

"...I describe weird things in Japan, not weird things about Japan. This is not a country profile. But ohhhhh my god, I found something really weird: two memorials dedicated to fallen samurai children …donated by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany!...

....By now, I suppose it’s been so long that the two memorials serve more as historical curios than genuine fascist symbols and the obscurity of Aizu prevents them from doing any real harm. But given ideology’s emphasis on youth mobilization for the fascist struggle and the Byakkotai’s own status as child soldiers, with Iimoriyama honoring the remains of samurai as young as 14, I have to ask a question:

Is it really appropriate to leave two fascist monuments overlooking the active graves of 19 child suicide victims, celebrating the militaristic ethos that led to their deaths on that very spot?

Ohhhhh my god, that’s weird. Maybe the Fascists and Nazis belong in the museum down the hill… let the Byakkotai rest...."

Well... Japan was once part of the Axis powers which I imagine they're not proud of at all once they knew everything. 

And then I'm thinking... what exactly is Fascism. I sort of know but what really? I looked it up and got this on AI.

I looked up fascism on Wikipedia.

What does fascism mean?

Many experts agree that fascism is a mass political movement that emphasizes extreme nationalism, militarism, and the supremacy of the nation over the individual. This model of government stands in contrast to liberal democracies that support individual rights, competitive elections, and political dissent.

In many ways, fascist regimes are revolutionary in nature. They advocate for the overthrow of existing systems of government and the persecution of political enemies. However, such regimes are also highly conservative in their championing of traditional values.

And although fascist leaders typically claim to support the everyman, in reality, their regimes often align with powerful business interests.

Oh goodness... what does this remind you of?