Samurai to Soldier

In Samurai to Soldier, D. Colin Jaundrill traces the radical changes to Japanese military institutions, as well as the consequences of military reforms in his accounts of the Boshin War (1868–1869) and the Satsuma Rebellions of 1877. He shows how pre-1868 developments laid the foundations for the army that would secure Japan's Asian empire.

D. Colin Jaundrill is Assistant Professor of History at Providence College.

D. Colin Jaundrill's Samurai to Soldier is an important, well-argued book that addresses a significant gap in our understanding of Japan's transition from the Tokugawa to Meiji periods.

... a genuine contribution to our understanding of nineteenth-century Japan—rich in detail, but also focused and succinct.

An enthralling story with numerous twists and turns.... We already know a fair amount about the role the modern Japanese military played in inspiring innovations in science and public health, as well as in more generally modernizing society at large. Jaundrill provides a much-needed inverse perspective on what such innovations meant for the military by elucidating how the enormous conscription obstacles were overcome.... Historians of military and war in the Japan field have much favored writing about earlier periods—or of the Imperial armed forces of the twentieth century, particularly of the Asia-Pacific War. Samurai to Soldier constitutes an important missing link between these two strongholds.

Jaundrill’s impressively researched study traces the origin of the modern Japanese military to the 1840s, when one martial arts teacher introduced a more westernized style of musketry and artillery training based on the Dutch example.

Lee K. Pennington, United States Naval Academy, author of Casualties of History: Wounded Japanese Servicemen and the Second World War:

In Samurai to Soldier, D. Colin Jaundrill presents a thoughtful, well-balanced analysis of the transformation of Japan's premodern warriors into the arms and legs of a modern, Western military system during the decades surrounding the Meiji Restoration. This is a shift of great significance, and Jaundrill guides readers through a complicated process with clarity and authority. On one hand, this is a new yet vital story of the Restoration, and, as such, Jaundrill's book will be greatly appreciated by college-level instructors who need to present to their students a clear narrative thread that must detail and explain an extremely convoluted event. On the other hand, this is an important analytical explanation of the birth of the modem-day Japanese serviceman, which means that Samurai to Soldier will appeal to not only historians of Japan but also historians of modern-day military systems that exist all around the world.

Edward Drea, author of Japan’s Imperial Army:

D. Colin Jaundrill's pathbreaking book is the definitive account of the tumultuous socio-military transformation that created the national army of Meiji Japan. His work opens fresh, fascinating perspectives on the military’s role in an emerging state.

David L. Howell, Harvard University, author of Geographies of Identity in Nineteenth-Century Japan:

Samurai to Soldier is an important contribution to our understanding of nineteenth-century Japan in general and its military history in particular. D. Colin Jaundrill carefully traces the transformation of military organization and soldiering across the divide of the Meiji Restoration, when samurai warriors were replaced by modern soldiers. It's not a straightforward story, and its unexpected complications tell us much not only about the origins of Japan's modern military but also a key process in Japan's transition from early modernity to modernity.