French military mission to Japan (1867–68)

The French Military Mission to Japan of 1867-68 was the first foreign military training mission to Japan. The mission was formed by Napoléon III, following a request of the Japanese Shogunate in the person of its emissary to Europe, Shibata Takenaka (1823–1877).

Shibata was already negotiating the final details of the French support for the construction of the Yokosuka Shipyard, and had additionally requested both the United Kingdom and France to send a military mission for training in Western warfare. The UK apparently denied support to Japan, but the French foreign minister Drouyn de Lhuys (1865–1881) transmitted the agreement of the French government.

Mission
The mission consisted of 17 members, under the authority of the Minister of War General Jacques Louis Randon, covering a wide range of expertise: four officers (representing infantry, artillery and cavalry), ten non-commissioned officers and two soldiers. The mission would be headed by staff captain Charles Sulpice Jules Chanoine, at that time an attaché to the military staff of Paris. The members were:


 * Commander of the mission:
 * Captain Charles Sulpice Jules Chanoine


 * Officers:
 * Charles Albert Dubousquet, lieutenant of the 31st Rgt of the Line, infantry instructor.
 * Édouard Messelot, lieutenant of the 20th battalion of Chasseurs à Pied, infantry instructor.
 * Léon Descharmes, lieutenant of the Empress Dragoon Regiment of the Guard, cavalry instructor.
 * Jules Brunet, lieutenant to the Horse Artillery Regiment of the Guard, artillery instructor.


 * Non-Commissioned Officers:
 * Jean Marlin, sergeant to the 8th battalion of Chasseurs à Pied, infantry instructor.
 * François Bouffier, sergeant to the 8th battalion of Chasseurs à Pied, infantry instructor.
 * Henry Ygrec, sergeant to the 31st Regiment of the Line, infantry instructor.
 * Emile Peyrussel, sergeant, sous-maître de manège à l'école d'état-major, cavalry instructor.
 * Arthur Fortant, sergeant, Horse Artillery Regiment of the Guard, artillery instructor.
 * L. Gutthig, trumpeter to the battalion de Chasseurs of the Guard.
 * Charles Bonnet, chef armorer second class.
 * Barthélémy Izard, sergeant, chief artificier of the Horse Artillery Regiment of the Guard.
 * Frédéric Valette, sergeant, wood specialist.
 * Jean-Félix Mermet, brigadier, steel specialist.
 * Jourdan, captain, Engineer of the 1st Engineer Regiment.
 * Michel, sergeant, Engineer of the 1st Engineer Regiment.

History
The mission left Marseille on November 19, 1866, and arrived in Yokohama on January 14, 1867. They were welcome on their arrival by Léon Roches and the commander of the French Far East Squadron Admiral Pierre-Gustave Roze.

The military mission was able to train an elite corps of Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the Denshutai, for a little more than one year, before the Tokugawa shogunate lost to the Imperial forces in 1868 in the Boshin War. The French military mission was then ordered to leave Japan by Imperial decree in October 1868.

However, Jules Brunet and four of his non-commissioned officers (Fortant, Marlin, Cazeneuve, Bouffier), chose to remain in Japan and continue supporting the Bakufu side. They resigned from the French army, and left for the north of Japan with the remains of the Shogunate's armies in the hope of staging a counter-attack.

The conflict continued until the rebels' defeat at the Battle of Hakodate in May 1869.