Qualla: Battle of Aizu https://qualla.com/battle-of-aizu en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:40 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/e/h/battle-of-aizu-wp/battleofaizu.jpg Qualla: Battle of Aizu https://qualla.com/battle-of-aizu Battle of Aizu: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-aizu/ Photo credit unknown?, Public domain. Twenty boys climbed Mount Iimori on an October morning in 1868, bleeding from a battle they had barely survived. From the summit, they looked down at Tsuruga Castle, the fortress they had pledged their lives to defend. Smoke choked the valley. The castle town was burning. Through the haze, the boys could not see whether the castle itself still stood. They decided it had fallen. Nineteen of them drew their swords and committed seppuku on the spot. They were wrong. Tsuruga Castle would hold for another month. The story of the Byakkotai -- the White Tiger Company -- has defined the Battle of Aizu ever since, but the siege itself was the final reckoning for one of Japan's most formidable warrior domains, a place that had spent centuries guarding the nation's borders only to be declared its enemy.

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Image: unknown? | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/e/h/battle-of-aizu-wp/xneh-battle-of-aizu-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Aizu: Warriors at the Edge of the World https://qualla.com/battle-of-aizu/ Photo credit Hayakawa Shōzan, Public domain. The Aizu domain, centered in what is now western Fukushima Prefecture, had built its identity around martial discipline. Its standing army of over 5,000 troops was routinely deployed to the most distant and dangerous postings in Japan -- as far north as southern Sakhalin, and as ...

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Image: Hayakawa Shōzan | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/e/h/battle-of-aizu-wp/xneh-battle-of-aizu-warriors-at-the-edge-of-the-world.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Aizu: The Price of Loyalty https://qualla.com/battle-of-aizu/ Photo credit Photo memories 1868, CC BY 4.0. In Kyoto, Katamori supervised the Shinsengumi, the feared special police force that hunted down enemies of the shogunate in the capital's narrow streets. He earned the undying hatred of the Choshu domain and alienated his sometime ally, Satsuma. When the political winds shifted d...

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Image: Photo memories 1868 | CC BY 4.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/e/h/battle-of-aizu-wp/xneh-battle-of-aizu-the-price-of-loyalty.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Aizu: Thirty-One Days Under the Guns https://qualla.com/battle-of-aizu/ Photo credit Yoshitoshi / Kobayashi Toshimitsu, Public domain. On October 6, 1868, imperial forces encircled Tsuruga Castle and began a siege that would last a full month. The castle town burned, but the fortress held. Inside, Aizu's defenders included remnants of the Shinsengumi under the command of Saito Hajime, survivors from the Shogitai...

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Image: Yoshitoshi / Kobayashi Toshimitsu | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/e/h/battle-of-aizu-wp/xneh-battle-of-aizu-thirty-one-days-under-the-guns.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Aizu: The Boys on the Mountain https://qualla.com/battle-of-aizu/ Photo credit Yoshitoshi / Kobayashi Toshimitsu, Public domain. The Byakkotai detachment that climbed Mount Iimori had been separated from the main force during fighting outside the castle. Exhausted and wounded, the twenty young samurai reached the summit and looked down into the smoke-filled valley. The castle town was ablaze. They could no...

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Image: Yoshitoshi / Kobayashi Toshimitsu | Public domain

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/e/h/battle-of-aizu-wp/xneh-battle-of-aizu-the-boys-on-the-mountain.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Aizu: The Domain That Ceased to Exist https://qualla.com/battle-of-aizu/ Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Amcaja assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0. The aftermath was absolute. The samurai population of Aizu was marched to prisoner-of-war camps on the remote Tsugaru Peninsula, at the northern tip of Honshu. The domain itself, which had existed since the mid-seventeenth century, was dissolved. Aizu's punishment was meant as an...

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Amcaja assumed (based on copyright claims). | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/e/h/battle-of-aizu-wp/xneh-battle-of-aizu-the-domain-that-ceased-to-exist.mp3 0:06 6 full