t of the Imperial Will in order to govern effectively. In the years leading up to 1868 members of the Satsuma and Choshu clans were part of the imperialist opposition. This opposition claimed that the only way that Japan could survive the encroachment of the foreigners was to rally around the Emperor. The imperialists pressed their attack both militarily and from within the Court of Kyoto. The great military regime of Edo which had been all powerful floundered not because of military weakness, or because the machinery of government had broken but instead because the Japanese public and the Shoguns supporters felt they had lost the Imperial Wi!
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