Japanese historians call the Meiji Restoration a bloodless revolution, which is unique in world history for modernization. The historical fact was that there was no brutal civil war in Japan. It was the year 1867 when the government of the Edo Shogun resigned and returned politics to the Emperor. As a result, both the new regime of the new Meiji government and the old regime of the Shogun government could avoid a bloody civil war.

However, there was much murder and bloodshed until the Shogun government renounced its decisions. In his conflict between the ancient authorities and the emerging power, many young, ambitious, intelligent and influential people died.

Among the visionaries assassinated in the rising power, Ryoma Sakamoto was the one who passed before observing the formation of the New Japanese Government. Since he was the most powerful driving force for the peaceful change of government, it was ironic and unfortunate that he would be killed by a vicious assassin. It was unfortunate that he was not able to live until the start of the new Imperial Government and start his activities. He could make him into an unusually respectable statesman with his vision, patriotism, and his remarkable power to foresee the future.

Ryoma belonged to the lower class of Samurai society in the feudal domain of Tosa (now Kochi Prefecture). He was a fearful, shy and cuddly child in his childhood. His biography shows that he continued to wet his bed until he was 10 years old. As usual for a shy and caring boy, Ryoma hoped to train himself to be strong. He studied turf art and politics in Edo (now Tokyo). He became a turf art master at one of the leading turf art dojos, Hokushin Itto Ryu.

There are many episodes about Ryoma. He was a patriot, a dreamer, a romantic, a visionary, an ideologue, and an activist. He seemed to have 2 driving forces behind his activities. They were; i) love and care, ii) optimism and iii) vision.

i) Love and care; A legend tells that Ryoma said that he wanted to create a country where people could live happily. He extended his love to his family, friends, people and his country. He was a true patriot based on his love, which was almost close to the love of God.

ii) Optimism; People who knew him described him as smiling, open-minded, happy and approachable. He was always smiling and making others laugh with jokes. Even at the most dangerous moment of the activist meeting, he broke the ice making the audience laugh.

(iii) Vision; Among the activists of the modern Japan movement, there were not that many people who had a clear vision of what country Japan should be after the Edo Shogun government was overthrown. Instead, Ryoma had a clear vision of Japan, Japanese society, and government after the Shogun. They were in his document that he wrote as 8 principles of the new government, including the establishment of 2 Congress, election of congressmen, equal treatment treaties with foreign countries, currency exchange rate reform.

It was so unfortunate that he was killed by the Shogun’s assassin in December 1867, just after the end of the Shogun’s rule. He had not had the opportunity to participate in the new government, which he dreamed of.