Japan is divided. Once the unstoppable center of power, the Tokugawa Shogunate is now collapsing under the weight of internal uprisings and foreign cannons. The era of isolation comes to an end—not with a whisper, but with fire—as the black ships of the West anchor in Edo Bay, demanding trade and submission.
From the final days of Tokugawa rule to the chaos of the Boshin War, the revolutionary Iwakura Mission, the drafting of Japan's first Constitution, and the final, tragic defiance of the Satsuma Rebellion, this Historical Crisis Committee chronicles the chaotic arc of the Meiji Restoration.
Delegates must negotiate a perilous web of imperial loyalists, samurai rebels, foreign envoys, and reformist visionaries as the old order falls apart. Each of these groups has a stake in Japan's destiny.
Can Japan modernize without losing itself, or will it be consumed by the very world it seeks to join?