Sakai incident
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The Sakai incident was the killing of 11 French sailors from the French corvette Dupleix in the port of Sakai near Osaka, Japan in 1868.
On March 8, 1868, a skiff sent to Sakai was attacked by samurai of the Tosa clan; 11 sailors and Midshipman Guillou were killed (a monument in Kobe is now erected to their memory)[1]. At the time, the port of Sakai was not open to foreign ships, and the Tosa troops were in charge of policing the city.
The French captain Dupetit Thouars protested so strongly that an indemnity of 150,000[citation needed] dollar was agreed upon, the culprits were arrested, and 20 of them were sentenced to death by seppuku. However, the style of execution was so shocking to the French that, after 11 were carried out, the captain requested a pardon, sparing nine of the samurai.
This allowed the French and Japanese parties to reconcile, and is now known as the "Sakai incident" or Sakai Jiken (堺事件).
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- ^ The monument can be found at just west of the southern entrance to the Sannomiya shrine.
