(May 30, 1824 â December 7, 1869) was a Japanese military leader and theorist in Bakumatsu period Japan. He was the "Father" of the Imperial Japanese Army, launching a modern military force closely patterned after the French system of the day.
à Âmura was born in what is now part of Yamaguchi city, in the former Chà Âshà « Domain, where his father was a rural physician. From a young age, à Âmura had a strong interest in learning and medicine, travelling to Osaka to study rangaku under the direction of Ogata Kà Âan at his Tekijuku academy of western studies when he was twenty-two. He continued his education in Nagasaki under the direction of German physician Philipp Franz von Siebold, the first European to teach Western medicine in Japan. His interest in Western military tactics was sparked in the 1850s and it was this interest that led à Âmura to become a valuable asset after the Meiji Restoration in the creation of Japan's modern army.
After studying in Nagasaki, à Âmura returned to his village at the age of twenty-six to practice medicine but accepted an offer from daimyà  Date Munenari of nearby Uwajima Domain in 1853 to serve as an expert in Western studies and a military school instructor in exchange for the samurai rank that he was not born into. As foreign incursions into Japanese territorial waters increased, and as pressure from foreign powers for Japan to end its national seclusion policy, à Âmura was sent back to Nagasaki to study the construction of warships and navigation. He traveled to Edo in 1856 in the retinue of Date Munenari and was appointed a teacher at the shogunate's Bansho Shirabesho institute for Western studies. During this time, he also continued his education by learning English under the Yokohama-based American missionary James Curtis Hepburn.
In 1861, Chà Âshà « domain hired à Âmura back to teach at the Chà Âshà « military academy and to reform and modernize the domainal army; they too gave him the ranking of samurai. It was this same year that à Âmura began his involvement with Kido Takayoshi, a political moderate who served as a liaison between the domain bureaucracy and radical elements among the young, lower-echelon Chà Âshà « samurai who supported the Sonnà  jà Âi movement and the violent overthrow of Tokugawa rule.
After his return to Chà Âshà «, à Âmura not only introduced modern western weaponry, but he also introduced the concept of military training for both samurai and commoners. The concept was highly controversial, but à Âmura was vindicated when his troops routed the all-samurai army of the Shogunate in the Second Chà Âshà « Expedition of 1866. These same troops also formed the core of the armies of the Satchà  Alliance at the Battle of TobaâÂÂFushimi, Battle of Ueno and other battles of the Boshin War of the Meiji Restoration from 1867 to 1868.
After the Meiji Restoration, the government recognized the need for a stronger military force that placed their loyalty to the central government as opposed to individual domains. Under the new Meiji government, à Âmura was appointed to the post of hyà Âbu daiyu, which was equivalent to the role of Vice Minister of War in the newly created Army-Navy Ministry. In this role, à Âmura was tasked with the creation of a national army along Western lines. à Âmura sought to duplicate the policies he had previously successfully implemented in Chà Âshà « on a larger scale, namely, the introduction of conscription and military training for commoners, rather than reliance on a hereditary feudal force. He also strongly supported the discussions towards the abolition of the han system, and with it, the numerous private armies maintained by the daimyà Â, which he considered a drain on resources and a potential threat to security.
During a council meeting in June 1869, Ã Âmura argued that if "the government was determined to become militarily independent and powerful, it was necessary to abolish the fiefs and the feudal armies, to do away with the privileges of the samurai class, and to introduce universal military conscription". Ã Âmura's ideal military consisted of an army modeled after the French Imperial Army and a navy patterned after the Royal Navy. For this reason, even though the French government had lent tactic support to the Tokugawa regime during the wars of the Meiji Restoration through the supply of weapons and military advisors, Ã Âmura continued to push for the return of the French military mission to train his new troops.
à Âmura faced opposition from many of his peers, including from most conservative samurai who saw his ideas on modernizing and reforming the Japanese military as too radical. What à Âmura was advocating was not only ending the livelihood of thousands of samurai but also the end of their privileged position in society.
A man of strong character, Ã Âmura had come to entertain such disgust at the cramped military system of feudalism that a story is told of his refusing to talk to a close companion of arms who offended him by wearing his long samurai sword during a conference.
It was the opposition of some of these samurai that led to his demise in the late 1860s. Although Prince Komatsu Akihito was nominally the minister in charge of military affairs, in practice à Âmura was the guiding force. à Âmura appointed his disciple, Yamada Akiyoshi as a vice minister and placed him in charge with the selection of non-commissioned officer candidates. Yamada selected about 100 people, mainly from various units of Chà Âshà « Domain, and from September 5, began training at the Kawahigashi Training Center established in Kyoto. In September 1869, à Âmura established a military training barracks near Osaka Castle, where French instructors were located. In addition, it was decided that he would build a gunpowder factory in Uji, Kyoto, and an armory (Osaka Artillery Arsenal) in Osaka. His decision to move the core of the army to the Kansai region was partly due to geographic reasons (Osaka was more central than Tokyo, and it would be easier to respond to domestic incidents), and partly due to a desire to remove himself from the à Âkubo faction's obstruction of his military reforms. Despite rumors and concerns raised by Kido Takayoshi and others about threats to à Âmura's life, he decided to make an inspection tour of these new facilities in person. After inspecting the Fushimi Parade Ground in Kyoto, the site of the planned ammunition depot in Uji, military installations in Osaka Castle, and touring the naval base at Tempà Âzan, he returned to Kyoto on October 8. On the following evening, he had dinner at a ryà Âkan in Kiyamachi in Kyoto with Shizuma Hikotarà Â, a commander of a battalion of the Chà Âshà « clan, and Adachi Konosuke, a teacher at the Fushimi Military Academy. In the middle of dinner, he was attacked by eight assassins, including Dan Shinjirà Â, a former Chà Âshà « retainer. Shizuma and Adachi were killed, and à Âmura was seriously injured, with cuts to his forehead, left temple, arm, right finger, right elbow, and right knee joint, and barely escaped with his life by hiding in a bath full of dirty water. On September 20, he received treatment from Anthonius Franciscus Bauduin, a doctor with the Dutch legation and Ogata Koreyoshi, and was transferred to a hospital in Osaka. His stretcher was carried by Terauchi Masatake and Kodama Gentarà  and he was looked after in the hospital by Kusumoto Ine and her daughter Ako. However, his condition did not improve, and he underwent surgery on October 27 to amputate his left thigh by Bauduin. However, as a report to the Ministry of War at the time stated, obtaining permission for the operation from the authorities in Tokyo took too long, and on November 1, he developed a high fever due to sepsis, his condition deteriorated, and he died on the night of the 5th. à Âmura's assassins were soon apprehended and sentenced to death but were reprieved due to political pressure at the last moment by government officials who shared their views that Omura's reforms were an affront to the samurai class. They were executed a year later.
On November 13, à Âmura was posthumously conferred the court rank of Junior Third Rank, and his widow was awarded 300 gold ryà Â. His body was returned to Yamaguchi where a funeral was held on November 20. His grave is located at the public graveyard in the village of Chusenji, now part of the city of Yamaguchi. The grave was designated as a National Historic Site in 1935. It is located about 25 minutes on foot from Yotsutsuji Station on the JR West San'yà  Main Line.
In 1888, his grandson à Âmura Hiroto (the heir of his adopted son) was raised to the kazoku peerage with a title of viscount for his grandfather's achievement. à Âmura core theory of universal military conscription was formally adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army under Yamagata Aritomo in 1873.
Soon after à Âmura's death, a bronze statue was built in his honor by à Âkuma Ujihiro. The statue was placed in the monumental entry to Yasukuni Shrine, in Tokyo. The shrine was erected to Japanese who have died in battle and is the most controversial shrine in Japan:it contains 1,068 convicted war criminals from the Pacific War. The statue was the first Western-style sculpture in Japan
à Âmura's ideas for modernizing Japan's military were largely implemented after his death by his followers such as Yamagata Aritomo, Kido Takayoshi, and Yamada Akiyoshi. Yamada Akiyoshi was the strongest leader out of the four and was mainly responsible for establishing Japan's modern military using à Âmura's ideas. Yamada promoted à Âmura's ideas by establishing new military academies that taught à Âmura's ways. Yamagata Aritomo and Saigà  Tsugumichi also had à Âmura's ideas in mind when passing legislation imposing universal military conscription in 1873.
Yamagata Aritomo, a devoted follower of à Âmura, traveled to Europe to study military science and military techniques that could be adapted in Japan. Upon returning from Europe, he organized a 10,000-man force to form the core of the new Imperial Japanese Army. As à Âmura had hoped for, the French military mission returned in 1872 to help equip and train the new army. Although à Âmura died before having the opportunity to enforce many of his radical ideas, the lasting impression that he left on his followers led to his policies and ideas shaping the making of the Meiji military years later.