Original subtitles

- [Male Narrator] Our history is no more

than a series of incredible events.

Each one of us can influence its course.

The tiniest of our decisions can influence

the future of mankind.

To know the past is to anticipate the future.

1597, a Japanese general barely 15 years old

is humiliated by military defeat.

His name is Hideaki.

October 21st, 1600.

In the heat of battle, General Ieyasu orders his archers

to shoot upon an indecisive ally.

Three years later, Ieyasu becomes shogun,

the uncontested leader of the entire Japanese people.

These three intimately connected events

will lead to a united Japan and 250 years of civil peace.

Let's see how.

(dramatic drumming)

We are in the 17th century on a territory

covered with mountains, shaken by earthquakes,

and split into a multitude of islands,

the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan.

This is the period of the shoguns,

the period of the Sengoku and the samurai.

During this period, Japan is a major civilization.

More than 10 million people live on the three main islands,

Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku.

In this Japan, the most precious object

measured no more than a few millimeters, a grain of rice.

Rice is the foundation of the economic and social system.

Because it feeds the population,

rice defines the wealth of each individual.

The more land you possess to grow rice,

the higher rank you occupy in society.

So possession of lots of land guarantees lots of power.

Such is the case of those known as the daimyo.

These are local lords with their castles

and their own armies.

The majority of the country's land belongs to them,

so they are very powerful.

In this form of political organization,

the role of the emperor is purely symbolic,

that of a spiritual guide to the nation.

The real power lies in the hands of the shogun,

a sort of supreme general to whom everybody owes obedience.

So the government of Japan relies on a delicate balance,

a sharing of power between the central power of the shogun

and the local power of the daimyo.

To achieve this, both parties need the final piece

on the chessboard of Japanese society,

a military class of professional warriors,

the fearsome samurai.

- [Female Narrator] Welcome to the memory of humanity.

Here, we can control time,

analyze and compare billions of events,

and alter them to rewrite history endlessly.

For example, let's amuse ourselves

by comparing Japan with the Europe of the Middle Ages.

In both cases, a single sovereign,

but with very different authority.

In France, the king holds all the power.

He is an absolute monarch.

In Japan, the emperor's role is merely representative.

On both sides, power resides in the possession of land,

but in Europe, this is organized around family ties

and in Japan around clans.

In Japan, siege machinery is barely developed.

As a result, the castles are often made of wood,

unlike the stone-built castles of Europe.

Knights and samurai have a number of points in common.

They wear armor, ride horses, and live only for battle.

Loyal to one lord, they obey a fierce code of honor.

Wearing a sword or a katana is an honor.

One major difference, the attitude to death.

A samurai cannot live under the burden of dishonor,

and if he fails, he elects to kill himself.

In Japan, as in Europe, the exercise of power

is a question of balancing forces

between central power and local lords.

Sometimes, this balance can be upset.

Then the country falls into chaos.

(ethnic string music)

- [Male Narrator] Into civil war,

when clans ripped themselves apart over power

and the castles burn.

For a century, Japan has had no master and known only war.

This is the terrible Sengoku period.

Conflict and betrayal are the order of the day,

reaching into the very heart of the clans.

Without a powerful shogun to govern Japan,

the warlords take advantage

and fight each other for supremacy.

Finally, one of the warlords manages

to bring a halt to the madness.

He brings people to their senses

and becomes head of the government.

But peace is tedious for the armies.

After a century of internal struggle, they know only war.

To prevent them fighting inside the country,

warriors are sent to busy themselves abroad.

And so Japan decides to invade an old enemy, Korea.

This is the moment

when three major players in our story take the stage.

The invasion of Korea proves a resounding defeat.

Commanders are disgraced,

and in particular, the young Hideaki.

The young, inexperienced commander falls victim

to the political maneuvers of the opportunistic Mitsunari.

The latter, a far better administrator

than military commander, is ready to play

every card in his possession to achieve his ends.

Humiliated by the defeat in Korea,

Hideaki can find only one man

to defend him against all the others,

master strategist Ieyasu,

considered the greatest of the samurai commanders

and an extremely lucky general.

Mitsunari and Ieyasu do not think very highly of each other,

but they do have one thing in common, their ambition,

which will soon explode upon the scene.

The head of the government,

who has kept the country united with an iron fist

for many years, falls sick and dies.

His son, still too young to govern,

is unable to prevent political intrigues

and military maneuvering.

The struggle for power begins.

Mitsunari declares himself protector of the young heir,

but Ieyasu isn't fooled.

He decides to rebel.

For all the lords of Japan, the hour has come to choose,

remain loyal to power and follow Mitsunari,

or join Ieyasu's rebellion.

Once again, the country tears itself apart.

(dramatic instrumental music)

- [Female Narrator] To choose sides.

Often in the history of humanity,

men have had to make crucial choices

without being certain of the consequences.

In this medieval Japan, should you line up behind Mitsunari

because he presents continuity of power and legitimacy,

or should you support the opponent of established power,

Ieyasu, because he is more charismatic and more competent?

Let us jump forward several centuries to the 1940s.

The French army has just been destroyed by the German tanks.

The country is cut in two.

To deal with this debacle,

power is handed over to Marshal Petain,

the hero of the First World War.

However, his authority is not recognized by all,

in particular, by General de Gaulle,

who refuses to capitulate to the Germans.

The French army has to make a choice,

legitimacy with Petain or rebellion with de Gaulle?

The majority of the military chooses to stand

behind the old marshal out of loyalty and patriotism.

If the army had chosen de Gaulle,

France could have continued the fight

thanks to its colonial forces.

De Gaulle will be considered a rebel.

Let's continue our story.

(ethnic string music)

- [Male Narrator] Japan is once more put to fire and sword.

Hideaki, although formally humiliated by Mitsunari,

joins the loyalist forces,

but he has not forgotten Ieyasu's kindness.

Face to face, two armies of equal might,

that of the rebels led by Ieyasu

and the legitimate under Mitsunari.

The two enemies spend several weeks maneuvering,

besieging castles, taking cities, gathering allies.

Each side has a chance of winning,

and a set battle can never be certain,

but the final confrontation cannot be avoided.

It will take place in a steep sided valley

in the village of Sekigahara.

Mitsunari arrives first

and deploys his troops on the high ground.

His tactic is simple,

wait on favorable ground 'till Ieyasu attacks.

Then he will counterattack the rebel on his flank

with the support of young Hideyaki.

Rain falls on the battlefield all night long.

The ground is sodden.

Exhausted, Ieyasu's soldiers take up position

in the dark in the center of the valley.

(dramatic instrumental music)

For Ieyasu, the night is long.

A few days earlier, he had received

a secret message from young Hideaki.

In the letter, the young general announces

that in the heart of the battle,

he will change sides and fight alongside him.

This alliance could present him with a victory,

but is it a trick?

Can he trust Hideaki?

Is this a trap set by Mitsunari?

There is only one way to find out.

(dramatic music) (men shouting)

(gun fire)

It's a titanic clash, merciless combat,

heroic duals, and an uncertain outcome.

Neither army is able to gain the upper hand over the other.

Ieyasu's forces begin to weaken.

This is when Hideaki is given the order

to charge the rebel flank.

This attack should bring victory to the loyalists,

but Hideaki does not move one inch.

Neither do his 15,000 men.

The 19 year old leader has the future of Japan in his hands.

He faces a terrible choice.

Should he follow his head and support Mitsunari,

the man who once humiliated him,

or should he listen to his heart and join with Ieyasu,

the man who always supported him?

In either camp, the top generals

await the young man's verdict.

But Ieyasu is not a man to sit by and do nothing.

He decides to force fate's hand.

He orders his men to shoot on Hideaki's troops.

For him or against him, the young man has to decide.

(gun fire)

An insane maneuver, but one that works.

Instead of counterattacking,

the young general understands the message.

Responding only with his heart,

he charges Mitsunari's troops

and decides the future of Japan.

(explosion)

(techno music)

- [Female Narrator] We have just reached a turning point.

A turning point is a key event, a crossroads in our history

where the world swings one way or the other.

Ieyasu narrowly wins the battle

thanks to the last minute betrayal by young Hideaki.

To force him to choose,

he orders his troops to fire at him,

but he could've produced the opposite effect

and lost the battle.

What might have happened if Mitsunari

had emerged victorious?

Mitsunari was not much liked,

neither were his men, nor his allies.

The peace would not have held,

and Japan would have been plunged back into civil war.

Constant warfare would have weakened the country.

Famines would have led to a drop in population.

Nobody would've been able to resist the European colonizers,

and Japan would've suffered the same fate

as Singapore, Burma, or Hong Kong, become a British colony.

And so the Japanese would not have attacked America

at Pearl Harbor in 1941.

The United States may well have stayed on the sidelines

during the Second World War.

They would not have become the superpower

that changed the direction of that war.

The Pacific would've become British.

But let's get back to the Battle of Sekigahara.

(gentle rhythmic music)

- [Male Narrator] Six hours of fighting, 30,000 dead,

the bloodiest battle in the history of medieval Japan.

After his defeat, Mitsunari is captured and beheaded.

And Ieyasu becomes the new uncontested master of Japan.

In 1603, he receives the title of shogun

from the hands of the emperor himself.

With immense authority, Ieyasu imposes a true state

and protects Japan from its old demon, civil war.

To curb the powers of local lords,

he orders the destruction of many castles.

To better control the lords,

he orders them to reside regularly in his city,

Edo, the new capital,

which will be renamed Tokyo in 1868.

In parallel, the borders are reinforced.

Mines and foreign trade comes under his direct control.

Emphasis is placed on urban and agricultural development.

After legitimizing his taking of power,

Ieyasu will offer Japan 250 years of peace and development.

A new era opens up for Japan, the Edo Period.

- [Female Narrator] The winners write history.

As the founder of a regime that enjoyed 250 years of peace,

Ieyasu was, naturally, glorified.

But what if he had lost?

His name would've signified traitor.

His clan would've been dishonored.

Let's go back 1600 years.

Caesar, still just a general, makes a similar choice.

He embraces illegality

by marching on Rome with his legions to seize power.

Defeat means certain death and dishonor.

But the gamble pays off.

Caesar becomes the new ruler of Rome.

Acclaimed by the people, he is the incarnation of a leader

to the point where his name enters the language.

Caesar, synonymous with emperor,

will later be turned into kaiser and czar.

A different path for Augustus, Caesar's successor.

Augustus is discrete and pragmatic.

A skillful politician, he manipulates public opinion.

His plots eliminate rivals

more surely than military campaigns,

which he leaves to his generals.

His 40 year reign turns Rome into a vast empire,

but Augustus will never be loved as Caesar was.

Historical reality is often more complex than it seems,

including that of the radiant Japan of the Edo Period.

(eerie music)

- [Male Narrator] Even though the Edo Period

was one of long peace, it still had its dark shadows.

50 years before the Battle of Sekigahara,

a Portuguese vessel made landfall

for the first time in Japan.

It brought with it firearms and Christianity.

And only a few years later, the arquebus has become

the essential weapon on the battlefield,

and 300,000 Japanese become Christians.

A Spanish captain, run aground on Japan around 1597,

is said to have boasted that missionaries

were a useful first step to conquest.

After first showing a welcoming face to Christianity,

Ieyasu finally banned it

and persecuted any who tried to resist.

All Europeans are then forbidden residents.

The Japanese themselves are no longer allowed

to leave the archipelago.

Foreign trade is banned.

Any infringement is severely punished.

Japan withdraws into itself

and enters a long period of isolationism.

It will only emerge when forced two centuries later.

(rock music)

In July, 1835, four American warships enter Tokyo Harbor

and compel the emperor to free up trade,

and so Japan is forcibly opened up to the rest of the world.

But that is another story.

(techno music)

- [Female Narrator] History is never black or white,

but shades of gray.

The Edo Period is one of long civil peace and development,

but also one of turning inwards and racism.

Its instigator was an ambitious man

who seized power by force, but exercised it with wisdom.

So it is difficult to tell if his actions

had a positive or a negative effect.

This is far from being an isolated case

in the history of humanity.

Alexander the Great wanted to build one universal empire

where all peoples would be equal, but he razed

the cities of Thebes and Persepolis to the ground.

Caesar redistributed farmland to the people

and pushed the Roman Republic to the status of empire,

but to do that, he plunged his country

into a terrible civil war.

Napoleon put an end to the terror of the French Revolution,

but his wars devastated Europe.

Stalin was able to unite the Russian people

and beat the Nazis, but at the cost of millions of lives.

For the world, the United States is the symbol freedom,

but to this day, it is the only country

to have used a nuclear bomb against civilians.

Humanity is capable of the worst,

exterminating millions of people, causing the extinction

of thousands of species of animals and plants,

of oppressions, of lies, and of destruction.

But it is also capable of the best,

creating, protecting, loving.

Like a child, it grows and gains in maturity,

century after century.

The history of humanity is weighed down with errors,

but it is rich in experience.

Perfection is rarely found in the acts of man,

but sometimes in their intentions.

(dramatic instrumental music)