Lorraine-Labrys

The **Lorraine-Labrys** is an institution in the world of Ace Und Panzer. Known for its long history as an officer's school funded by the French Government, LL Academy retained its identity of producing the finest of students.

## Overview

The **Lycée Lorraine-Labrys** is a school based on France's culture and identity. Formerly located in Edo before its relocation, its divide, and then its unification in the years and decades after its inauguration. The school is home of tens of thousands of both Japanese and French students, either through cultural exchange or local programs. Currently the school is headed by its Student Empereur, affectionately named, Napoleon.

## Background

Existed through decades of history ever since its formation in 1867, Lorraine-Labrys is the pinnacle of France's collaboration and footprint to Japan. Though faced the difficulties in its lifespan of over 130+ years, the current school stood the test of time, with the foreign culture amalgamating the interest nature of the Japanese people, thus creating the harmony of Japonisme.

## History

The school is formed through military goals and ended with demilitarization. The school has been divided and unified, its existence and history is as much important as the people who founded and objected the idea of a France-based school in the Far East. And so when the two unified after its split, the school became the beacon of hope for the relationship between France and Japan.

### First Mission, First Academy

It was during the First French Military Mission of 1867 that Lorraine-Labrys predecessor was constructed in Edo, Japan. The school, Ōdaira-mae Infantry Barracks under the guidance of Ōtori Keisuke surprised Jules Brunet that he and the other begun to train the Shogunate soldiers in a similar fashion in Yokohama. Denshutai are elite warriors under the banner of the Tokugawa, and with Otori's proficiency, he managed to train over 800 talented soldiers.

The School for the Denshūtai shut down itself when the Boshin War started. Brunet alongside Otori and the others joined on the Bakufu side and retreated to Hakodate. This is the time where Jules influence and fame caused him to build a Military camp-and-psuedo-school for the remaining Shogunate supporters. There he trained them into officers and soldiers, specialized in the arts of infantry warfare and artillery usage. The name of this Military camp/school is the Goryōkaku Gakko.

#### Revived Denshūtai

When the school trained its soldiers and officers, both Otori and Brunet handpicked a selection of students who would fill up the *Denshūtai II*, this new corps used a hybrid Franco-Japanese leadership and their implementation to it caught the attention of the Imperial Forces during the Last Stand of Hakodate in 1868.

#### End of the Fortress School

Bad luck had unfortunately swept across the Shogunate side during the war, and so when the last battle took place in Hakodate, the walls of Goryōkaku became the last bastion of the shogunate side. Intense battle continued till June 1869 when Imperial forces stormed the fortress and the forces of the newly established Ezo soldiers surrendered after heavy fighting to both side.

Before its surrender, the Fortress School managed to produce around 1800 soldiers in under a span of few months. These soldiers were talented and were praised by their prowess of adapting the style and leadership provided by French advisors and Japanese leaders such as Hijikata Toshizō, leader of the Shinsengumi. The Fortress and its School became part of the Imperial Forces right after the battle ended in June 27, 1869, ending the Boshin War.

### Second Mission, Artillery Academy

When the second military mission happened in the following years after the Boshin War, the French were still interested in reshaping the Japanese Military. The French continue their previous work in organizing the nation's army, and so they begun to create the first draft, established military service to all Japanese, and even establishing various schools and military establishments. These includes a gunpowder factory, many artillery batteries, shooting suns, and a Military Academy in Ichigaya.

During this time, the Goryōkaku fortress was retrofitted and continued its service as an Artillery School under Louis Kreitmann, an army engineer and soon director of the École polytechnique, a university in Palaiseau , France. These network of schools across Japan would cooperate to one another, drilling the necessities to the newly reorganized army but also deepening the influence of the French to the Japanese. This fact inevitably led to the increase of French immigrants to Japan.

#### Goryōkaku Taihō Gakko

When Kreitmann took command in the construction of the Artillery School in Hakodate, he decided to use the strong walls of Goryōkaku. He refurbished the old buildings with plain and simple yet reminiscent to the French architecture. Artillery pieces were used for training in adjacent to rifles being used in the shooting grounds. The school reintroduced its courses related in ballistic and infantry tactics, but additional courses has been implemented like Arts, Linguistics, and even Culinary.

Though prestigious compared to the other established military establishments across Japan, the Goryōkaku Taihō Gakko is inferior to the Imperial Japanese Army Academy at Ichigaya, Tokyo. Goryōkaku acts as a specialized school for training Artillery officers, while the Army Academy is the principal officer's training school for the army.

### Third Mission, Modernizing the Fleet

Modernizing the Japanese Navy started when Louis-Émile Bertin was dispatched to Japan during the Third Mission. Previously, Léonce Verny was tasked in modernizing the Navy through the construction of modern shipyards, and during his stay there, he was appointed as chief administrator and constructor of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in 1865.

Bertin was assigned in training the engineers and naval architects, he was also tasked in designing and constructing the modern warships needed for the modernizing Japan. With the pressure of representing his country in the battle of influencing the Far East against Great Britain and Germany, Bertin's position is in the ropes. But his perseverance and dedication led the Japanese to put their trust on him and to them after the Japanese victory at the Battle of the Yalu during the First Sino-Japanese War.

Among his many tasks, Bertin also directed the construction of the naval shipyards and arsenals of Kure and Sasebo. They would soon become important to Lorraine-Labrys nauticalization program in the following decades. Bertin had a lasting impression of the Goryōkaku Taihō Gakko when he visited the fortress during his time in Japan, praising how previous advisors like him managed to imprint their legacy to Japan, and due to this, contributing to the development of the neglected places in Japan, he personally secured a spot for the Goryōkaku to maritime studies in Hakodate.