The Alliance of the Satsuma and Choshu

To change Japan, Ryoma needed support from powerful allies. Sakamoto obtained this support from two powerful rival groups, the Satsuma and Choshu clans, which supported Ryoma's idea of changing Japan. The two clans needed to become allies before accepting the idea to change Japan. The two clan leaders hated each other, thus they would not share the same concept. The reason was years ago, the Choshu clan wanted power from the Emperor and had permission to become the Emperor's army. The Emperor refused, and the Choshu army was attacked by the Satsuma clan, which was was sent by the Shogun. When the Satsuma clan came and destroyed the Choshu army, it was a great shame to the Choshu clan. Since the time of this dispute, the two clans despised each other and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

Ryoma, however, did not give up on the idea. Using his ability to communicate, Ryoma pleaded with the leaders of both clans (Saigo Takamori as the Satsuma leader and Katsura Kogoro as the Choshu leader) to resolve their differences. To go to the two leaders, Ryoma had to use fast ships to go from northern Japan to southern Japan. He tried over and over again, but the two daimyos always refused to meet each other. Ryoma knew that there must have been something that the Satsuma lacked that the Choshu had, and something that the Satsuma had that lacked in Choshu..

Soon, he realized that the Satsuma clan had a disasterous drought, which limited the food supply dramatically. The Choshu clan had a good supply of food but lacked firearms, which the Satsuma clan had a surplus. So on January 23, 1866, the Choshu and the Satsuma became allies with the assistance of Ryoma and supported the plan of changing Japan. This was the key to the change, and this is what helped Ryoma achieve his goal of a new Japan..