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Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, were rerunning two episodes today, which means that

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Speaker 1: you'll hear two hosts me and Tracy V. Wilson. Enjoy

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Speaker 1: the show. Welcome to this Day in History Class from

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Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com and from the desk of

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Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class. It's the show where

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Speaker 1: we explore the past, one day at a time with

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Speaker 1: a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and

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Speaker 1: it's December twenty two. Alfred Dreyfuss was wrongfully convicted of

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Speaker 1: selling military secrets to Germany on this day in He

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Speaker 1: was sentenced to military degradation and exile for life. Most

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Speaker 1: English speakers in the United States say his name dry

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Speaker 1: Fuss and called us the dry Fuss affair, but in

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Speaker 1: French it is a lot more like Dreyfus. Dreyfuss had

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Speaker 1: decided to join the military as a young man after

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Speaker 1: witnessing the German occupation of his hometown and the French

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Speaker 1: defeat in the Franco Prussian War. He graduated with honors

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Speaker 1: from Ecole Polytechnique. Then he became the first Jewish officer

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Speaker 1: on the General staff at the headquarters of the French

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Speaker 1: Ministry of War. On December twenty six of eighteen ninety four,

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Speaker 1: a document was intercepted that was addressed to the German

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Speaker 1: military attache, Lieutenant Colonel Max von Schwartzkoppen, and then that

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Speaker 1: October Dreyfus was charged with this crime. There were a

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Speaker 1: lot of reasons that the military had for suspecting him.

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Speaker 1: He was from Alsace, which had been under German control

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Speaker 1: since the Franco Prussian War, He had access to the

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Speaker 1: information in question thanks to his position, his handwriting was

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Speaker 1: supposedly similar to the handwriting in the documents, and he

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Speaker 1: was Jewish. Several openly anti Semitic officers said quite plainly

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Speaker 1: that being Jewish made him suspect. He was convicted in

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Speaker 1: a closed court martial and publicly degraded on January. He

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Speaker 1: was then transported to prison and ultimately held in solitary

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Speaker 1: confinement on Devil's Island. His family, especially his wife and

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Speaker 1: his brother, believed his innocence from the very start, and

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Speaker 1: he steadfastly maintained that he was not guilty. They fought

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Speaker 1: for a retrial for him, and gradually members of the

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Speaker 1: general public started to call for a retrial as well.

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Speaker 1: Emil Zola's famous Jacques letter, published in a newsletter called Laure,

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Speaker 1: was printed on January. This letter took up the whole

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Speaker 1: front page and it accused the military and others of

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Speaker 1: a cover up. He was put on trial for defaming

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Speaker 1: the French military, convicted of libel and sentenced to a

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Speaker 1: year in prison and three thousand francs. He was forced

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Speaker 1: into exile in London. Then George Picard, chief of Intelligence,

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Speaker 1: found compelling evidence that another French officer, Ferdinand Valsin esther Hasy,

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Speaker 1: was the real culprit. And this was true, that was

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Speaker 1: the real culprit. This man had offered his services to

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Speaker 1: Vaunched sports Coppin on July, he had been paid on

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Speaker 1: August fift and this was his message, not dry faces

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Speaker 1: that had been intercepted. Picard was ordered not to pursue

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Speaker 1: this matter, but he continued on in defiance of that order.

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Speaker 1: There was eventually a court martial, but estra Hasy was

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Speaker 1: acquitted and Picard was removed from his position and sent

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Speaker 1: on a series of dangerous missions to get him out

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Speaker 1: of the way. This blossomed into a major schism in France.

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Speaker 1: The dry Fussards and anti dry Sards lined up four

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Speaker 1: and against reopening the case. This led to all kinds

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Speaker 1: of political our cartoons, many of them extremely anti Semitic

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Speaker 1: and full of disparaging stereotypes. Was also tied up in

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Speaker 1: thoughts about the military, with the dry Fussards wanting the

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Speaker 1: military to be overseen by Parliament and the anti Dryfusards

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Speaker 1: arguing that this whole affair was damaging the military. This

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Speaker 1: all spread well beyond France, with writers and composers and

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Speaker 1: artists and world leaders and other prominent people all taking sides.

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Speaker 1: In August of eight, it was discovered that one of

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Speaker 1: the documents that had been used to convict dry Fuss

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Speaker 1: was a forgery, and one officer admitted that he had

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Speaker 1: fabricated this document in order to get a conviction. A

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Speaker 1: retrial was held in June of eight. Once again, Dryfus

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Speaker 1: was convicted, but this time he was given a reduced sentence,

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Speaker 1: led to international outrage. She was offered a pardon not

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Speaker 1: long after that because he was in poor health, but

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Speaker 1: he and his family continued to seek exoneration. They didn't

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Speaker 1: just want him free, they wanted his name cleared. Another

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Speaker 1: retrial was held in nineteen o three, and finally, in

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Speaker 1: nineteen o six, dry Fus was exonerated. He was innocent

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Speaker 1: of all charges. He was restored to his position of major.

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Speaker 1: Picard was also reinstated and promoted to brigadier general, and

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Speaker 1: the French Army publicly declared that Dreyfus was innocent. They

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Speaker 1: did that in before we close out today's episode. For

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Speaker 1: the next week, my co host on Stuffy Missed in

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Speaker 1: History Class, Holly Fry, will be filling in for me

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Speaker 1: on this show because of the very weird time travel

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Speaker 1: nature of this podcast. That was to help me cover

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Speaker 1: some time out of the office back in November. So

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Speaker 1: thanks Holly. Thanks also to Christopher Hasciotis for his research

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Speaker 1: work on today's show, and to Casey Pegram and Chandler

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Speaker 1: Maze for their audio work on this show. You can

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Speaker 1: subscribe to the Stay in History Class on Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: Google podcast, the I Heart Radio app, and wherever else

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Speaker 1: you get podcasts. Tune in tomorrow for one of the

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Speaker 1: world's most famous patrons. Hello again, Eves, and you're listening

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Speaker 1: to This Day in History Class, a podcast that truly

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Speaker 1: believes no day is boring. The day was December twenty two,

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Speaker 1: eighteen eighty five, Itto Hiro Bumi became the first Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister of Japan. Eto's father was the adopted son of

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Speaker 1: a minor samurai. Itto, born in eighteen forty one, grew

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Speaker 1: up under the feudal military government of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

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Speaker 1: The Japanese economy feared well during the Tokugawa period. Commerce

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Speaker 1: and manufacturing grew, and the merchant class profited off of this.

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Speaker 1: Agricultural production was important, but as the economy flourished, it

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Speaker 1: was not as fruitful as other sectors. The Tokugawa shogun

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Speaker 1: It made efforts in fiscal reform, but all the socio

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Speaker 1: economic unrest weakened it, and though Japan still had conservative

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Speaker 1: i slationist policies, it was increasingly influenced by Western powers

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Speaker 1: to dump its seclusion policy to benefit from global trade

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Speaker 1: and better technology. The government sent Eto to University College

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Speaker 1: London in eighteen sixty three, and when he returned to

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Speaker 1: Japan the next year, he began supporting Western influence in

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Speaker 1: the society and economy. In eighteen sixty eight, the Tokugawa

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Speaker 1: shogun It fell and the emperor was restored to power.

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Speaker 1: After the Meiji Restoration, Japan opened its borders and began

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Speaker 1: to go through a period of major political, social and

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Speaker 1: economic change. Eto had connections with leaders in early Meiji

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Speaker 1: Japan such as Kito Takayoshi and Okubo Toshimichi, and through

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Speaker 1: those he was able to go to the US on

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Speaker 1: government assignments and to Europe on the Iwakada Mission to

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Speaker 1: research things like taxation and treaty revision. Eta was appointed

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Speaker 1: a junior British counselor in the new Department of Foreign

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Speaker 1: Affairs after the Meiji Restoration, and in eighteen seventy he

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Speaker 1: was sent to the US to study Western currency. When

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Speaker 1: he got back to Japan, he helped change the Japanese

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Speaker 1: taxation system. Soon, Eta was made a British counselor at

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Speaker 1: the Ministry of Public Works, and he continued to rise

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Speaker 1: in rank. In eighteen seventy five, the Emperor appointed him

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Speaker 1: the chairman of the First Assembly of the Governors of

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Speaker 1: the Japanese Prefectures. When Okubo Toshimichi, a powerful Maiji leader

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Speaker 1: and confidant of Itto, was assassinated, Ittai took his place

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Speaker 1: as Minister for Home Affairs after forcing rival Okama Shige

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Speaker 1: Nobu out of the government, Etail studied European constitutions and

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Speaker 1: convinced the government to adopt a constitution. He helped draft

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Speaker 1: the Japanese Meiji Constitution, which the Emperor proclaimed in eighteen nine.

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Speaker 1: The following year, the National Diet, Japan's bi cameral legislature

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Speaker 1: was established, and on December second, eighteen eighty five, after

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Speaker 1: he established a cabinet system of government, Etail became the

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Speaker 1: first Prime Minister of Japan. He stayed in the position

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Speaker 1: until he resigned three years later, but he served as

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Speaker 1: prime minister three other times after that. As Prime minister,

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Speaker 1: Itto saw Japan's victory in the Sino Japanese War, helped

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Speaker 1: Japan deal with the Anglo Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation,

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Speaker 1: and organized a pro government political party called the Rican

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Speaker 1: say Yuki. Itto was also appointed as the first Resident

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Speaker 1: General of Korea in nineteen o five. Itto wanted Japan

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Speaker 1: to control Korea as a protectorate after the Russo Japanese

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Speaker 1: War and suppressed Korean nationalism, but he did not want

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Speaker 1: to formally annex the country. In October of nineteen o nine,

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Speaker 1: Eto was assassinated by a Korean independence movement activists at

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Speaker 1: a train station. I'm Eave Jeff Ko, and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: If you've seen any good history means lately, you can

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Speaker 1: send them to us on social media at t D

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Speaker 1: I h C podcast, or if you want to get

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Speaker 1: a little more fancy, you can send us an email

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Speaker 1: at this Day at i heart media dot com. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for tuning in, and we'll see you again tomorrow. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

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