Simon Graham

From "The Last Samurai" (2003 movie), Simon Graham (1830-) was a British photographer, scholar, linguist, and interpreter who lived in Tokyo during the 1860s and 1870s. He wrote the book The Last Samurai using excerpts from Captain Nathan Algren's journal and his own eyewitness account of Saigo Takamori's rebellion.

Biography:
Simon Graham was born in England in 1830, and he became a scholar of foreign languages and cultures, as well as a photographer. He came to Japan with the Royal Navy force sent to ensure the establishment of a trade agrreement between the United Kingdom and the Tokugawa Shogunate, and he worked as an interpreter and journalist. In 1876, he was hired to serve as an interpreter for American military advisors Howard Bagley, Nathan Algren, and Zebulon Gant as they trained the Imperial Japanese Army, introducing the Americans to Emperor Meiji and to the Imperial Army's general, Arisugawa Taruhito. Graham admired Algren for coming to learn several Native American languages, seeing him as a fellow linguist, although Graham's enthusiasm about Algren's military experiences bothered Algren, who was ashamed of his role in the Plains Indian Wars.

Graham remained in Tokyo as Algren and Gant accompanied one of their newly-trained regiments into battle with Saigo Takamori's rebels, and Gant was killed and Algren captured. Graham was overjoyed to see Algren return to Tokyo safe and sound with Takamori in 1877, and he later decided to accompany Algren and Takamori after Algren helped Takamori escape from Imperial captivity, as Algren had become fascinated with the samurai way of life, and Takamori invited Graham to take photographs of his village. Before the Battle of Shiroyama, Algren gave Graham his journals for use in Graham's book, and Graham bittersweetly wished Algren "godspeed" before Algren readied himself for battle.

Graham would go on to write The Last Samurai about the fall of the samurai order, and, as Algren's fate after the battle of Shiroyama was unknown, Graham speculated that Algren may have returned to Takamori's village to live out the rest of his life in peace.