For more on the movie and the real story of Saigô watch

History vs. Hollywood: The Last Samurai

on The History Channel, December 8th, 8:00 pm (ET)

Clearly Saigô Takamori. The producers (Zwick and Herskovitz) cite Saigô as their inspiration for the film.

This character is almost completely fictional. The Algren character does resemble a British friend of Saigô's, the surgeon William Willis. Saigô was so impressed by Willis' medical skills that he invited him to open a medical college in Saigô's home region of Satsuma. Even after civil war broke out, Willis remained in Satsuma with the rebels, allegedly because the ship sent to evacuate him would not take his Japanese mistress.

There were at least two prominent American military men in Japan in the 1870s, but they had nothing to do with the Satsuma Rebellion and worked for, rather than against, the Japanese government. Charles Legendre was a French-born US Civil War hero who entered the US diplomatic service. In 1872 he resigned his position as US consul in Amoy (China) and became an advisor to the Japanese government. He helped plan Japan's 1874 expedition against Taiwanese aborigines. Two US naval officers, Douglas Cassel and J.R. Wasson, took part in the actual expedition. Alarmed by this extensive American involvement in a conflict between Japan and China, the US government belated recalled Cassel and briefly held Legendre under arrest.

This character seems based on Ernest Satow, translator for the British legation in Japan. Satow was one of the first Westerners to master Japanese, and he spoke of Saigô as the most remarkable figure he met in Japan.

Unclear, but Saigô had several loyal friends who fought with him until the end. Most similar to Kirino Toshiaki.