The Byakkotai (白虎隊, "White Tiger Unit") was a group of around 305[1] young teenage samurai of the Aizu Domain, who fought in the Boshin War (1868–1869) on the side of the Tokugawa shogunate.

[8] Twenty of the members of the 2nd shichū squad, cut off from the rest of their unit in the wake of the Battle of Tonoguchihara,[9] retreated to Iimori Hill, which overlooked the castle town.

[17] Two of them who went on to prominent roles during the Meiji Era were the physicist and historian Dr Yamakawa Kenjirō and the Imperial Japanese Navy admiral Dewa Shigetō.

The Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini heard of the story of the Byakkotai members who committed suicide, and was deeply impressed by their loyalty to their lord.

[21] After the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II, the U.S. Army removed the Nazi symbol from the German monument and replaced it with an iron cross.