A town of the defeated never forgets its pride. In Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima, the Aizu Festival sends a grand procession through the streets against the backdrop of Tsuruga Castle. In the Boshin War at the end of the shogunate, Aizu fought to the last on the shogun's side, and lost. The Byakkotai, a unit of teenage boys, believing the castle had fallen, took their own lives on Mount Iimori at sixteen and seventeen. It was a mistake; the castle had not yet fallen. The festival offers a sword dance in their memory. The history of the victors stays in textbooks; the history of the defeated is kept by the land. The people of Aizu feel no shame in having lost. Their pride is in having held to principle to the end. The armor in the procession gleams in the autumn light.