(i) In 1907-08 some 300 Vietnamese students went to Japan to acquire modern education. (ii) For many of them the primary objective was to drive out the French from Vietnam, overthrow the puppet emperor and to re-establish the Nguyen dynasty that had been deposed by the French. (iii) These nationalists looked for foreign arms and help. They appealed to the Japanese as fellow Asians. Japan had modernized itself and had resisted colonization by the West. Besides, its victory over Russia in 1907 proved its military capabilities. (iv) Vietnamese students established a branch of the Restoration Society in Tokyo but after 1908, the Japanese Ministry of Interior clamped down on them. Many, including Phan Boi Chau, were deported and forced to seek exile in China and Thailand.