In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

198 12 Scientific Agriculture and Puritan Christianity on the Japanese Frontier The Massachusetts Model, 1876–1877 In 1876, while Takamine Hideo and Isawa Shūji were in America studying the latest methods in teacher education, the Japanese government set in motion a project to introduce modern agricultural education from America. Dr. William Clark, president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College in Amherst, was employed to open a college of agriculture in the northern island of Hokkaido. He was destined to leave an indelible mark on modern Japanese history with a simple challenge to his students, “Boys, be ambitious!” It became one of the most recognizable injunctions in prewar Japan. William Clark also became one of the most recognizable foreign names in Japan ever since. The fact that Clark taught in the remote frontier island of Hokkaido for only eight months in 1876–1877 renders his famous departing words to his devoted students even more noteworthy. The legacy of William Clark extends far beyond his farewell challenge. His contribution to modern Japan encompasses two areas normally unrelated. Clark introduced to his Japanese students modern scientific studies in agriculture then being taught at the most advanced agricultural colleges in the United States. Through his Puritan lifestyle and extracurricular teachings, he also stimulated his students to study the Bible, leading to their mass conversion. Through their commitment to Christianity, Clark’s students in agricultural studies eventually emerged as the nucleus of one of the three historical pillars of the Protestant Christian movement in modern Japan. General Kuroda Kiyotaka, Director of Frontier Development The connection between William Clark and modern Japanese education was originated by an unlikely Japanese figure, an army general who made it all possible . Kuroda Kiyotaka remains one of the least recognized leaders of the Meiji Restoration. Yet he traveled throughout the West, including the United States and Europe; was promoted to general in the Japanese army; and finally attained the position, although short-lived, of prime minister. His initial connection to the northern island of Hokkaido took place when he was assigned to a military mission to overcome the remaining military opposition to the Meiji Restoration that had taken refuge in the isolated northern territory of Hokkaido. Leaders Scientific Agriculture and Christianity 199 of the new Meiji government, recognizing the threat from nearby Russia, dispatched military forces under Kuroda to rout the renegades. The brief struggle led to the final surrender of opposing elements to the imperial forces commanded by Kuroda.1 General Kuroda was then appointed to the new Bureau of Frontier Development (Kaitakushi) with the goal of bringing the nation’s last frontier of Hokkaido into the mainstream of modern Japan. He faced an inevitable question as posed later by one of the great figures who benefited from his foresight, Niitobe Inazo. “But where would he [Kuroda] seek for wisdom? In General Kuroda’s mind there was one source whence he could expect wisdom and knowledge pertaining to the settlements [in Hokkaido]; and that was America. . . . He studied the rapid and wonderful progress of colonization in that country, and thought that the modus operandi at work there might produce similar results in Japan.”2 Kuroda drew up a proposal to the government recommending that Japanese students be sent to the West to study modern ideas, and that foreign advisors be hired to work in Japan. Modern specialists, for example in agriculture, were not available in Japan. With government approval, Kuroda left for America and Europe in January 1871 with the responsibility of hiring foreign employees to fulfill his mission. Kuroda’s first destination was Washington, D.C., where his fellow samurai from Satsuma, Mori Arinori, had recently arrived as Japan’s first diplomat to the United States. General Horace Capron, U.S. Commissioner of Agriculture Through Mori’s assistance, Kuroda met the president of the United States, former commanding general of the Union Army during the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant. The president, upon learning of Kuroda’s mission, recommended that he meet Horace Capron, former brigadier general of the Union Army during the Civil War under then General Grant. Capron was now serving as commissioner of agriculture in President Grant’s government. Capron took an inordinate interest in Kuroda, particularly his search for an advisor in the development of Hokkaido, personally escorting him on a tour of relevant sites around Washington. In an unexpected turn of events, the sixty-seven-year-old Capron expressed an interest in the position of advisor to Kuroda that the latter was attempting...

Share