"Boys, be ambitious!": American pioneers on the Japanese frontier, 1871-1882.
Item
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Title
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"Boys, be ambitious!": American pioneers on the Japanese frontier, 1871-1882.
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Identifier
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AAI8820864
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identifier
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8820864
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Creator
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Fujita, Fumiko.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Arthur Schlesinger, Jr
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Date
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1988
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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History, United States
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Abstract
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In 1871-1882 the Japanese govennmet employed forty-eight Americans, in addition to seventeen Europeans and thirteen Chinese, to develop Japan's northern frontier, Hokkaido. The corps of American experts played a far more important role than the other foreigners, not only because of their number, but also because of their pivotal positions. The American work covered a wide scope of activities from introducing Western agriculture and industry, constructing roads and a railroad, and surveying topography and mines, to establishing an agricultural college.;This study describes and analyses the experience of the American experts, paying particular attention to their ideas and attitudes. While the study takes into consideration the whole group of Americans in order to understand the scope and the nature of the American mission, it specifically focuses upon the prominent members who left copious records--in the form of reports, private as well as official letters, diaries, unpublished memoirs, and articles--in order to probe into their minds.;While Americans at home embraced a vague image of the Japanese as the "Yankees in Asia" who would readily absorb Western civilization, the Americans who went to Japan, not only to help the country but also to help themselves, found that this American image was far from reality. They invariably recognized the overwhelming alienness of Japanese culture and society. They also experienced many difficulties involved in working with alien people. Their responses were, however, varied. Some eulogized Japan, finding what they felt lacking in American society, some reconfirmed the superiority of Anglo-Saxon values, some were little affected by their Japanese experience, and others broadened their world view to the extent that they recognized that there were different cultures and that Western civilization did not necessarily monopolize all the virtues. The overall lesson of the American experience seems to be that we tend to view another culture with ethnocentric and normative judgments and that we should try to understand, with sympathy and patience, why an alien people think and feel the way they do, keeping in mind the fact that every culture has both unique and universal aspects.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
