Pacific Pioneers by John E. Van Sant

Author:John E. Van Sant [Sant, John E. Van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Emigration & Immigration
ISBN: 9780252051951
Google: cESbDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2019-06-30T02:43:48+00:00

Former Utopians

Several Brotherhood of the New Life colonists—Matsumura Junzo, Hatakeyama Yoshinari, and Yoshida Kiyonari—went on to Rutgers College and careers in the military and government. Sameshima Naonobu returned to Japan with Mori Arinori in 1868 and initially held a position as an interpreter in the Meiji government. He quickly rose through the ranks and was made chargé d’affaires in London while Mori held the same post in the United States. He later served as Japan’s minister to France before reaching the position of vice minister in the Foreign Ministry.

Although Mori’s career in Japan’s Foreign Ministry and Education Ministry is well known, some of his specific contributions and ideas during the “civilization and enlightenment” period of the 1870s can be traced to his experience at the Christian utopian community.

In “Life and Resources in America”—a Tocquevillean description and analysis of American society, circa 1870, and meant for a Japanese audience—Mori included some revealing observations about religion.99 He believed that the Bible carried “a tremendous power of freedom and justice, guided by a combined force of Wisdom and Goodness.”100 Since Mori was an official in a government that still legally prohibited its citizens from converting to Christianity, his praise of the Bible is stunning.

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