Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

68 • “CIVILIZATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT”
the trials of Japanese war criminals was set in motion, Churchill (who
had been voted out of office) remarked that it was “stupid” to hand
“prominent people” when the Allies needed Japanese cooperation.
“CIVILIZATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT” (BUNMEI KAIKA).
A phrase often used in the 1870s to indicate the admiration and often
adoption of Western cultural and social life in the “new” Japan of the
Meiji Era. Yukichi Fukuzawa, Arinori Mori, Amane Nishi, and
the Meirokusha group of intellectuals are often associated with the
idea of “civilization and enlightenment.”
CLARK, WILLIAM SMITH (1825–1886). Professor of chemistry
and zoology at Amherst College in Massachusetts during the 1850s
and 1860s, Clark served with the Union Army during the American
Civil War, and later in several appointed political positions in Massachusetts.
From 1867 to 1878, he was president of the Massachusetts
Agricultural College, which later became the University of Massachusetts—Amherst.
Clark was hired by the Meiji government in
1876 to work with the Hokkaido Colonization Bureau (Kaitakushi)
for the agricultural development of Hokkaido, and to establish Sapporo
Agricultural College, which later became Hokkaido University.
When teaching Japanese students agricultural techniques, he emphasized
Christian principles, and is therefore regarded as both an education
specialist and missionary during his one year in Japan. As he
was departing Sapporo, Clark reportedly told his students, “Boys, be
ambitious.” The phrase became an inspiration for many young Japanese,
and is still widely known in Japan today. See also CAPRON,
HORACE; YATOI.
CLASS SYSTEM IN JAPAN. The formal, hereditary, Confucianderived
class system in Japan during the Tokugawa Era
(1600–1868) was divided into four major groups: samurai, farmer,
artisan, and merchant (shi-nō-kō-shō in Japanese). At the top of this
system were the samurai and their families, who were less than 10
percent of the overall population of Japan. The top samurai were the
shogun; ranking members of the shogun’s government, known as the
Tokugawa shogunate; and daimyō, the feudal lords. Farmers, or
peasants, were the largest proportion, with around 70 percent of the