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

CHRONOLOGY • xix
1870s Meiji Government hires “foreign experts” from United States
and Europe to help establish new government institutions.
1870 May–June: Taro Kusakabe (Rutgers College, New Jersey) and
Niijima Jo (Amherst College, Massachusetts) become first Japanese to
graduate from American colleges. October: Arinori Mori is appointed
chargé d’ affaires for Japan to the United States. He arrives in Washington,
D.C., in February 1871. August: Japan and Kingdom of Hawaii
agree to Treaty of Friendship and Commerce.
1871 December: Iwakura Mission departs for the United States and
Europe. Members of this government mission return to Japan in September
1873.
1872 July–August: Maria Luz Incident between Japan, China, Peru,
and the United States.
1873 Tokugawa-era ban against Christianity repealed. October: John
Bingham arrives as United States minister to Japan. He serves until 1885.
1874 Meirokusha Society established in Tokyo by Arinori Mori, Yukichi
Fukuzawa, and others.
1875 Niijima Jo, who returned to Japan the previous year, establishes
Doshisha Eigakko, a Christian school in Kyoto. The school later becomes
Doshisha University. Yukichi Fukuzawa publishes An Outline of
Civilization.
1876 Kanghwa Treaty between Japan and Korea. Japanese government
participates in the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. William E.
Griffis publishes the first edition of The Mikado’s Empire.
1877 Saigo Takamori leads the Satsuma Rebellion against the Meiji
government. University of Tokyo established. American biologist Edward
Morse undertakes first archaeological study of Japan.
1878 Harvard philosopher Ernest Fenollosa arrives in Japan to take up
position at Tokyo University. 14 May: Toshimichi Okubo, home minister
of Meiji government, is assassinated by a former samurai.
1879 April: The Ryukyu Kingdom becomes Okinawa Prefecture of
Japan. June: Former American President Ulysses Grant and his wife
Julia arrive in Japan for an extended visit.