Janice P. Nimura

In 1871, five young girls were sent by the Japanese government to the United States. Their mission: learn Western ways and return to help nurture a new generation of enlightened men to lead Japan. Raised in traditional samurai households during the turmoil of civil war, three of these unusual ambassadors Sutematsu Yamakawa, Shige Nagai, and Ume Tsuda grew up as typical American schoolgirls. Upon their arrival in San Francisco they became celebrities, their travels and traditional clothing exclaimed over by newspapers across the nation. As they learned English and Western customs, their American friends grew to love them for their high spirits and intellectual brilliance. The passionate relationships they formed reveal an intimate world of cross-cultural fascination and connection. Ten years later, they returned to Japan a land grown foreign to them determined to revolutionize women s education. Based on in-depth archival research in Japan and in the United States, including decades of letters from between the three women and their American host families, Daughters of the Samurai is beautifully, cinematically written, a fascinating lens through which to view an extraordinary historical moment."

A Journey from East to West and Back

Daughters of the Samurai

laine

The sword was still the signature weapon of the samurai, the physical embodiment of his prowess and his honour. … A weapon as indiscriminately lethal as a gun made no distinction between daimyo and peasant. … Was this the way of the warrior?

If Japan had truly achieved its own enlightenment, it needed to protect itself from foreign encroachment, and perhaps do a little asserting of its own as well. Among all things Western that Japan had adopted in the previous decades, imperialism - an idea the West never meant to export - was rapidly becoming the most important.

I actually teared up reading this line. Knowing that all of Ume’s hard work for women was not for nothing. Even after her death, she was celebrated and her institute is still important… it causes an astute sense of pride.

They sometimes refer to themselves as “Umekos,” and when a final examination or an important job interview looms, many find their way to that quiet, plum-shaded corner of campus to ask Ume for help. 

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