Bøker av Jenichiro Oyabe

Jenichiro Oyabe was the first Japanese student to attend Middlebury College in Vermont, and his remarkable story is now available in this primary source historical collection with a foreword by T. S. Wentworth. Oyabe's life was full of adventure and challenges, and this book provides readers with an intimate glimpse into the life of a young Japanese man in the early 20th century. A fascinating story for lovers of history and adventure!This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

In 1884 Jenichiro Oyabe left his father's house in Akita, in the north of Japan's largest island, Honshu. An unremarkable young man, Oyabe was to embark on a remarkable journey spanning Ainu lands in Hokkaido, the Russian Far East, Hawaii (at that point still an independent kingdom), Polynesia, the Ryukyus, and China. A Christian convert, Oyabe then settled in the United States to study first agriculture, and then theology.His account of his journey and time in America are fascinating to read today for the insight of a citizen of a rapidly-modernizing Japan into the times he was living in. He was one of the first Japanese people to study at a historically Black college (Howard University, in Washington, D.C.). After a tour in Europe he returned to the States, moving to Yale University, where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1895.A Japanese Robinson Crusoe mixes humor, pathos, blind optimism, and penetrating insight. Oyabe initially saw the United States as the light of civilization, but his view grows more complex and nuanced as his life there goes on. His reflections on religion, racism (something he was both a victim and a perpetrator of), and the differences between Japan and America are what make this book worthy of reissue, and of the reader's time.