Takuma Dan as an Internationalist

Richards and Dan in Japan, 1929

Robert Richards and Takuma Dan in Japan, 1929

During the decade following his 1921 visit to MIT, Dan not only continued to run Mitsui’s operations but also, in that capacity, sought to foster mutual understanding between Japan and the United States. In fact, his speech at MIT ended by making a direct reference to the Washington Naval Conference that was being held at the time of his visit and by urging the MIT community “to see that decisions reached concerning the Far East shall be met, with the spirit of fairness, justice, and goodwill, by which the world will have permanent peace.” Dan’s call reflected an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment, in which developments like Japan’s imperial expansion and America’s racist immigration policies were creating deep tensions within US-Japan relations.

Dan’s pursuit of internationalism culminated in 1929, when he served as one of the vice presidents for the World Engineering Congress that was held in Tokyo. Funded by significant support from the government and officially presided over by Prince Chichibu (Emperor Hirohito’s younger brother and heir at that time), the gathering attracted hundreds of prominent engineers from around the world, with a particularly strong representation from the United States. As a member of WEC’s executive committee, Dan made full use of his MIT connections and invited several of his former mentors, including Robert H. Richards, to join the Congress. The MIT Museum’s collection includes several photographs from Richard’s visit to Japan, including those that were taken with Dan and his family. Dan’s autobiography notes that he personally hosted Richards at his estate in Tokyo, going so far as to build a two-story annex for the exclusive use of his old mentor.

Student Insight:
The WEC executives showed great enthusiasm in recruiting American delegates, and leaders in the United States Engineering Societies advertised the event on science journals to recruit participants. Baron Chuzaburo Shiba had reported on the progress of preparation for WEC at the University Club, New York, in 1927, and won the support of leading US engineers. In March 1928, it was reported that the honorary chairman of the American Committee, Herbert Hoover, accepted 78 prominent American engineers to become delegates to WEC. Dan Takuma also showed strong determination to secure large attendance from the United States in his letter to Samuel W. Stratton, the president of his alma mater, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Elmer A. Sperry, who eventually became the chairman of the American Committee of WEC, arranged and announced further recruitment of members of the American to WEC.
-- Shih-Peng Huang, SB 2025

Behind closed doors, however, Dan was growing increasingly worried about the viability of his internationalist efforts. Just a year prior to WEC, Dan expressed his increasing concern regarding what he saw as the rising tide of nationalism in Japan and insisted that his country must “win through internationalism” in a private memoir that was commissioned by Mitsui. Both the political and economic developments during this period, however, increasingly overshadowed Dan’s hopes. The WEC itself took place from October 29 through November 11, immediately after the Wall Street Crash that has been associated with the start of the Great Depression. In 1931, the Japanese army launched an all-out invasion of Manchuria in northeastern China, ushering in a period of more than decade of warfare that would ultimately end in the destruction of the Japanese Empire. Domestically, Japan entered into a period of increasingly volatile and violent politics, as the influence of the military and its ultra-nationalist civilian allies grew, at least in part, through a campaign of terror and coup-attempts. One of the first such terrorist incidents took place in February 1932, when the former-finance minister, Jun’nosuke Inoue, was assassinated by a group known as the Blood Pledge Corps. One month later, the same group targeted Dan, assassinating him shortly after he walked out of his vehicle at the Mitsui headquarters in downtown Tokyo on March 5.

Notes on Takuma Dan, page 1

Notes on Baron Takuma Dan by Robert Richards

Notes on Takuma Dan, page 2

The Distinctive Collections include several communications that were exchanged between the Dan family and MIT in the aftermath of Dan’s death. One such communication came from Dan’s son, Inō Dan, who requested Dan’s friends at MIT to send any reminiscences they may have of their late classmate and student. One such reminiscence was written by none other than Robert H. Richards, who fondly recalled his encounters with Dan as a student as well as the more recent memories of his happy visit to Japan.

At the end of his reminiscence, Richards lamented his mentee’s death in this way: “His assassination at the prime of life when he could do the greatest good is one of those terrible things which no man in his senses can understand. The assassin picks out the man who is of the most use in the country and kills him, but why he does this it is hard to see. Dan was one of the leading engineers of Japan. Perhaps he was the most prominent of all.”