Introduction

From Samurai into Engineers marks the 150th anniversary of the graduation of MIT’s first Japanese student, Eiichirō Honma (SB 1874), and highlights the experiences of Honma and other Japanese students at MIT who followed in his footsteps. It demonstrates how these students—and by extension MIT—contributed to Japan’s dramatic transformation into an industrial power at the turn of the nineteenth century and, in turn, how these students also began transforming MIT into a global institution within the first decades of its inception.

The heart of the exhibit consists of historical documents from the MIT Libraries Distinctive Collections that relate to Honma and many other Japanese students—including letters, dairies, and even problem sets—that together offer deep and fascinating insights not only into their lives at MIT but also to the enduring legacies of their education at the Institute. In particular, the exhibit highlights documents connected to Honma and two other students, Takuma Dan (SB 1878) and Kiyoko Makino (1903-1905).

Eiichiro Honma

Takuma Dan

(photo courtesy MIT Museum)

Kiyoko Makino

(photo courtesy St. Margaret's School, Tokyo, Japan)

Both Honma and Dan were young, samurai men from Fukuoka in western Japan when they arrived in the United States by the order of their samurai lord. However, their time in Massachusetts coincided with the very decade during which Japan began to experience dramatic political, social, and cultural change, starting with the fall of the country’s last warrior government that had been ruled by the Tokugawa shogun since the early 17^th century. In fact, it was during their studies at MIT that Honma and Dan lost their hereditary status as samurai, freeing them to pursue their respective (and celebrated) careers in railroad and mining engineering after their return to Japan.

Kiyoko Makino, in turn, has the distinction of being both the first Japanese woman and the first woman international student to enroll at MIT, where she studied from 1903 to 1905 as a special student in Course VII (Biology). The documents relating to Makino in the Distinctive Collections point to her own sense of identity and mission as a scientist and an educator after her return to Japan.

This exhibit is and will continue to be the product of ongoing research, especially within the context MIT’s 21H (History) classes. Much of the initial research for this exhibit took place in collaboration with the students of 21H.155/21G.555 Modern Japan (Spring 2024). The “Student Insight” columns within the following pages highlight excerpts from some of the student class projects that explored specific individuals and historical sources. It is hoped that future research will not only yield further details regarding the lives and careers of Honma, Dan, and Makino, but also those of other Japanese students who came to MIT during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These include Sutejirō Fukuzawa (SB 1888), who was the son of Yukichi Fukuzawa, a prominent intellectual and advocate of Japan’s modern transformation.