A Youthful Inazo Nitobe

Abstract

The writer so far has mainly worked on Nitobe in his mid-forties and in his later years; these years happen to correspond with both the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) and the Manchurian Incident (1931) respectively. In each of these critical periods which made Japan known outside quite sensationally, Nitobe was not at all affected by either the then-prevailing militarism or the notorious chauvinism in Japan. Not only in these war-oriented eras but also throughout his whole life, he was continuously true to his faith as a genuine pacifist- “Quaker” educator. It is, therefore, quite natural that his face was chosen by the Ministry of Finance to appear on the forthcoming bill of 5, 000 yen to be issued in the autumn of 1984, along with the face of Soseki Natsume on the 1, 000 yen bill and that of Yukichi Fukuzawa on the 10, 000 yen bill. Of the three newly selected “men of culture” in modern Japan, however, Nitobe unfortunately seems to be least known to the general public in this countryThe present writer, therefore, feels it still necessary to further promote revaluating Nitobe as a leading “international-nationalist, ” a genuine educator-generalist with vast knowledge and wisdom. The writer, in this monograph, especially wishes to explore into Nitobe's youthful days, focusing on his background in English study and how it affected his brilliant career in his latter days, and thus making it a survey on the formative years of this versatile world citizen in his teens and early twenties in Japan.