Saheita and Daihei Yokoi (right)
Born in 1850 in Kumamoto, five years after his brother Saheita, Daihei Yokoi played an instrumental role in the forging of the cross-cultural relationship between the United States and Japan. The pair seemed destined to make an impact, as their uncle Shonan Yokoi was an advocate for progressive reform. In 1866, Daihei and Saheita, were secretly sent to the US and became the first Japanese students to study at the Rutgers College Grammar School in New Brunswick. The brothers were introduced to Rev. John Ferris of the Dutch Reformed Church by missionary Guido Verbeck, and upon the brothers’ arrival in America, Ferris took it upon himself to enroll the boys in school. Under the alias Saburo Numagawa, Daihei studied English and American culture under the tutelage of William E. Griffis, later going on to spend time studying at the US Naval Academy as well.
After contracting tuberculosis in 1869, Daihei was forced to return to Japan, as his immune system was unable to cope with the diseases against which Westerners had built up an immunity over time. This did not stop him from advocating for educational reform, however. Along with Tameyoshi Nonoguchi and Takesuke Yamada, Daihei championed the movement for a school run by an American to be opened in Kumamoto, a feat made difficult by the antiforeign sentiments of many leaders. Eventually, Daihei helped found the Kumamoto School for Western Learning, which eventually became Kumamoto University. Daihei succumbed to his tuberculosis on May 20, 1871 in Nagasaki. Nevertheless, Daihei’s experience in the American education system proved to be the impetus needed to kick of the Westernization of Japanese education.
Sources:
Kaufmann, Susan. “The Japanese at Willow Grove Cemetery: revealing New Jersey’s role in modernizing a nation.” Web blog post. Hidden New Jersey. 14 October, 2013. Web. 29 January, 2020.
Notehelfer, F. G. American Samurai : Captain L.L. Janes and Japan . Princeton University Press, 1985.
Perrone, Fernanda. “The Rutgers Network in Early Meiji Japan.” Rikkyo American Studies, vol. 39, Mar. 2017
Yokoi Brothers. 1867. RUcore: https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3F47PMH