The Japanese Nation in Evolution, Chapter 20

What it is

This is Chapter 20, 'The Native Intellect Fertilized,' from The Japanese Nation in Evolution, a book published in 1907. The chapter argues that Japan was not sealed off from the world during the long peace of 1615 to 1868. It describes how ideas from China and the Dutch reached Japanese thinkers in that period. The text in this archive is a Wikisource transcription of the book.

Why it matters

The book was written decades after Fillmore's presidency, so it is a later interpretation, not a record made by Fillmore or by people who watched him closely. Its passage on Fillmore says he saved the North, the South and Japan from political danger. Curators flagged this as a claim students should check against other sources. The chapter still shows how writers in 1907 looked back at Japan's contact with the Dutch and Chinese, and at the outside forces that shaped its intellectual life.

Look closer

• Which countries does the author say shaped Japanese ideas, and in what order?
• What evidence does the author give for Fillmore's role in Japan's opening, and where could you check it?
• Why might a writer in 1907 describe Japan as a hermitage cut off from the world, and what might that description leave out?