William Eliot Griffis resists temptation in feudal 1871 Japan Today 06:17 am JST Today | 06:17 am JST TOKYO
In 1871, Japan was still being introduced to the United States as a country with an actual civilization. “The population of Japan,” wrote a
Missouri Republican journalist in September 1871, “has been variously estimated from twenty-five to forty million. Hitherto we have had no reliable statistics upon which to base an opinion.” Also, according to scholar Edward R. Beauchamp’s groundbreaking article in
Monumenta Nipponica, there were fewer than an estimated 2,200 Westerners living in the Kanto area at the time. Reports back home in English were either greatly embellished or vague and underwhelming.
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