In An Encouragement of Learning, Yukichi Fukuzawa wrote that freedom and equality are inherent in man's nature, and presented ideas that John Locke or Thomas Jefferson would immediately have recognized. His logic justified the move from a highly stratified, four-class society to one in which any person could aspire to any occupation. He deliberated on the obligations between humans in ... Read moresociety and generalized from these to relations between nations. Reading his book, you can just imagine life in a society that has suddenly become free, in which all of the trammels of caste and class have been dissolved. How might have Fukuzawa's words of encouragement helped late nineteenth-century Japanese as they faced their future?
Albert M. Craig, Harvard-Yenching Professor of Japanese History, Emeritus, Harvard University Show Less