Yukichi Fukuzawa

7 Pages 1818 Words

reak free of the class system that had forever branded him with one lower status than most samurai. Though Fukuzawa did not become a priest, knowing that his father wanted more for him than to be stuck in his birth rite class, was a great inspiration on how he viewed the society and government in which he was growing up in. Fukuzawa’s distaste for the Japanese government, society, and his clan only grew as he started his studies in Dutch. You could not just go off to study a foreign language at this time; it would attribute nothing to the clan as a whole. Fukuzawa was able to get permission to learn Dutch from his clan under the pretenses of learning weaponry because Japan desired to get a modern military without the help of foreign influence besides books. Fukuzawa flourished while learning the Dutch language and writings, he was an excellent study and excelled at the study. When the time came that English was becoming a more important language to learn, he attacked that study just as hard as his Dutch teachings. Fukuzawa was lucky enough to visit these Western countries and this is where his true love of Western thought...