Imagine living in a land where it is a crime to travel to another country or even to engage with people from such places; where a rigid class system is enforced and social progress through education is not permitted; and where strict laws limit access to basic items - clothing styles, dwelling sizes and foodstuffs.  This is no Orwellian fictional creation but, rather, a description of Japanese life under Samurai rule for almost 700 years until 1868. 
 
There were a small number of exceptions.  Foreigners were permitted to settle in and trade from one city, Nagasaki, Japan’s only open port.  For some Japanese this provided tantalising glimpses of lives so different from their own.  Added to this was a growing realisation of western military and technological power brought about by occasional British and American acts of gunboat diplomacy.   
 
Some individuals realised Japan needed to learn from the West in order to progress as a nation.  But, how could this be done given the strict isolationist policy in force?  A plan was hatched to organise a group to travel to London to learn about western society and science and technology.  Most were students at a newly established, clandestine Academy of Western Studies in the city of Kagoshima.  Like Nagasaki, Kagoshima is situated on the south-western island of Kyushu.  Somehow this academy managed to exist unchallenged, probably helped by its distance from Tokyo, the main seat of Japanese power. 
 
This needed to be a cloak-and-dagger operation due to its illegality and the known existence of Government spies around Kagoshima.  To hide their tracks the students were given fake names and official paperwork claiming they were being dispatched simply to inspect a group of nearby islands.  The group comprised 15 students, an interpreter and three officials including, notably, Tomoatsu Godai,  a young, enlightened Samurai who was convinced of the need for change.  Their journey began in February 1865 with a short overland trip to Hashima, a small port in the Satsuma region of Kyushu. They stayed with local families but were not allowed to disclose the true nature of their mission.   
 
After two months, the steamship SS Australia came into view and set anchor just off the coast.  The real journey was about to begin.  It is difficult to imagine just how these students felt.  They were young men, all aged twenty-three or younger, with one being just thirteen years old.  They were committing a criminal offence in travelling abroad and under false pretences.  Detection could result in the death penalty.  Few had previously been on a ship and their knowledge of the English language was rudimentary.   
 
After calling at Hong Kong they transferred in Singapore to the P&O liner, the Madras.  The Satsuma students, as they became known, were to savour the first of many new experiences.  Sampling pineapple, an unknown fruit in Japan, was described with some relish.  There was also culture shock.  Leaving Singapore, they observed a group of Dutch travellers coming aboard.  One student described his embarrassment at seeing a husband passionately kissing his wife as she departed.  Japanese etiquette required such acts to take place behind closed doors.  Into the voyage, Tomoatsu Godai mistakenly washed his face using water from the porcelain toilet bowl.  He claimed never to have seen such a beautiful toilet.  This culture shock was doubtless heightened by further stops, including Bombay, Aden, Alexandria and Gibraltar.  This was before construction of the Suez Canal and so the journey between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean was overland.  The sights, sounds, and local customs would have been totally alien to their experiences in Japan. 
 
After two months the group docked at Southampton and travelled the short distance to London.  Arrangements had been made with a chemistry professor, Alexander Williamson of University College, to help them settle in.  Williamson and his wife arranged accommodation with other lecturers and enabled most of them to enrol in courses, including chemistry, mathematics, economics and politics.  He arranged industrial study tours to provide insights into shipbuilding, iron-smelting and railway engineering.  The ‘baby’ of the group, 13 year old Kanaye Nagasawa was too young to attend university.  Arrangements were made for him to be looked after in Aberdeen by the family of an industrialist, Thomas Glover based in Nagasaki.  Glover had been a prime mover of the mission, notably arranging the pick-up from Hashima by the SS Australia. 
 
The travelling did not stop.  Godai led a group who spent time in North-West England, working at the textile machinery works of Platt Brothers in Oldham.  They gained hands-on experience of modern industry and negotiated to purchase machinery for shipment to Japan.  Others spent brief periods travelling in Europe, collecting information for use back home.  Perhaps the most surprising add-on to this journey was the group of 6 who spent time in the USA.  This was partly because of the cost of living in Britain but was also influenced by contact with an evangelical priest, Thomas Harris.  They hoped Harris could provide financial assistance but this never materialised. 
 
All of the group apart from Nagasawa returned to Japan between 1866 and 1873.   At the time Japan was undergoing dramatic change.  The Samurai leaders were eventually overthrown and Emperor Meiji installed to power.  This paved the way for Japan’s modernisation and the Satsuma students were uniquely equipped to contribute to this process.  A number rose to high ranking positions including: Foreign Minister and Minister of Education.  Many served periods in Japan’s diplomatic service and others took on cultural, educational and business roles e.g. Director of the Imperial Museum and the first President of Tokyo University.  Godai was to become the first President of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce. 
 
This mission clearly contributed significantly to Japan’s national journey to become a world power.  Only recently has the students’ contribution become more widely acknowledged.  In 1993 a plaque was unveiled at University College bearing their names and the inscription (in Japanese)  ‘When distant minds come together, cherries blossom’. 

References

Cobbing, A. (2015)   The Satsuma Students in Britain: Japan’s Early Search for the Essence of the West.

 
https://ssmuseum.jp/contents/en/history/

https://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/webmagazine/2015/03/satsuma150.htm
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https://www.pref.kagoshima.jp/af23/documents/71396_20190325181112-1.pdf 

https://canvas-story.bbcrewind.co.uk/satsuma-story/ 

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