Background
Neesima was born in Edo (present-day Tokyo), the son of a retainer of the Itakura clan of Annaka.
新島 襄
Neesima was born in Edo (present-day Tokyo), the son of a retainer of the Itakura clan of Annaka.
Amherst College; Andover Theological Seminary. Phillips Academy.
His childhood name was Niijima Shimeta (新島 七五三太). In 1864, laws on national isolation were still in effect in Japan, and Japanese people were not permitted to travel overseas without government permission. However, Neesima had read extensively on various rangaku topics, and was determined to come to America.
Captain Savory agreed to help him, so long as Neesima came on board at night, without assistance from the ship"s crew.
Knowing Neesima could be executed if apprehended, Savory hid Neesima from customs officials in his stateroom. He then secured Neesima"s passage from China to the United States on the Wild Rover, commanded by Captain Horace Taylor of Chatham, Massachusetts.
The Wild Rover was owned by Alpheus Hardy. He attended Phillips Academy from 1865 to 1867 and then Amherst College from 1867 to 1870.
Upon graduating from Amherst, Neesima became the first Japanese person to receive a bachelor"s degree.
He was baptized in 1866 and went on to study at Andover Theological Seminary from 1870 to 1874. When the Iwakura Mission visited the United States on its around-the-world expedition, he assisted as an interpreter. With the support and funding received, he returned to Japan, and in 1875 founded a school in Kyoto, which grew rapidly and became Doshisha University.
In 1889, Amherst College honored him with an honorary doctorate, the first ever awarded to a Japanese person.
When he arrived in Andover, Massachusetts, he was sponsored by Alpheus and Susan Hardy, members of Old South Church, who also saw to his education.