About The Pacific Northwest, Japan, and the Commercial Mission of 1909
Presented by John Sagers, professor of history at Linfield College
With tensions over trade and immigration rising between the United
States and Japan in the early twentieth century, Chambers of Commerce in both
countries arranged visits of their business leaders to better understand the
issues and how what might be done to contribute to international peace and
prosperity. The Japanese Commercial Mission of 1909, led by industrialist
Shibusawa Eiichi, spent three months in the United States, meeting with
business leaders in many American cities beginning with Seattle, Tacoma,
Portland, and Spokane. Through an examination of documents related to the
Japanese Commercial Mission, we can gain a better understanding of how
relations between Japan and the Pacific Northwest developed in the early
twentieth century. We can also see how private citizens in both the United
States and Japan attempted to address the divisive issues that would eventually
lead to the Second World War in the Pacific.
About the Speaker:
John Sagers is professor of history at Linfield College, where he
teaches courses on China, Japan and East Asia. His research specializes on the
political and economic history of modern Japan. Sagers earned his Bachelor of
Arts in history from the University of California at Berkeley, Master of
Pacific International Affairs from the University of California at San Diego,
and Ph.D. in East Asian history from the University of Washington. He has been
a Fulbright Fellow at Rikkyo University in Tokyo and held a Japan Foundation
Fellowship. His publications include the books Origins of Japanese Wealth
and Power: Reconciling Confucianism and Capitalism, 1830 – 1885 and Confucian
Capitalism: Shibusawa Eiichi, Business Ethics, and Economic Development in
Meiji Japan.
