Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Autobiography
Review: I had to read this book for a college history course. I thought it would be a drag but I loved it! Once I started it I couldn't put it down. I liked it so much that I went out and bought my own copy. This is an excellent book about a remarkable man. Buy it and you will not be sorry.

Rating:
Summary: Very inspiring life. Well worth reading.
Review: This book gives an inside look at a crucial period in Japan's transformation from a feudal state to a modern one, so called Meiji period. Fukuzawa's is a true exemplary life. One had to copy texbooks by hand, study day and night with scant clothing and food, distingush seasons by pest (fleas in summer, lice otherwise)and yet he achieved much. He establish first private university in Japan, established a newspaper, and was influental writer and teacher. Most importantly, he succeeded without compromising his principles. With leaders like this it is no wander that Japan became a world power in a very short time. One finshes the book with the feeling that that is how a really worthwhile life is lived. Inspiring.

Rating:
Summary: Yes!
Review: This is the best book I've ever read in my life. Err... It's the only book I've read in my entire life. I know that sounds sad, but I'm simply not a big reader. I mean I read textbooks and reference material, I read the news. But I just don't read books. We were assigned this book for a Japanese history class I'm taking this semester, and you can imagine my worries when I found out we were to read all 330 pages of it in a mere 2 weeks! I dreaded the 4th week of class when this torture would begin! So I decided to start reading it on a plane to Florida, a week or two before it was assigned, because I knew I wouldn't be able to finish all of it in only 2 weeks. And guess what? I read it TWICE before it was due.

His memory is so vivid and clear, even 60 years later. This book gives his accounts of growing up in the land of Samurai and emperors. he lived through the Meiji Resotration and died around the turn of the century. This is THE man responsible for making Japan what it is today. Had Fukuzawa not lived, perhaps Japan would be on the so-called "axis of evil" today. Fukuzawa opened the eyes of society to Western learning, trained all the teachers of the future to promote Western learning and welcome and open-door policy with the West.

But we also such a human side of him. We really learn what it means to be loyal by reading this book. He is perhaps the most loyal and honorable man I can imagine, and you would imagine someone like this to be rather into formalities, especially in Japan where honor and formality are closely intertwined. But then we see him urinating on a sacred symbol in one of the first chapters of the book! He really defied the thought of the time, and the world is definitely a better place because of his life. Anyone interested in Japan should read this book.