American Pioneers and the Japanese Frontier: American Experts in Nineteenth-Century Japan

In 1871-1882 fifty Americans, along with other foreign experts, were employed by the Japanese government to develop Japan's northern frontier, Hokkaido. Their work covered a wide scope of activities, from introducing Western agriculture and industry, constructing roads and a railroad, and surveying topography and mines, to establishing an agricultural college. This is the first major study of this undertaking; one that has been considered to approach in scope and complexity the development aid projects of the mid to late twentieth century.