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Visiting One of Japan's Most Famous Universities

Ann and I with Tohoku University President Dr. Akihisa Inoune.

Oct. 20 - I could not visit Tohoku without stopping in Sendai to visit Tohoku University, one of Japan's most famous colleges. Tohoku University President Dr. Akihisa Inoue told me that his university plans to expand the number of its foreign students and foreign professors. I was very glad to hear this news, because thinking back on my own college life at UC Berkeley, I learned so much from foreign students, who sometimes saw problems from a different viewpoint.

Tohoku University's openness to foreigners is not surprising. From the time it was established in 1907, Tohoku maintained an "Open-Door" policy toward admissions, meaning that it welcomed graduates from higher technical schools and higher normal schools as well as the "higher schools." In 1913, Tohoku University became the first in Japan to accept women, by allowing three female students to matriculate. At the university archives, Assistant Professor Nagata showed me a letter from the Imperial Ministry of Education that questioned Tohoku University's decision to take in these women. Despite this pressure from Tokyo, however, the three students were admitted and continued on to successful careers after graduation.

When I heard this story, I thought of my own grandmother, Frances Zumwalt, who graduated from medical school at the University of California at San Francisco in 1917, around the same time as these three Tohoku University women. In those days, it was extremely unusual for women to study medicine in the United States. I am sure my grandmother must have faced many similar challenges in reaching her academic goals at a male-dominated institution.

Nowadays, women in Japan and in the United States study at universities with many female classmates. But it is thanks to the pioneers such as my grandmother and these three women from Tohoku University, who paved the way for generations of women scholars to follow.

Until next time,

Jim

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