A new exhibit at MIT, “From Samurai into Engineers,” explores the Institute’s first Japanese students, who arrived as MIT was taking flight and their own country was opening up.

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MIT News

In 1867, five Japanese students, including 13-year-old Eiichirō Honma from a samurai family, traveled to Massachusetts for advanced schooling. With Japan's shogunate losing power, Honma shifted from military aspirations to studying civil engineering at MIT, becoming its first Japanese graduate in 1874. He later became a celebrated railroad engineer in Japan. An exhibit at MIT's Hayden Library highlights the lives of Honma and other early Japanese students, reflecting on MIT's historical ties with Japan and the transformative period for both nations.

Samurai in Japan, then engineers at MIT