William Elliot Griffis (1843-1928) served in the Union Army during the Civil War, then graduated from Rutgers University in 1869. He was a tutor for Taro Kusakabe, which opened up a world of opportunity for him in Japan. In 1870, he was invited to reorganize Japanese schools by Matsudaira Yoshinaga. Between 1870-74, Griffis taught science, wrote English language primers, and was an intermediary between the United States and Japan. He returned to the United States to complete his studies at the Union Theological Seminary in 1877, eventually earning a Doctor of Divinity in 1884. While he was...