In 1867, five Japanese students took a long sea voyage to Massachusetts for some advanced schooling. The group included a 13-year-old named Eiichirō Honma, who was from one of the samurai families that ruled Japan. Honma expected to become a samurai warrior himself, and enrolled in a military academy in Worcester.And then some unexpected things happened.Japan’s ruling dynasty, the shogunate that had run the country since the 17th century, lost power. No longer obligated to become a warrior, Honma found himself free to try other things in life. In 1870, he…
