During the Meiji Restoration of the late 1800s, the Japanese government sent many students abroad to learn more about Western society to better modernize their home country. One of the first American schools to accept Japanese students was Rutgers University in New Jersey. Rutgers is rooted in the Dutch Reform Church and missionaries from this denomination in Japan encouraged young, ambitious students to apply to their school. As a gift of gratitude, the Japanese government sent Rutgers the exoskeleton of a giant spider crab native to the island nation’s waters….
