Horace Capron
Horace Capron was an oyatoi gaikokujin who served as a chief advisor to the Hokkaido Development Office (Kaitakushi).
A former US Secretary of Agriculture, he played a prominent role in suppressing Native American opposition to American expansion. Along with William Clark, he was then invited by Kaitakushi director Kuroda Kiyotaka to serve as a chief advisor on the colonization and development of Hokkaido.
Capron advised a directed effort to bring in Japanese settlers to colonize the area. Deciding that the land was no good for growing rice, he advocated a more American way of life, raising wheat, eating bread, and living in Western-style brick homes with Western-style furniture and a largely Western-style diet. Ultimately, the Kaitakushi promoted a less thoroughly Westernized mode of Japanese life, however, based on hardier rice crops rather than the adoption of wheat.[1] Nevertheless, Capron is still considered one of the most notable figures in guiding the early settlement of Hokkaido.
References
- ↑ Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. "Creating the Frontier: Border, Identity, and History in Japan's Far North." East Asian History 7 (June 1994). p14.
