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The fourth of April 1907 was an unusually fine spring day on the campus
of Tokyo Imperial University, the first and most prestigious modern
institution of higher education in Japan. There, countless German
and Japanese national flags of all sizes waved brilliantly before the
gothic-style buildings of the Faculty of Medicine. On the athletic field
adjacent to the buildings, two gigantic tents had been set up as a banquet
venue where many of the academic, political, and diplomatic dignitaries
of Tokyo cheerfully toasted each other with beer and sake.
What had brought them all together on this festive afternoon was the
unveiling of the bronze busts of Doctors Erwin Baelz (1849–1913) and
Julius Scriba (1848–1905), German physicians who had served as professors
of medicine at Tokyo Imperial University for over a quartercentury.
University president Hamao Arata gave a customary welcome
greeting, which was followed by a speech by the special guest of the
day, German ambassador Alfons Mumm von Schwarzenstein.1 The
climax of the event, however, was reserved for Aoyama Tanemichi
(1859–1917), dean of the Faculty of Medicine, who delivered the celebratory
address of the day. In fluent German, Aoyama characterized
the German–Japanese relations in the field of medicine in one sentence:
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