#SeniorSeminar: Daela Webster & “The Influence of Traveling in the West on the Development of a Modern Japanese State”

Tell us about yourself!

I am Daela Webster, and I have been interested in history my whole life. My parents took me to Colonial Williamsburg when I was little, and I got to dress up and participate in their children’s program. My parents continued to take me to museums and historical sites and that sparked my interest in history. In 2019, we went to the UK, and I got really interested in British history. During the COVID pandemic, I began to delve into historical fashion, and I made my own 18th-century style dress.

I found out about FSU’s First-Year Abroad program, and I spent my freshman year in London. I learned a lot about British history and took some of the amazing History courses at the study center. Since coming to FSU’s main campus, I have gotten involved with the History Club, and I am its secretary this year. My minor is Art History.

What made you choose this senior seminar?

I wanted to complete my senior seminar this semester, because I am going to do an Honors in the Major project next year and this is a little bit of preparation for that. I took one of Dr. Luo’s classes on Chinese history last semester and enjoyed that. When I saw she was offering a senior seminar on “Law and Society in East Asia,” I chose that.

What topic did you work on?

In my Chinese history class last fall, we studied the connection between China, England, and the Opium Wars, and how deeply that impacted China. That got me wondering if there was a similar relationship between England and Japan during that same time period.

I looked at Japanese politicians and scholars who travelled abroad and studied in the West in the second half of the 19th century, and how learning in and about the West influenced the development of the modern Japanese state. I focused on the influence their study abroad had on the reform efforts during the Meiji period.

Quite a few Japanese went abroad, once this became an option in 1866. Things have been written about the people who were sent abroad by the Japanese government. But I was working on the Choshu Five who travelled abroad illegally in 1863. At the time when they left Japan, the ban on maritime travel for Japanese was still in place. The five students travelled to England wearing western clothes as a disguise. They studied analytical chemistry at University College London and visited many sites in London. Later in life, these five became very important statesmen overseeing Japan’s modernization processes.

How difficult was it to research your topic?

It was hard to come by primary sources in English. There was not that much material on the Choshu Five available in translation. I had to expand my topic and rely more on secondary sources. Finding documents was much harder than I had expected. Often a source that I had hoped for turned out to be in Japanese only. The presence and absence of sources thus shaped my paper.

In the beginning, I was very focused on the Choshu Five. There is quite a bit of material available on their stay in England, but not that much on how that stay influenced their decisions and outlook in later life. I tried to infer from later documents, but it did not yield enough material. Without being able to go to Japan, I had to rework my topic and broaden it.

During my initial research, I had read about several other trips taken by Japanese scholars before and after the Choshu Five, and realized they were all examples of traveling to the West to learn. By looking at several other groups, such as the Iwakura Mission and the first government sanctioned trip to the US, I could explore the impacts of these trips on the development of Japan.

What is your central argument?

I argue that the time Japanese scholars and politicians spent in the West greatly influenced the development of the Japanese state, especially with regards to the creation of the constitution. Those trips were the catalysts for a lot of the changes implemented.

For example, one of the Choshu Five, Ito Hirobumi, the first prime minister of Japan, is seen as the father of the Meiji constitution. In his writings, he makes explicit references to western constitutions that he studied or that he observed in person. In his notes, he was also critical of what he saw, and selective of what he included in the Japanese model. His objective was to blend aspects of Western constitutions with traditional Japanese elements.

How difficult was it to write the senior seminar paper?

Starting the paper was intimidating. I did some preliminary research on Japan and England in the 19th century but working out specifically what aspect I wanted to pursue and framing a manageable research question- those things were really hard. I also procrastinate a lot. It was a struggle to sit down and start work, when I did not know where I was starting from.

In the beginning of the class, we focused more on contextual readings, and how to analyze primary sources. We also shared our ideas for our papers. Dr. Luo had scheduled different assignments, so we had deadlines throughout the semester. That divided the work into more manageable chunks and sections.

The deadlines helped me stay on track with my work. In the end, I just had to combine all the things I had done before, adding an introduction and conclusion and bringing out my central argument more clearly. This meant that at the end of the course, there was a lot less writing to do and more ‘putting things together.’

The in-class presentation showed me where I had to strengthen my argument, and where the connections between points were not as clear as they could be.

What surprised you about your research?

I was surprised that, given how prominent the Choshu Five became later in life, there was not much information on their early years. There was documentation of their trip abroad. And there was material on them later as elder statesmen. But the in-between period was not well represented in English sources or translations.

How did you stay on top of your work?

The frequent deadlines helped me stay on track. I was working on the paper a little bit every week. How much work I did depended not only on the deadlines in my senior seminar but also what assignments I had due in other classes. I did the majority of my work after spring break – but if I could go back in time, I’d definitely make more of an effort earlier.

What advice do you have for other History majors?

Based on my experience, I would tell them when researching your topic look at both primary and secondary sources. Make sure you have enough of both in a language that you can read. If I had done that, I would have realized early on that there were not enough primary sources in English on the Choshu Five, and I would have framed my research question more broadly to begin with.

Overall – was the experience more stressful or more fun?

In the beginning, it was more stressful. Coming up with a topic and question and starting work was stressful. But once I had done the research, and it became a matter of putting things together and seeing all the connections, then it became more satisfying.

What’s coming up next for you?

I am going to graduate in spring 2025. I am hoping to do a Masters degree at the University of Glasgow, UK. They have a course on Dress and Textile Histories that teaches you to research and interpret everyday clothing, fashion, and textiles in historical contexts. That would be my dream.