William Smith Clark

William Smith Clark

By Tomomi Nakajima

Introduction

“Boys, Be Ambitious!” Have you ever heard this phrase? I think most people in Japan have heard this famous phrase at least once. William Smith Clark is the person who left these words to Japanese people. A lot of Japanese people treat this phrase as a witty remark that encourages young people to have a big dream or an ambition. However, did you know that this famous phrase, “Boys, Be Ambitious!” could just be a farewell? Moreover, Clark is treated as being very noble in Japan, but actually he is nearly forgotten in the U.S., which was his home country. Why? I would like to reveal these mysteries of William Smith Clark today.

Clark’s Colorful Life and the Mystery of the Words, “Boys, Be Ambitious!”

In 1826, Clark was born in Massachusetts State in the U.S. When Clark was 41 years old, he became the third president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College (University of Massachusetts Amherst). Then, Clark was invited to Japan as an “Oyatoi-Gaikokujin” [foreign experts - Ed] in 1876. He contributed to establish the Sapporo Agricultural College (Hokkaido University) and taught some academic subjects very passionately to his Japanese students there. Even though his stay in Japan was only for 8 months, he made a great achievement in Japan. In 1886, Clark died of heart disease at his home in the U.S.

If you see only the surface of Clark’s life, you might think his life was full of successes. However, Clark also experienced failures, and he was not popular in his own country. Actually, Clark was accused of fraud by sponsors when he started a business in the U.S. after coming back from Japan. Also, his personality had a problem. It was always difficult for him to maintain his high motivation on one thing, so he gave up things very easily and started new things one after another. Therefore, Clark was considered to be an irresponsible person in the U.S. As you can see, he experienced both successes and failures, so he is often described as a “colorful” person in the U.S.

When you hear the phrase, “Boys, Be Ambitious,” you probably get some positive impressions, like “Have a big dream!” or “Challenge anything you want!” According to the web site of the Hokkaido University Library (Sapporo Agricultural College), “Boys, Be Ambitious” referred to this translation. “Boys, be ambitious! Be ambitious not for money or for selfish aggrandizement, not for that evanescent thing which men call fame. Be ambitious for the attainment of all that a man ought to be.” However, American people think this was just farewell words for his Japanese students. So, they wonder why Japanese people have been impressed so much by the farewell words. Even though we do not know whether it was a mistranslation or not, one thing I am sure of is that Clark was really respected by his Japanese students so they translated Clark’s farewell to such meaningful words.

Summary of Group Discussion

I came up with three questions for the group discussion. Here are the questions that I asked to my group members.

1. Why do you think Clark was described as a “colorful” person?

2. What is your impression for the phrase, “Boys, Be Ambitious”?

3. What can you learn from his life?

For the question 1, one of the members thought Clark’s passionate personality is described with the word “colorful.” Moreover, some of my other group members and I thought Clark was interested in a lot of things, so he had many different faces. Also, he experienced both big success and failure, so the word “colorful” is very suitable to describe Clark.

For the question 2, most of my group members said their first impressions for the phrase were very positive, but they didn't translate this meaning to the long and stiff one that I introduced during the presentation. They just got the impression, like “Have a big dream!” from the phrase. My first impression for this phrase was noble, so I was a little bit disappointed to know that it might just be a farewell, but I think it does not matter. We can believe what we want to believe.

For the question 3, I could not bring out my group members' answers so much, but one of the members said that Clark failed in the U.S. because he was very irresponsible, so I think the member learned the importance of being responsible from Clark's life. In my case, I learned the importance of being patient and trying to achieve goals without giving up easily. Even though we have great talents, we might fail if we are impatient, like Clark.

Reflection on the Project

I had known about the phrase, “Boys, Be Ambitious!” and Clark somehow, but I did not know that there are so many interesting facts and side stories about him. We cannot see the essence of someone's life if we see only a surface of it, so I really appreciate that I had a great opportunity to learn about William Smith Clark deeply through this project. I was able to see the essence of Clark’s life by researching both good and bad aspects of him. So, I learned not only about Clark himself, but also the importance of seeing both good and bad aspects when we research one specific person deeply.

In the group discussion, we also asked each other if we can date or get married with Clark. For this question, I would like to answer that I would not want Clark to be my boyfriend or husband. The biggest reason why I would not want to get married with him is because Clark is really impatient. I thought it means he cannot keep loving me through his life, and he might find a lot of different women to stay with. However, one of my group members said that it can be very fun to be with Clark because he has many interests and great talents, too. So, she thinks she could date Clark, but she also said that she does not want to get married to him after all because of the same reason as me. Therefore, I can say that the biggest thing we learned from Clark’s life is that it is always good to be patient if we want to succeed in many situations.


References
New England Historical Society. (2014, March 19). Boys, Be Ambitious! The Japanese Legacy of Massachusetts' William Smith Clark. Retrieved January 16, 2015, from https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/boys-ambitious-japanese-legacy-massachusetts-william-smith-clark/

University of Massachusetts. (n.d.). William Smith Clark, 1867-79. Retrieved January 16, 2015, from http://www.umassp.edu/president/clark