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| William K. Burton |
1. Presentation
William K. Burton was born in Edinburgh in Scotland in 1856. His parents were clever, and they were lawyers. Also, his mother liked to take pictures. Even though his parents were clever enough, William wasn't so. He didn't hope to be a lawyer like them, and after graduating from high school, he started to work at SPA (Sanitary Protection Association) as an engineer without entering the university. There, he was in charge of water service system.
While he was working at SPA, he met Nagai Kyuuitirou who was an ambassador from Japan and studied abroad in Scotland then. By this encounter, William was invited to Japan as an engineer in the department of interior.
In those days, Japan didn't have enough system that supplied water. Therefore, when Japanese drank water, they used wells. However, wells included cholera virus, so it was spreading among Japanese then. It made a lot of Japanese die in those days, and was a serious problem.
Therefore, William planed to create bulbs that ran around Japan, and supplied clear water. This plan cost many times and money, but it made the foundation of Japanese traditional water service system. From this achievement, clear water ran to all Japanese, and decreased the number of deaths from cholera.
In addition, as his hobby, he liked to take pictures as his mother did. After coming Japan, he joined to the photographic society of Japan. In this group, he visited some disaster-struck areas such as Sino Japanese War, and Mt. Bandai. In there, he saw the people suffered from damage by earthquake, or weapons. William told how disastrous the damage was in suffering areas to other citizens by taking pictures.
In 1856, he died from disease in Taiwan. For winning the war, Taiwan was a donation of Japan. Until he died, he tried to find the place which has clear water for Japanese and Taiwan.
He was seen as a hero in Japan. Because of his achievement, we Japanese can have water anytime. Not only in Japan but also in Scotland, William is famous as hero who developed developing country.
2. Discussion
Question 1: When do you use water service system in your daily life?
Two people answered that we use water to take a bath, cook, and to drink. However, other said water service system’s water isn't tasty, so we often buy water.
Question 2: What is the problem (deflect) to built water service system in other countries?
One said that cost is the biggest problem to do that. Some countries which can’t afford to prepare money for sanitation rather want to use money for food than water service system. Therefore, because of poverty, they can’t choose water from other.
Other said education is the barrier. Even if Japan founded water service system in other country, they can’t use it and manage it without knowledge about it. Therefore, lack of education is the problem.
To this opinion, other listener said that to educate people, it takes a long time and teachers. Then, time is also problem to make water service system in other countries.
3. Reflection
Until I started to research about Burton, I didn't know him at all. It means that this opportunity gave me a lot of new information about relation between Japan and Burton.
Also, I've never thought about the reason why Japan can have water service system. It’s a normal thing for me as Japanese and also other countries have it I thought. Nevertheless, now I understand how important water service is for our health. While researching about him, I learned that there are few countries which have water service systems around the world. Therefore, I wonder why we Japanese don’t know about him even though he did incredible achievement for us.
Through this presentation, and classes, I noticed that Japanese don’t know about foreign people’s achievement in Japan much. We are made to study about Japanese achievements in our history without learning about relationship with foreign visitors.
In addition, until I took this class, I had hated history class in school because classes were so boring. However, I understood I can be interested in our history if it connects to foreign countries culture and people. It’s because we (KUIS) originally are interested in English (other countries). Then, even though I hate so much, I can have interest in that from the viewpoint I love.
In my presentation, I learned the good way to present for listeners. When I heard the presentation where the presenter didn't have confidence and passion, I couldn't have interest, and understand what presenter wanted to tell us. Also, it made discussion boring. Therefore, if I have opportunity to present, I would try to have confidence in myself and keep attention of listeners I thought.
Resources
Baxley, G. The volcanoes of Japan, retrieved July 10th from
http://www.baxleystamps.com/litho/ogawa/ogawa_volcanoes1.shtml
Cortazzi, C. Biographical Portraits(2002), retrieved July 11th from
http://urx.nu/amu6
Unknown writer, W.K Burton, (2014 , May 4th), Wikipedia, retrieved July 10th from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._K._Burton
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