While these great works were being carried on, there happened one little event, insignificant enough at the time, but which, unfolding in the light of future history, seems to stretch forth until here is no measuring the length and breadth of it. There was in 1771 and adventurous young physician in Yedo named Sugita. One day as he was rambling through the city, he chanced in a shop upon a Dutch book on anatomy. He could not read a word of its contents, but he was so struck with its wonderful illustrations of the human body that he bought the book and did not rest till he had succeeded in getting copies for two of this young friend; night and day they pondered over the illustrations, and then determined to test their accuracy.
At a medical dissection Sugita and his friends compared and verified beyond all doubt the strict fidelity of the pictures in the Dutch treatise. The three obtained secret instructions from the Dutch at Deshima, and having mastered the book, they translated it into Japanese, reproduced the illustrations, and as if by some miracle, it found favor with the authorities, and soon became the text-book on anatomy at the medical school of Yedo. Little by little the fruits of this labor of love began to appear; and the desire for true knowledge once more rekindled was never again utterly extinguished.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
