『福翁自伝』の英学史関連記述について

幕末英学者たちの研究から

抄録

Fukuzawa's visit to Yokohama, one of the ports newly opened on July 1, 1859, has been regarded as one of the most important events in his life. His experiences at the open port made him decide to begin learning English, giving up Dutch which he had learned desperately for many years. His great achievements in westernization of Japan in his later years implicit in this event.
The present article presents evidence enough to prove that this impressive episode, however, is a fiction. In reality he had started his English study certainly before the opening of Yokohama.
The other episodes on his efforts of studying English, the persons from whom he learned English, his three visits abroad and a number of English books he brought back on each occasion contain several points seriously out of accord with the actual facts.
It seems to be most unfortunate that Fukuzawa paid no respects to numerous pioneers of English studies in Japan many years before him, as a result of giving himself the position as such in his autobiography.
Conscious and unconscious fictionalization is a destiny of an autobiography, and this masterpiece by Fukuzawa the great cannot be an exception.