THE MUSEUM MODAN JAPANESE LITERATURE		Knowledge of telegraphy was brought to Japan by delegations sent by the Shogunate and students who, with the tacit permission of their feudal lords, smuggled themselves into foreign countries. Terashima Munenori, who later became the founder of the telegraph industry, a young Fukuzawa Yukichi, Itoh Hirobumi and Inoue Kaoru,who traveled abroad illegally, were all burning with a sense of mission to absorb the new Western civilization. They visited telegraph offices, factories, banks, schools, churches and hospitals with the aim to "See everything." They saw everything with fresh eyes and great amazement, and brought it back to Japan. They paid attention to the telegraph, which was at that time the bright star of civilization, along with the railway. In his book "Seiyo Jijo" ('State of affairs in the West'), Fukuzawa Yukichi described the usefulness of the telegraph, how it was invented, and the development of submarine cables, thus spurring great interest in the telegraph.

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