Summary :
The fourth of April 1907 was an unusually fine spring day on the campus of Tokyo Imperial University, the first and most prestigious modern institution of higher education in Japan. There, countless German and Japanese national flags of all sizes waved brilliantly before the gothic-style buildings of the Faculty of Medicine. On the athletic field adjacent to the buildings, two gigantic tents had been set up as a banquet venue where many of the academic, political, and diplomatic dignitaries of Tokyo cheerfully toasted each other with beer and sake. What had brought them all together on this festive afternoon was the unveiling of the bronze busts of Doctors Erwin Baelz (1849–1913) and Julius Scriba (1848–1905), German physicians who had served as professors of medicine at Tokyo Imperial University for over a quartercentury. University president Hamao Arata gave a customary welcome greeting, which was followed by a speech by the special guest of the day, German ambassador Alfons Mumm von Schwarzenstein.1 The climax of the event, however, was reserved for Aoyama Tanemichi (1859–1917), dean of the Faculty of Medicine, who delivered the celebratory address of the day. In fluent German, Aoyama characterized the German–Japanese relations in the field of medicine in one sentence:

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