Keio Academy of New York has been privileged to participate in Japan Parade every May since its inauguration in 2022. I have been very proud of the performance of our student orchestra and cheer leaders. And yet, last year and this year I also participated in other parades in Concord, Massachusetts; the year of 2025 saw the 250^th anniversary of the American Revolution, while this year sees the 250^th anniversary of the birth of the nation. By dissolving the political bands with Great Britain, the American revolutionaries of thirteen states made up their mind to redefine them as not an English colony but an independent nation.

Then, how did the United States come into being?  Historically speaking, as Emmanuel Wallerstein elucidated, it is the development of the triangular trade since the early 16^th century between Europe, Africa, and America that gradually enabled the North American colony to accumulate its own economic capital and financial resources, ending up with the Revolutionary War with the British Empire, the “core” of the world that had long extracted wealth from its “periphery” as represented by the thirteen states of British America. However, what matters here most is not capitalism itself but the rise of Enlightenment, that is, the scientific thought. What revolutionized the world radically was not so much the Revolutionary War itself as the speech act of the text “The Declaration of Independence” drafted in 1776 by Thomas Jefferson, the youngest member of the Founding Fathers who just turned 33 years old. 

His elder colleague John Adams, who was to be elected the second president of the new nation, explained to Jefferson why he was the right person: “You are Virginian, and Virginia ought to appear at the head of this business. I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular; you are very much otherwise. … And you can write ten times better than I can.” I like this explanation very much, because John Adams highly appreciated Jefferson’s genius for writing as well as his encyclopedic knowledge. However young you are, it is neither your class nor family but your own talent and effort that will give you opportunities. This is the revolutionary idea of democracy that gave birth to the nation in 1776. Hence the opening of the second paragraph of “The Declaration of Independence:” “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Some historians find the sentence filled with “magic words” that cannot help but enchant the readers. Being a champion of Enlightenment, Jefferson emphasizes the independence not only of a nation but also an individual, based upon his critique of traditional feudalism and Orthodox Christianity. Likewise, I would expect all of you who will graduate from this school to become independent enough to cherish your “inalienable Rights,” that is, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It is a British Enlightenment philosopher John Locke whose social contract theory stresses an intention to preserve life, liberty and property that invited Jefferson to come up with the idea of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” While Locke foregrounded property as materialistic success, Jefferson replaced property with Happiness, that is, a kind of cultural capital in terms of Pierre Bourdieu. While American Dream has been believed to be a materialistic success based upon economic capital, it is cultural capital consisting of the non-financial assets that will help you become successful in society---that is, education, language, style or knowledge. Man cannot live by bread alone.

In this sense, it is noteworthy that Fukuzawa sensei, the founding father of modern Japan, became the first translator of “The Declaration of Independence” in Japan in 1866. Like the Founding Fathers, Fukuzawa sensei himself was so skeptical about traditional feudalism and religion: “Thus from childhood, I have never had any fear of gods or Buddha” (Autobiography, p.14).  Accordingly, following in the footsteps of the Founding Fathers, in his bestseller An Encouragement of Learning (1872) Fukuzawa sensei started by modifying Jefferson’s phrase “all men are created equal” as follows: 「天は人の上に人を造らず、人の下に人を造らず」（”Heaven…does not create one person above or below another）。And yet, Fukuzawa sensei’s point is that it makes all the difference in the world whether you pursue learning.  Yes, his encouragement of learning is Fukuzawa sensei’s re-interpretation of the pursuit of Happiness as proposed by Thomas Jefferson.

I think you all look forward to spending productive years at Keio University. However, don’t forget the Tricultural education at Keio Academy of New York that will lead you to accumulate and expand your cultural capital and achieve genuine happiness in your life.  Congratulations!!!