In "The Last Samurai," the villain Umura is a highly educated and Westernized Japanese statesman. Where and how would men such as Umura have received their education?

Komura Jutaro, one of Japan's diplomats in the Treaty of Portsmouth negotiations, studied law at Harvard University roughly the same period as the movie's setting (1875ish) [source: Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex], on a (Japanese) governmental scholarship.