Ninomiya Sontoku in 1946 to then Rollins President Hamilton Holt who promised to keep it in the main lobby of the college's Warren Administration Building forever. At first, the college rejected the offer made by Okinawan officials, who suggested that a replica of the statue would be presented to the school if the original was returned. However, after consulting with the U.S. State Department and the college's board of trustees, then Rollins President Rita Bornstein accepted the offer. The statue was returned to Okinawa in 1995 in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. In addition to providing the college with a replica of the original statue, the government of Okinawa and Rollins signed an "agreement of cooperation" that pledges to develop cooperative projects between the college and Shogaku Junior and Senior High School — where the original statue has been placed. References Further reading Havens, Thomas R. H. "Religion and Agriculture in Nineteenth-century Japan: Ninomiya Sontoku and the Hotoku Movement." Japan Christian Quarterly 38 (1972): 98–105. Walthall, Anne. "The Perception of Work in Tokugawa Japan: A Study of Ishida Baigan and Ninomiya Sontoku." The Journal of Japanese Studies 25#1 (1999), pp. 189–193 online Commentary The primary reference in English is: A peasant sage of Japan: the life and work of Sontoku Ninomiya (1912), a translation by Tadasu YOSHIMOTO (1878–1973) of Hōtokuki by Kōkei TOMITA (1814–1890) (富田高慶『報徳記』宮内省 1883年). This was a record of Sontoku's life written by his disciple Tomita in the decades after Sontoku's death. As this is out of copyright, various editions exist, including freely online, together with reprints. These include: A peasant sage of Japan: the life and work of Sontoku Ninomiya (1912) (Google scan) A peasant sage of Japan: the life and work of Sontoku Ninomiya (1912) (Cornell scan) Just before the dawn: the life and work of Ninomiya Sontoku (1912), Robert Cornell Armstrong (Cornell scan) (reprint edition) Ninomiya Sontoku: His life and evening talks, by Tadaatsu Ishiguro (1884–1960), English publication by Kenkyusha, 1955 and 1987 1787 births 1856 deaths People from Kanagawa Prefecture 19th-century Japanese philosophers Japanese economists People of the Empire of Japan Japanese culture Agriculture in Japan Education in Japan Japan–United States relations Deified Japanese people 19th-century agronomists