Bust of Dr. William S. Clark

A bronze bust of a man in a frock coat stands on a high pedestal, his right arm outstretched as if pointing toward the horizon. This is William Smith Clark, an American professor hired by the Japanese government in eighteen seventy-six to launch the Sapporo Agricultural College. Clark spent only eight months here, but he insisted on teaching his students the Bible and Western farming techniques. As he left the city, he famously told his departing students to be ambitious for the sake of the truth.