LONDON — A Scotsman credited with preventing thousands of Japanese from dying of cholera in the 19th century is being officially honored in his hometown of Edinburgh.
Officials have unveiled a stone bench to commemorate the important but little known life of William Burton, who redesigned a large part of Japan's crumbling water supply system in the late 19th century and thereby significantly improved the nation's public health.
The commemorative bench is aimed at letting local people know more about the man considered one of the most influential British engineers in Japan as it opened up to the outside world.