Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back is a 2015 non-fiction book by Janice P. Nimura, primarily about the lives of Sutematsu Yamakawa, Shige Nagai, and Ume Tsuda.

These three Japanese girls were sent to America as part of the Iwakura Mission in 1871, at the ages of 11, 10, and 6 respectively, to receive ten years of American education before returning to Japan in 1882.

Nimura explores the personalities and emotional experiences of these girls as they grow into young women and attempt to reconcile conflicting national identities.

Unlike Etsu, who moved permanently to the United States in 1898, the earlier 'daughters of the samurai' in Nimura's book do not become Americans, but instead try to bring some part of America to Japan.

Sutematsu married a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, Ōyama Iwao, who eventually became Minister of War; she became a Countess and then a Princess.

She advised the Empress on Western customs, and encouraged high-ranking Japanese women to support Japan's war efforts and volunteer as nurses.

Nimura began the research which led her to this book when she came across the memoir of Alice Bacon, who plays a minor role in the resulting biography as an American friend of the girls who briefly lived with them in Japan.