Heart of a Samurai

by Margi Preus

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A small fishing boat set sail off the coast of Shikoku, Japan, in January 1841. Great inequities were built into the social structure of the country at that time, and the five men in the boat were desperate to catch some fish, or else their families would go hungry. The oldest of the men was Toraemon. Denzo was the leader, and Jusuke was in charge of steering. Goemon was a novice fisherman, as was the youngest, Manjiro, who was only fourteen years old.

The older men were often impatient with Manjiro, who was curious and was always asking questions. Manjiro could not help but wonder what lay across the sea, and Denzo brusquely reminded him that "barbarians...demons with hairy faces, big noses, and blue eyes" lived there and should be avoided at all costs. Feudal Japan existed under a draconian isolationist policy. Not only were ports closed to all foreigners, but anybody who left Japan, whether intentionally or not, was sentenced to death upon his return, lest he spread poisonous ideas to which he might have been exposed in the outside world. It was believed that nothing but "contamination [lay] beyond the reach of the tides."

So intent were the fishermen on their labor that they did not notice that a terrible storm was arising. The winds and rains came suddenly and violently, ripping the rudder from the little boat and snapping its mast. The men were adrift for eight days, without food or water. On the eighth day, as they prepared to die, they shared the hopes and dreams that they now believed would never be realized. When Manjiro revealed that he had wanted to become a samurai, the men laughed at him. Being a samurai was a station into which one was born, and he was but a poor fisherman's son.

As it turned out, the men did not die, but instead were shipwrecked on Bird Island, a tiny piece of land which was little more than a rock. They managed to survive for a significant amount of time there, even though food and fresh water were very difficult to procure. One day, two small boats arrived on the island. Manjiro and his companions were rescued by men with eyes "as blue as the sea."

The shipwrecked fishermen had been discovered by sailors from the American whaling ship the John Howland, who had been sent to find turtles on Bird Island. Though they were grateful for their rescue, the Japanese castaways were terrified by the appearance of their "barbarian" saviors, who were large in stature and had "skins" and hair of "all different colors." The fishermen were taken to a ship more enormous than anything they could ever have imagined. When they were brought before the "ruler of the ship," Captain Whitfield, they fully expected to be tortured, but the Captain was benevolent. He gave them food to eat and clothes to wear like the other sailors.

Manjiro and his friends were aboard the ship for many weeks. The environment was exceedingly strange to the fishermen. They could not understand the language being spoken, nor could they get used to wearing their stiff, confining shoes, or sitting so high up off the floor on chairs, with their legs dangling beneath them. Though the crew men were kind for the most part, Manjiro's companions were always fearful and decided that "silence and obedience was the safest route to staying alive." In contrast, Manjiro's curious and adventurous nature inclined him to embrace his new situation. He began to learn the language of the sailors in hopes of getting answers to some of the many questions running through his mind. It was the Captain...

(This entire section contains 2682 words.)

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himself to whom Manjiro first spoke in broken English. The Captain, who had taken a particular liking to the young boy, encouraged him to communicate, demanding, "How are you going to learn if you don't ask anything?"

For a long time, the Japanese fishermen were mystified as to the ship's objective in sailing the high seas. Finally, its purpose became clear when a whale was sighted, and every aspect of the vessel and crew came alive. All the American sailors were busy as the small boats mounted on the John Howland were launched. When the crew was rendered one man short because of illness, Manjiro was recruited to row.

Manjiro was astonished when he saw the massive behemoth up close. He was even more amazed at the men's heedless courage as they approached it. He performed his duties impeccably, but when the whale was vanquished, his exhilaration was tempered by a sense of sadness and disgust that such a noble creature should be so wantonly slaughtered. In the aftermath of the conquest, the whale was butchered, its blubber taken, and the carcass, with the meat intact, was thrown to the sharks. Although whales were killed in Japan too, every part of the creature was used, and its meat was distributed to assuage the hunger of many people. Manjiro's companions were aghast that he had been a part of the atrocity they had just witnessed, and their leader, Denzo, warned him that he was indeed allowing himself to be corrupted by the barbarians.

Despite his ambivalence, Manjiro had performed exceptionally well during the whale hunt, and the Captain bestowed upon him "a new whaling name; John Mung." Seeing that Manjiro had learned English so quickly, Captain Whitfield called the boy into his cabin one day to explain his plans for the Japanese fishermen. Originally, when his men had picked the survivors up on Bird Island, he had hoped to return them to their home in Japan. Sadly, Japan's isolationist policy made that endeavor impossible; its shores were firmly "sealed and shuttered." Captain Whitfield had found new homes for the fishermen on Oahu in the Sandwich Islands, but he invited Manjiro to continue on with the John Howland to America, "to live with him as his son." With its holds filled with barrels of whale oil, the John Howland arrived at its home port in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in May 1843. Manjiro was sixteen years old and had been away from Japan for more than two years; he was widely considered to be the first Japanese individual to set foot in America.

To Manjiro, New Bedford was a place "filled with lovely people and truly full of wonders...he could not look at enough things at once." His quickly understood, however, that things were not completely perfect in this amazing new place, when, as he walked with Captain Whitfield through the bustling port city, a group of young boys followed behind, making ugly faces and rude gestures. A distinguished looking gentleman passing by reprimanded the recalcitrant boys and sent them on their way. Manjiro was puzzled; in Japan, a rich man would not have given a "poor nobody" such as himself the time of day. America was certainly a land of many contradictions!

The Captain's wife had died before he had set sail on his most recent voyage, and he had no children. There had been no one to take care of his tiny house while he was gone, and it had fallen into disarray, but fortunately, he and Manjiro were taken in by kind neighbors. Shortly after their arrival in America, Captain Whitfield went on a "business trip" to New York and returned with a delightful woman named Albertina, his new wife. The Captain then proceeded to buy a farm and build a house. Manjiro felt like a character in a fairy tale, "transformed from a poor fisherman into a prince."

Manjiro had many chores to do on the farm, which he executed with utmost willingness. Having come from a culture in which there was virtually no possibility of improving one's social station, it never ceased to astonish him that in America, "ordinary people [could] become as wealthy as emperors." In addition to working on the farm, Manjiro attended school. As he had never been taught to read and write, even in his own language, he began his education at the Stone House School, with the smallest children. As a student, Manjiro was exceptionally "bright [and] motivated." He quickly earned an appointment at the Bartlett School of Navigation, where he would be allowed to continue his studies as long as he kept his English up to standard and refrained from getting into mischief.

Though he tried doggedly to comply with the expectations set for him, it was sometimes difficult for Manjiro to stay out of trouble. He had some genuine, loyal friends, but there were always those who resented his foreignness and conspired to make his life miserable and "keep him in his place." There was no denying that Manjiro looked different, and he had to struggle to gain full acceptance among his peers and in the community. It was Mrs. Whitfield who challenged him to stand up for himself in the face of discrimination, emphasizing that he had a responsibility to "help the world change."

Manjiro had lived in America for three years when Captain Whitfield returned to sea. Before he left, the Captain secured for his protege an apprenticeship so that he could learn a trade and be "truly independent." At first, Manjiro enjoyed his new situation, but after a while, he was overwhelmed with homesickness for his native Japan. He missed his mother and the familiarity of his old country. Manjiro "felt torn about where, exactly, he wanted to be." In late summer, 1846, Manjiro was asked to sign on as a crew member on the Franklin, a whaling vessel captained by Ira Davis, who had also sailed on the John Howland. The position was a lowly stewardship, far below Manjiro's capabilities, but when Davis mentioned that the ship would be sailing in Japanese waters and that there might be a chance for him to go home, Manjiro accepted the offer.

The voyage was beset by difficulties from the start. The Captain was "prone to fits of temper" so extreme that he would frequently "[stalk] around in his underclothes, ranting at the clouds, threatening his crew with a musket." Understandably, some of the men believed that he was crazy. After almost two years without success in catching a whale, tensions built to a boiling point, and the men mutinied. In the reorganization that followed, Manjiro was promoted to the rank of harpooner.

Not long after the mutiny, the Franklin's luck changed, and a whale was sighted. The men gave chase, with Manjiro standing in the bow of one of the small whaleboats, poised to strike with his lance. Remembering his first experience in whaling on the John Howland, and the wasteful slaughter he had witnessed, Manjiro was suddenly filled with revulsion and dread. When the critical moment came, the harpoon left Manjiro's hand "as if on its own," but as the water became thick with the whale's blood and the majestic creature bellowed in pain and died, Manjiro knew that his whaling days were over.

Captain Davis had made it evident that, despite his intimation to the contrary, he had had no intention of allowing Manjiro to go back to his homeland when the Franklin had entered Japanese waters. Manjiro would have to figure out a way to return home on his own. He understood succinctly the difficulties of this quest: in addition to the problems presented by the logistics of his undertaking, there was the additional dilemma of Japan's isolationist attitudes. If he somehow should manage to get home, he might very well be killed. Still, Manjiro reflected on the prejudices he had faced during his time in America, and about how he had been able to overcome some of these and gain a measure of acceptance. Manjiro thought that he might be able to accomplish the same thing in Japan.

In February 1849, almost three years after he had set out on the Franklin, Manjiro returned to America. Determined to raise enough money to go back to his homeland, he went to California to try his luck in the gold fields and managed to discover enough gold to bankroll a trip back to Japan. In January 1851, Manjiro purchased a whaling vessel and set off for Oahu, where he was reunited with the friends with whom he had been shipwrecked almost ten years previously. Sadly, Jusuke had died by that time, and Toraemon wanted to remain in Oahu; Denzo and Goemon, however, decided to accompany Manjiro back home.

The three men were transported to the coast of their homeland by the whaling vessel, after which they embarked in a small rowboat to navigate the rest of the way alone. When they landed on the shore, Manjiro, Denzo, and Goemon were initially warmly greeted by solicitous villagers, but then "official-looking men wearing grave expressions" appeared, and, regarding the three returnees as spies, took them into custody. During the year and a half they were incarcerated, the men were questioned many times. Though they tried tirelessly to convince the authorities of their "innocence and their simple desire to go home," their stories were greeted with suspicion, and they remained behind bars.

Finally, Manjiro was summoned before the daimyo, Lord Nariakira, a powerful territorial noble and the leader of many samurai. In answer to the lord's queries, Manjiro described America as an "open country," characterized by great advances in technology. He explained that America's government was based on the principle of respect for personal rights, and that though it had a powerful military, its focus was on developing its own country; it was not interested in attacking other lands. On a map, Manjiro showed the daimyo the respective positions of Japan and America, and expressed the Americans' wish to be able to use Japanese ports so that whalers and other vessels might be able to resupply when necessary. The daimyo received Manjiro's words with tranquility and commented meaningfully that "the weather [was] changing." Manjiro concurred, adding pointedly, "as is the world," and emphasizing his belief that much good would result from these changes.

Manjiro, Denzo, and Goemon were subsequently taken to Nagasaki, where they were interrogated cruelly and forced to desecrate the image of the Madonna and Child to prove that they rejected "foreign religion." In Nagasaki, they learned from other prisoners that Japan was in turmoil, on the brink of civil war. Then one day, at last and inexplicably, Manjiro and his companions were released and allowed to return to their homes.

Manjiro almost wept when he arrived in his village. The sights, sounds, and smells were achingly familiar, but to Manjiro, who had been only fourteen when he left, everything seemed much smaller than he remembered. As he approached his house, his brothers and sisters appeared at the door, but they were all grown up now and did not recognize him. An older woman then stepped forward and regarded Manjiro for a long moment, reaching out to touch his face. The woman whispered, "Manjiro," and Manjiro replied with emotion, "Okachan...Mama."

Manjiro settled back into life in his remote village, but before long, he was summoned by Lord Yamauchi, the great ruler of Tosa. Bowing to the winds of change, Lord Yamauchi wanted Manjiro to teach his young samurai "the barbarian's language." Four months later, in July 1853, American ships led by Commodore Matthew C. Perry entered Edo Bay, demanding to speak to the emperor about securing access to Japan's ports. The country was thrown into chaos, and Manjiro, because of his "unique firsthand knowledge of America," was called to Edo, by order of the shogun, a powerful military commander. There, Manjiro argued successfully on behalf of the Americans for an end to Japan's isolationist policies, and, in an unprecedented move, realized a lifetime dream when he was elevated to the lofty status of samurai.