The Life of John Mung by Takahiro Ioroi

The Life of John Mung(1827-1898)

Translation production members Yuki Hamasaki Yuka Henmi Maki Hirata Yuma Ino Yuki Maeda Yumi Maeda Miho Yonei Ai Nagano Aya Nakayama Miharu Taoka

Advisers

John Esposito (Associate professor, Kochi Women's University) Takahiro Ioroi (Professor, Kochi Women's University) Makiko Mukai (Assistant professor, Kochi Women's University) Michael Painter (formerly assistant professor, Women's University)

DE P A R T M E N T O F CU L T U R A L ST U D IE S KO C H I WO M E N 'S UN IV E R S IT Y 5-15 EIKOKUJI-CHO KOCHI CITY, 780-8515 JAPAN

This story is set in the era when the province of Kochi was called "Tosa". There was a ďŹ shing village named "Nakanohama" near the southwest end of Tosa. You can hear the sound of the pulley that a sailor rolls up far. This ďŹ shing village was such a quiet place. The boy who was going to be called "John Manjiro" was born in this village in 1825. His life was full of ups and downs. Villagers could not imagine that he would be destined to live a checkered life after that time -- the village was so peaceful. Manjiro lost his father when he was eight years old. He was the only one to help his mother. At the age of eight he became the breadwinner for his poor family.

He did many kinds of work for his family. While baby-sitting, he swam with babies left on the boat. It was so hot and when he came back to the beach, the babies were covered with sand in summer. This was a bad thing. But if you consider his age, you will probably sympathize with him. It was time for supper. They were having rice porridge. They'd often eat porridge. But this was not what they wanted but had to do. "It's made from green grain that was too young. You may ďŹ nd it tastes bad, but I bet you can cope with it," said Mother. Her kids knew their mother didn't have enough money to buy rice â&#x20AC;&#x2019; they had to wait until the time the rice in their rented rice paddy was ready to be harvested. Manjiro said, "That's okay, Mom. I think porridge is better because we don't have to bite it. This is easier anyway." Everyone nodded with a smile. Tears were shining in their mother's eyes.

There was a local grand man in the village. His name was Imazu Taihei. He gave Manjiro a job of pounding rice. The job was so tiring though it made a lot of money. His mother cared about him and said, "Well, there's something strange about this rice. Manjiro, you put any sand into the rice, didn't you?" Manjiro had mixed sand with rice because he wanted to make money as quickly as possible. "That way you can finish your job faster, but it makes rice so bad. This is not the kind of rice we can offer to Lord Imazu. " His mother scolded him. He promised that he wouldn't let the same thing happen again. Meanwhile, Tahei somehow noticed the bad thing Manjiro had done and he got furious with anger. "What on earth are you doing here? You deceived me, didn't you?" Tahei, as mad as hell, chased Manjiro. With no idea what to do, Manjiro made a narrow escape out to the beach and finally jumped into the sea.

Nobody found Manjro in the sea. All of his neighbors and relatives looked for him. Lights from lanterns looked like fireflies flying around at the beach. Manjiro's uncle got an idea that he might have escaped into the hills. He climbed up the hill to the shrine which enshrines the god of fishing. There he heard a scary sound, "zzz-zzz-zzz." He opened the door and was surprised to find Manjiro sleeping in his wet clothes. The uncle raised his voice, "Hey Manjiro, wake up!" "Hi, Uncle. Good evening." "What on earth are you talking about? You know, everyone has been worried about you. Hey, get up and go home now!" Then Uncle started to wonder if Taihei's anger would disappear if he took Manjiro back home now. He spoke to himself, "Well, I will have Manjiro stay at my acquaintance in Ohama tonight." He walked down along the shrine to the beach of Ohama that was located next to the hill.

At Ohama Manjiro met a man named Fudenojo, a ďŹ sherman from the village of Usa. Actually, this encounter was so important for him because it was going to change his life. At that time he had no idea at all about what was going to happen to his life. Fudenosho listened to Manjiro talking about his background for a while and said that he would be happy to take care of him in Usa. Fudenojo asked Manjiro's mother in Nakanohama to visit with him to decide what to do for Manjiro. She was no doubt very pleased. She gave Manjiro her own short coat she was wearing and said, "Manjiro, this is the only thing I can let you have before you start your own life in a place far away from home. I hope this coat will make you warm." "Thank you. This is the greatest present for me. I will take good care of it as it will always remind me of you, Mom." Watching Manjiro talking to his mother, Fudenojo was convinced that the boy was going to be a useful man to the world. When Manjiro arrived in Usa, he saw the people busily preparing for the New Year's Day.

With the arrival of the New Year, there came the first day for fishing. It was the first experience for Manjiro. It was of course Fudenojo who acted as the boatman. He had five crewmembers: Jusuke, Fudenojo's younger brother, Goemon, Toraemon, and Manjiro. Manjiro took on the role of 'Kashiki', a cook. The sky was clear on the New Year's Day. The sea was calm, and many fishing boats were out on the sea, competing with each other for fishing ground. Fudenojo spoke optimistically to calm Manjiro down. "Manjiro, are you ready? Listen. This is your first day. So try hard as much as possible. You are important, because we can't fight on an empty stomach." Toraemon shouted, "Boss, it's about time we go, or we'll fall behind the other boats!" They started fishing. Who could imagine that this fishing experience was going to have Manjiro stay far away from Japan for more than ten years?

Their ship was a longline fishing boat. They couldn't catch anything for about six days and spent a night on some beaches. Then on the seventh morning, they tried to fish using the longline method offshore of the cape of Ashizuri. Then the sky turned strangely dark. They tried to return. But they started to drop the line again as the wind calmed down a little. The wind blew even stronger than ever. When they looked up into the sky, they saw weird red clouds. "Oh, no. They are bad clouds! We'll fall into trouble. Hey, let's go back!" "Wait, Fudenojo! We've got a good load of fish. So there's no way but to pull up these fish!" "That's true, too. Hey, everybody, let's pull the lines up quickly!"

Actually, they had had no catch until that time. They thought they couldn't lose that opportunity and pulled the lines up with all their strength. This made them spend an unexpectedly long time. The wind grew stronger and the sea was rough. "Stop pulling lines! Cut them off! If we continue any longer, we won't be able to make it back!" They cut off half of the lines as Fudenojo told them to do so. Manjiro kept rowing desperately. Then they found the board supporting the oar broken. All of them got together to fix it. Gradually the sun went down and complete darkness arrived around them. The wind was roaring and swelling waves were shaking the boat violently. Fear came across their minds. How feeble the capacity of a person when it is compared with the power of nature in its fury!

The wind became stronger and stronger. The boat was swaying in the waves like a leaf of a tree. The sail was utterly useless. It only became an annoyance. What was even worse, a windy rain began to beat on the boat. Fudenjo shouted, "Oh God! Hey buddies, we don't have time. We've got to row the boat and head back to Usa. Give me your hand!" The youngsters on the boat lowered the sail, pulled down the mast and set themselves to each oar. But the five pairs of the oars did not have much strength in that raging storm. "Oh, my oar's gone!" "Oh, my God. I lost mine!" Oars were lost in the waves one after another. They finally lost all the oars when the last one was broken. "Calm down buddies! Lay yourselves on the floor and wait until the rain storm passes!" Fudenojo continued cheering up the other crew members who had been in panic mode, staying at the helm without sleeping at all.

Eight days went by. Fudenojo looked around shouted, "Hey buddies, look at that! You see a cape! That must be the cape of Muroto. I bet that there must be one whale watching lodge or two in that town. I hope there will be a chance for somebody to find us." "We may be helped out! Hey Goemon, let's shout together!" said Manjiro. They shouted out for help. Meanwhile, Fudenojo was trying hard to steer the boat toward to the shore, with the sail under control. But the cold wind blowing from the land was driving the boat farther away from the shore. Finally, they found themselves to have been carried to an area from which they could see mountains in the province of Kishu. When the night came, they felt even colder. They took some wooden boards off the boat and made fire for warmth. Under this terrifying circumstance, Manjiro kept encouraging himself to survive till the day he would meet his mother again.

On their third day of drifting in the vast Pacific Ocean, they found no single island. Fudenojo was steering the boat like the great fisherman that he was. Goemon, who was a year older than Manjiro, was shivering in a straw mat because of unbearable cold and hunger. "This is all the rice that we have. We have to share it. From now on, let's try and catch fish for meals," said Fudenojo. In front of Goemon shivering with cold, Manjiro, putting the last pieces removed from the boat into the fire, said reassuringly, "Goemon-san, things will be all right! I'm sure we'll survive. The next time we set our foot on the land, we will eat up two bowls of rice in no time in a warm room!" "Yeah, let me finish three bowls!" Goemon answered with an awkward smile he managed to make. However, hunger and cold continued to attack the five youngsters without mercy.

The next day, what they had been scared about actually turned out to be a reality. Their boat was dragged into the rapid stream of the Black Current. They nearly gave up their hope to reach land. Fudenojo said, "Stay calm. If you move around, you will run out of strength. We'd better keep lying on the floor." Their drift due to the wind and waves just continued day in day out. It looked as if they were quietly waiting for death, which seemed to them to be overtaking them gradually. On January 12th, Fudenojo, looking up the sky, shouted suddenly. "Look! Gulls are flying! We may find an island near here!" This caused Goemon to cry with joy. They opened their eyes wide and looked around but couldn't find anything like an island. Then they had another sleepless night.

Around noon of January 13th, Toraemon shouted all of a sudden. "I can see an island over there!" The youngsters who had been barely able to get up because of hunger and cold sat up in surprise. Manjiro looked hard at what he saw in the distance. He saw a black dot in the great distance growing bigger little by little. "It's an island! It sure is!" They quickly gathered around Fudenojo. They saw a number of gulls ďŹ&#x201A;ying oďŹ&#x20AC; from the island -- the gulls looked like some white powder being scattered. All of them shouted, holding each other round the shoulders. "We got out of that pinch at last!" "Thank God!" Fudenojo said, " I wonder if there are any people living there." "Well, that doesn't matter anyway." "I only hope there is some water. I will have no regrets about my life if I drink as much water as I can." All of them fully understood how hard it is to survive with no drinking water at hand.

The youngsters managed to steer the boat to a point close to the island and found it hardly possible to reach the quay on account of big waves hitting it. Then they decided to drop the anchor and stay on the boat for the night. The day dawned -- it was January 14th. They decided to land on the island. While they were guiding their boat toward the stony beach, the boat hit a big rock under the water. "What?!" Toraemon, Goemon and Manjiro were thrown out into the sea. Fudenojo and Jusuke were under the boat up-side down. Clinging onto rocks, they managed to crawl to the beach at last. They sat down on the beach. They couldn't move but stayed dazed for a while.

There was nothing but stones on the island, which is called Torishima now. As you may know, we sometimes hear the name Torishima in typhoon forecasts. The island was created by volcanic eruptions that happened 580 kilometers south of Tokyo. There was no doubt that those youngsters knew nothing about how the island was made. It simply looked strange because they found only a few trees there. Fudenojo said in a mumbling voice, "We survived after the storm! We'd better check this island out." "What a scary island! I wonder if something might come out and attack us." Jusuke was still complaining of the pain in his legs because he sprained them when their ship ran onto the rocks. Toraemon was feeling better than everyone else. To cheer them up he said, "When something comes out to attack us, leave everything to me! There is no one else in Usa who is better than me about longline ďŹ shing." Fudenojo laughed and said, "You know, Tora, this place is a rocky hill. Even your throw of a longline won't get you a single stone here, needless to say a catch of ďŹ sh!" His joke helped everyone to regain their smiles.

Fudenojo suggested looking for water, and they started walking around the island. Fudenojo quickly found a cave. They went into in the cave, relying on the sunlight streaming through the mouth. The inside was larger than they had imagined; it was surrounded by a wall that seemed made of lava. Fudenojo said, "Why don't we stay here for the moment. Put these stones away and make a living room." "A living room here?" "Ha, ha! You know, it's sure more comfortable here than on our boat -- it shakes and leaks." This was how Fudenojo expressed his consideration for the other members in making them feel better. "If it's true that this island was made from a volcanic eruption, it may erupt again." "Will we be safe enough?" Jusuke asked, with fear in his mind. Fudenojo answered, "We can't continue asking such a question. This cave is our temporary place. For the moment we just need to cope with it." He was right. This cave protected them from a rainy wind.

They had a place to stay now. Next, they had to find drinking water and food, because they had no idea when another ship might pass nearby this island. They must manage their own survival until then. Fudenojo brought a bucket from the ship and tried to catch dripping water. The rocks were made of a volcanic eruption. They sucked up rainy water and couldn't store it. Manjiro said, "Look! There is water trickling from above. If we do well, we can store some drinking water." "That's a good idea. Even if we only collect a little, it will save us!" Jusuke looked up at the towering quay and said, "Hey, I see a Japanese knotweed on that cliff, but it is impossible to climb such a high cliff." He then bit his lips.

They also looked for food but there was almost no plants on that rocky island. On the other side of the island, however, were a large number of albatrosses. " They are called 'stupid birds' because they never run away even when human beings try to catch them," said Fudenojo with a grin. After this albatrosses were the main source of their meals. They used fishing hooks and old nails to skin albatrosses and cut their meat. Fudenojo said, "Manjiro, it's good to grind the meat with a stone and dry it. Dried meat will last long." Manjiro replied, "Count on me. I'm good at cooking as I AM a cook." Jusuke, who was flaying albatrosses several feet away from Manjiro, asked, "Is that so? I wonder if the job of a cook on a fishing boat ever has to do with cooking albatrosses." Fudenojo burst out in laughter and said, "Manjiro has no problem with it. He is always a great help to us in time of need."

The night fell on the island. From the cave they saw the beautiful moon. The storm they had experienced disappeared once and for all. "Anyway, I'm glad I can lie on the land. I think it is January 14th today. Here we can stay away from cold wind," said Fudenojo. "I don't know where on the earth we are now. We must have been swept away far south across the ocean." Manjiro suddenly started to feel anxious and asked Fudenojo, "Uncle, I wonder if a ship will come soon to save us." Fudenojo replied, "We must leave our fate to Heaven. Whatever happens, there will be no point if we die before any ship running oďŹ&#x20AC;shore ďŹ nds us. Don't give up!" They went to sleep, with their bodies pressed to each other to stay warm. They somehow learned that albatross feathers, placed between their bodies, helped to keep them warm.

What Fudenojo was most concerned about was how to get drinking water and have it shared equally among them. For human beings, thirst is a more serious problem than hunger. Fudenojo asked the others to come together and spoke to them, "I know all of us are getting thirsty. But if we keep drinking water as much as we want, we will soon run out of it. On this island, we can get water only from rain. Look at this seashell. Every time you eat one albatross, you can drink this one scoop of water only. Please stick to this rule. If you don't follow what I have just said, there will be no place for you here." There had been no rain for nearly three months. You might not believe it, but when they were dying for drinking water they attempted to drink their own urine.

One day, everyone sprang out of bed in the early morning like a clockwork toy upon hearing Goemon shouting outside the cave. "There comes a ship!" "Hurry up, everyone! Come and bring whatever you can hold in your hands and wave them!" Everyone came out of the cave as if they rolled out -- they forgot they had been exhausted. Wearing his loincloth only, Goemon shouted on a rock. He swung the clothes he had taken oďŹ&#x20AC; from his body. What they saw was certainly a ship. It looked like a sail in the far distance. They shouted as loudly as they could: "Halloa! Halloa!" They shook whatever they could, but the ship was too far in the distance. It was almost impossible to make their voices reach the ship. In the meantime, the ship became a blur on the horizon and disappeared. Everyone sat on the rock, with their heads down in disappointment. " There may be no chance for us to survive even if we ďŹ nd another ship unless the crew notice us," whispered Fudenojo in a weak voice.

The young fishermen spent several days in complete disappointment. Albatrosses left the island at the end of April as they finished raising their babies. They ran out of their staple food. What is worse, there came another unexpected misfortune. A big earthquake hit the island! Pieces of cracked rocks fell from above their heads. The earthquake, which began in the morning, didn't stop. The youngsters tried to go out by any means but couldn't, because the entrance was closed with cracked rocks. "Hey buddy, nothing works now!" Goemon spoke in a feeble voice, though he was a year older than Manjiro. Then Fudenojo said with a forbidding face, "Don't be stupid! You hang in there! We would have died a long time ago without God's protection! He only protects youngsters who fight the fear of dying!" Manjiro agreed. "I can't die before I see my dear mother again!" he shouted to himself.

Jusuke's foot got worse and worse, and everyone felt even more helpless. One day, Manjiro decided to climb up the highest hill on the island. He thought that climbing to the top of the hill would cheer his company up. Manjiro climbed the hill, crawling on its wall little by little. At last, he reached the top. It was rather spacious and ďŹ&#x201A;at. He found two stones that looked like tomb stones. They might have been standing there on behalf of some real persons. Putting one of the stones close to his arm, he found a hollow with some muddy water in it. " I don't know whose graves they are for, but would you do me a favor? I hope a ship will come to help us soon and everyone will be alive and well." Manjiro joined his hands in prayer. Looking back oďŹ&#x20AC;shore, he saw more than a dozen whales swimming. They reminded him of the sea of Tosa. He remembered his beloved mother.

Manjiro went back to the cave and talked to everyone about the top of the hill. When he said the stones looked like someone's grave, Fudenojo sasked, "Were those stones covered with moss?" "Yeah, they had a lot of moss," answered Manjiro. When Fudenojo heard this, he covered his face with his hands and burst into a ﬁt of weeping. There was no doubt he thought he would have to accept the same fate. Looking at Fudenojo ̶ the last man to cry in front of other people ̶ weeping, the other three began to cry bitterly. Manjiro wanted to raise their spirits, so he started to talk about the school of whales he saw from the top of the hill. Listening to Manjiro, Fudenojo wept with even bigger drops of tears from both eyes ̶ he hated albatross meat though he had to eat it to survive. He felt pathetic about himself ̶ he only wished he could have a piece of whale meat .... He couldn't stop timid tears running down from his eyes.

One hundred and forty days went by after those youngsters landed on the deserted island. One night, Goemon, Manjiro, and Toraemon came out of the cave, leaving Fudenojo behind as he was taking care of Jusuke. Because of too much anxiety about the future, they found it hard to sleep. "There comes a ship! A ship is coming to save us!" Goemon shouted. He said in a shaking voice, "I can see a ship. That is a ship, right?" "Goemon, that is a cloud," Manjiro answered, as he had the same experience in the past. "No, you're wrong! That is a ship! Look! That is a ship!" Manjiro looked hard at it and found it moving little by little. It really was a ship. The three youngsters jumped up and down with joy and called out for the ship at the top of their lungs, "Halloa! Help us! Halloa!"

It was a pity that the ship went by. But Manjiro didn't give up. He wondered if the ship might have arrived at the southwest part of the island, so he walked over there alone. His hunch was right. He saw two small boats heading toward the island. Manjiro hurried to tell the other four in the cave. To the boats he and his friends waved their hands frantically. The boats tried to get closer to the shore, but they couldn't because of the wild waves. Unable to contain himself any longer, Manjiro took oďŹ&#x20AC; his clothes, tied the clothes around his head and swam over to the boat. On the boat were six foreigners. Manjiro had never seen people like them. They held out their hands and raised Manjiro from the water. Then, they smiled at him - they seemed to be saying, "you are lucky."

Manjiro felt as if the foreigners he met for the ďŹ rst time were Gods who came to help them. He looked toward the ship in the oďŹ&#x192;ng and bowed down. The foreigners laughed. They were cheerful guys. Goemon and Toraemon were rescued, too. Theey asked Manjiro, using gestures, to see if they had any other friends with them. Manjiro also answered with a gesture. "We have two more friends on the land. They have a problem. They can't move their arms or legs." Then they heard a boat appraching the cave. Two of the foreigners jumped into the sea and swam to the island. They went into the cave. Fudenojo and Junosuke got hold of the foreigner's shoulders and came out with them. Everyone was rescued. It was wonderful, really wonderful.

The boat which rescued the youngsters went back to the three-masted ship. The island that helped save their lives slowly went out of their sight. Manjiro thanked the island from his heart and watched it with respect with his hands together. The three-masted ship was a whale ship. Surprisingly, it happened to get closer to that island while the crew were looking for turtles to make soup. This turned out to be a really good fortune. When Manjiro and other youngsters reached the ship, they were exhausted and starving. The captain of the ship came to see them. He was truly a great person. The meeting with this captain changed Manjiro's whole life. An encounter with a good person is very important and valuable in one's life. The next part of the story shows what Manjiro did while he was aboard the main ship.

In the first part we learned about the early days of Manjiro's life ̶ the boy from a little fishing village in the province of Tosa, due to a quirk of fate, was attacked by a terrible rainstorm offshore, barely lived on a desert island after drifting on the ocean for 134 days. He was at the age of 14 then. A foreign whale ship came by and rescued the five youngsters. At the same time, we also learned through the story the meaning of life and the indispensable value of water to maintain our lives. Besides, Manjiro's untiring spirit encouraged us. Now, we are going to learn that Manjiro was not a castaway but a great, talented person who moved forward step by step to a better future. This is the main theme of the second part of the story. Let's enjoy it together.

This beautiful ship was called Howland. It was the American whaling ship which helped Manjiro. The halyards on the three-masted ship looked as if they were a spider web. The ship itself looked like a castle floating on the sea when its white sails were fully stretched. I'm sure you have seen such a ship in a movie though you may not have seen a real one. As you know, it was not a pirate ship but a whaling ship. Oil extracted from a sperm whale provides a lot of utilities for machines and lamps. The person in the picture is Captain Whitfield, the captain of this ship. As the story advances, you will see what a great person he was. Without the encounter with Captain Whitfield, Manjiro might have ended as a mere castaway. He rescued Manjiro and gave him a new life.

First, the American crew gave the youngsters western clothes. They used gestures to show the Japanese youngsters how to wear the western clothes as they found them at a loss about what to do. The crew also gave the youngsters some food. The meal was hot baked potato only, but it made them very happy because they were so hungry then. The crew also gave the youngsters pork and soup. Five or six days later they found rice on the table. "Rice! I haven't seen rice for a long time! How joyful this makes our hearts!" said Jusuke. "But I wonder how they know we eat rice? Do they know we are Japanese?" asked Fudenojo. Manjiro was very happy with Captain WhitďŹ eld's support and said to himself, "Thank you, Captain!"

The youngsters got better and better. Captain WhitďŹ eld didn't force any work on them but only told them to take good rest and relax. One day, Manjiro had too much time and happened to have a close watch of whalers catching whales. The whalers were strong-hearted. As soon as the watch guard told the crew that he found whales, four small row boats were unloaded from the ship. They headed toward the school of whales to attack them. They threw harpoons onto the whales and got three of them. "Wow, Captain! I want to be a whaler like them when I grow up!" Captain WhitďŹ eld, with a smiling face, gazed at Manjiro's eyes, which were shining brilliantly - he looked as if he already knew he could trust Manjiro.

Manjiro wasn't somebody who would think only about surviving and going back to Japan. As he was saved and fed by the crew on the ship, he always thought about how to help them. One day, Manjiro attempted to find whales by himself. He stood on the crow's-nest. He looked for whales in the offing with a telescope. Then he found whales and their children swimming. Manjiro shouted to the deck in the broken English he was learning. "Sea blows, blows!" Immediately, the other members unloaded the boats and caught the whales. Captain Whitfield gave Manjiro a new sailor hat as a reward. Manjiro put the hat on. With a little bit of shyness, he made a bow in front of the other crew members. They gave him a warm applause.

Captain Whitfield was especially pleased with Manjiro as he was a sensible boy and willingly did anything he was asked to do. The captain promoted Manjiro to be a cabin boy. A cabin boy is somebody who tidies up and cleans the captain's room, makes coffee, and does daily chores for the captain. Manjiro, without being told, was able to foresee when Captain Whitfield, working in his office, would like to have a cup of coffee. Manjiro knew the time when the captain was likely to feel tired and throw up his eyes. Smiling in front of him was Manjiro pouring warm coffee. His smile was full of warm-heartedness. Captain Whitfield proudly looked at Manjiro and thought that this boy would be an able person in the future.

Six months after the youngsters left the desert island, they sailed into Honolulu, Hawaii. However, they were not allowed to go ashore. The foreign city they saw from the ship was absolutely new to them. In particular, Manjiro and Goemon frequently stood on the deck, watching the town of Honolulu, with their eyes shining brilliantly. "Great! The ships are big and the town is big, too! I wonder if Edo is big like this town." "Edo is the biggest city in Japan, but I hear this is not the biggest city in America. It is no wonder that America is a huge country." "I can't wait for the permit for landing. I want to walk around the town." "Me, too. I'm itching to do so." During the one month before they received the landing permits, the youngsters learned English from American crew members as teachers. Manjiro especially made remarkable progress.

The day finally came when the youngsters landed on the island. Captain Whitfield took them to the immigration office. At that time they had to use gestures to communicate. Manjiro thought the officer was asking where they were from, and he clearly answered, "We are Japanese." Then the officer took out a Japanese tobacco pipe and some Japanese money from the cabinet and showed them to the youngsters. " This is what we use in our country," said Manjiro. Those items gave him a feeling of homesickness and made him yearn for Japan. " You can stay on this island for a while," said the officer. He gave a silver coin to each of the youngsters. They bowed down deeply to express their gratitude to him.

Captain Whitfield decided to return to America. He asked the five youngsters if they wanted to go with him. As the captain of the ship, he wanted to at least take Manjiro to his country. He wanted to give Manjiro a civilized education. The four members except Manjiro wanted to go back to Japan as soon as possible. Manjiro willingly accepted the captain's intention. The captain was very pleased. The day that Manjiro left Hawaii finally came. "Goemon-san, take care. We will meet again soon. Then let's go back to Japan together," said Manjiro. Goemon threw himself into Manjiro's arms, with his eyes full of tears. He kept nodding. "Get on board, John Mung!" John Mung was the name Captain Whitfield gave to Manjiro because he found it hard to pronounce his real name. "John" was taken from the name of the ship, John Howland.

On the way to America, Manjiro tried harder to learn English. He was also learning whale ďŹ shery in that the ship was on its navigation catching whales. It made him feel as if he was on a training ship for whaling. He often sat at his desk until midnight, with a small lamp on it, studying English and reading books on whaling. Look at his serious face. Through this navigation and his unparalleled talent and eďŹ&#x20AC;orts, he developed into an esteemed whaler. The ship sailed into the port of New Bedford in the State of Massachusetts, North America in 1844.

Manjiro visited Captain WhitďŹ eld's house in Fairhaven. It was an amazingly lively town. After arriving in the town, Manjiro was confused all the time. But Captain's family warmly welcomed him. Five years had passed by since the last time Captain WhitďŹ eld met his family. During his absence, his wife died from sickness. In his house were his son and daughter living with a maid. They treated Manjiro kindly as if someone in their family came home. Manjiro was already one of their family members. He was really happy with the captain's family. He then began to think about the four in Hawaii, his mother, and his family members in Nakanohama.

Captain WhitďŹ eld decided to have Manjiro live with Jams Allen to give him an education -- James' daughter Jane owned a private school. Manjiro saw a school for the ďŹ rst time in his life. When he was in Japan, he was too poor to attend a school. Now he became a student at a decent school. Mrs. Allen introduced Manjiro to her class. Her students looked doubtfully on him. When Manjiro said, "Nice to meet you," with a grand attitude and a bashful smile, smiles spread among them. Yes, that's right. Manjiro was a fun boy, and American kids in the class were cheerful by nature. Who would tease him? Manjiro made friends with other kids in his class, and they had fun together. In the following year, he went to Bartlett School to study navigation.

Manjiro came back to Captain Whitfield's house again. He studied hard, working on the farm. A seaman from New York visited him. He was a crew member on Howland when it saved Manjiro from the desert island. He came to ask Manjiro if he was interested in joining his whaling ship. Manjiro was itching to catch whales because Captain Whitfield was at sea at that time, hunting whales. This led Manjiro to accept the offer immediately. "Farmer clothes don't suit you. John, let's join the whale hunting!" "Okay, I'd be happy to join you." In 1846, the ship with John aboard sailed out from New Bedford.

The ship made its way around the southernmost tip of Africa and through the Indian Ocean. It finally reached the Pacific Ocean. This voyage completed Manjiro's experience with the oceans around the world. Accordingly, he was able to broaden his mind. In the meantime, there was not one single day he forgot about Japan. He always thought of his own country, with Japanese clothes and Hachimaki at hand. One day, Franklin ran into a fleet of twenty Japanese whaling boats in an offing of the province of Oshu. The whaling boats got closer to Franklin because the Japanese whalers were afraid that Franklin was there to invade their fishing area. It made Manjiro extremely excited to see Japanese people he had not seen for a long time. He shouted at the Japanese whalers in Japanese. "Hey! I'm Japanese! I want to go back to Japan. Listen to me!" In a little while, however, the fleet left there and disappeared ̶ they didn’t understand Manjiro’s Japanese because of his and their strong local accents.

The ship entered the Port of Honolulu at Oahu Island. Seven years went by after Manjiro and four friends started to live apart. Manjiro wanted to see them very much. As soon as the holidays started, he called on them. They shed a lot of tears. Manjiro heard that Fudenojo had changed his name to Denzo and tried to go back to Japan with Goemon though his plan was still unsuccessful. Juske passed away in Hawaii, due to a disease. Manjiro and Traemon hugged each other. They couldn’t say any words for a few minutes. Manjiro finally said, "I'm sorry about Jusuke, and I'm happy that you've been fine. Let’s go back to Japan together someday." Toraemon said to Manjiro feelingly, "I'm happy you've been fine too, and …… how brave and strong you are…. Yes, you are right. We’ll never fail to go back to Japan as long as we live. We have to hang in there."

Franklin left Honolulu. The captain became ill on the sea and he had to get oﬀ the ship at a port on its way. The replacement of the captain was Mehler. The crew decided that the vice-captain should be chosen by voting. "It should be John! He is young but very talented! I’ll vote for John." "Sure! He is not only good at whaling but also is fair to everyone. He is kind to all of us. I like him!" "He taught me how to harpoon a whale. I'd say my memory is not very good, but I'm sure he never got mad at me!" "What a patient guy!" "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…" Manjiro was voted for as the vice-captain of Franklin under the great support from the other sailors on board.

They sailed around the world and came back to Captain Whitﬁeld's house three years later. In those days, America was in the midst of the gold rush ̶ a lot of gold was being found in California. The place attracted countless people who desired to become millionaires in a day. Manjiro thought there would be a good chance for him to make money with which to go back to Japan. It took him no time at all to join a group of gold miners. He had to protect himself because there were many rowdy men hanging around in the area. So he always went out with his gun stuck in his waist. When he was collecting piece of gold from among sand, a man talked to him. "Hey boy! You are making too much money! Are you planning to get a wife? Ha, ha, ha…" "No, I have to make money to go back to my country," said Manjiro. He kept working without looking to either side.

Manjiro earned $600 in a very short period of time. He met the other members who had been cast adrift with him, and he asked them if they wanted to go back to Japan. Beside Toraemon, who already had his family in America, the other three, Denzo, Goemon and Manjiro, decided to return to their own country. They asked the crew on the American ship Sarah Boyd to allow them to be aboard together with their small boat the Adventure. They were planning on rowing the boat from Sarah Boyd. They loaded marine stores, books, maps and souvenirs for their mothers and families. On December 17th, they left Honolulu. Next year Sarah Boyd made an oďŹ&#x192;ng near the islands of Ryukyu on January 2nd. Manjiro, Denzo and Goemon got on the Adventure and arrived in Mabunimagiri, a village located at the south end of Ryukyu. Upon arriving they underwent investigations by oďŹ&#x192;cers. In the end they were sent to Nagasaki for further investigations. Manjiro talked about American culture amazingly in detail.

Manjiro ďŹ nally reached Nakanohama, his hometown, on October 5th. Twelve years had passed since he left home at the age 14. He met his mother. Neither of them needed to say anything. Manjiro held out a Hanten, which his mother had given him before he left the village of Usa twelve years ago. She didn't need to hear any words to realize how much he had thought about her. Manjiro and his mother, with their hand in hand, kept crying.

One year after Manjiro came back, Captain Perry visited the port of Uraga in Kanagawa in 1853. People called his ship Kurofune, a black ship. This led people to make a big fuss all over Japan. The Japanese Bakufu regime decided to negotiate with America. But they didn't understand English. They didn't know what to do. They wondered who could take on this job. Yes, they had John Mung. Japan had Manjiro. The sea breeze pushes the ship Kanrinmaru forward. Manjiro was promoted to the Samurai class. Receiving the family name Nakahama, he became Nakahama Manjiro. Manjiro joined a group of Japanese delegates to visit America across the PaciďŹ c Ocean. This experience reminded him of the days of drifting with the current, his ďŹ rst visit to America, and his old life there. Manjiro prayed to himself and promised himself to work hard for Japan and America.

Japan underwent a big turning point -- the Meiji Restoration. It was the time that shed a light on the darkness of the nation that had shut itself to the world. Moreover, this change was a new departure for Japan. Japan was to be reborn to be a modern country. Japan had to have a leader who knew about western culture and understood it well. He was the only person who was able to talk about American culture. He taught it to Kawada Shoryo in Tosa, who later became one of the pioneers in the ďŹ eld. It was Sakamoto Ryoma who asked Manjiro to teach foreign culture to Japanese youths. There was no doubt about Manjiro becoming one of the motivating powers to achieve the Meiji Restoration. He tried to give all of his knowledge about America to Japanese youths who showed a strong desire for learning. He was convinced that they were going to develop Japan in a better way.

After Manjiro came back to Japan, he taught navigation at Kagoshimakaiseijo in Kagoshima and at Kaiseikan in Tosa. In 1869, he became a professor at Kaiseigakko -- the predecessor of the University of Tokyo. Manjiro couldn't attend Terakoya when he was a kid because his family was so poor. He took advantage of his life adrift on the sea and arrival in America. He became a professor at the imperial university. Chances will come to everyone. Your life depends on whether you take advantage of those chances or you miss them. Manjiro used to talk to children, "An adventure meansâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;forming a dream into a reality." Manjiro lost his wife due to her early death, so he raised his son to be a medical doctor because he hoped to raise the level of medicine in Japan close to that of western countries. Then his son received the ďŹ rst doctorate in medicine in Japan. Manjiro always thought of the future of Japan. He never built a wall around himself. This is why he still stands as one of the great Japanese individuals of whom we are most proud.