Nakahama Manjiro
| Nakahama Manjirō 中濱 万次郎 |
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|---|---|
Nakahama "John" Manjirō
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| Born |
January 27, 1827 Tosa Province, Japan |
| Died | November 22, 1898 (aged 71) Tokyo, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Other names | John Mung |
Nakahama Manjirō (中濱 万次郎?, January 27, 1827 – November 12, 1898), also known as John Manjirō (or John Mung), was one of the first Japanese people to visit the United States and an important translator during the Opening of Japan.
During his early life, he lived as a simple fisherman in the village of Naka-no-hama, Tosa Province (now Tosashimizu, Kōchi Prefecture). In 1841, 14-year-old Nakahama Manjirō and four friends (all brothers, named Goemon, Denzo, Toraemon, and Jusuke) were fishing when their boat was wrecked on the island of Torishima. The American whaler ship John Howland (with Captain William H. Whitfield in command) rescued them. At the end of the voyage, four of them were left in Honolulu; however Manjirō (nicknamed "John Mung") wanted to stay on the ship. Captain Whitfield took him back to the United States and entrusted him to James Akin, who enrolled Manjirō in the Oxford School in the town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. The boy studied English and navigation for a year, apprenticed to a cooper, and then, with Whitfield's help, signed on to the whaler Franklin (Captain Ira Davis). After whaling in the South Seas, the Franklin put into Honolulu in October 1847, where Manjirō again met his four friends. None were able to return to Japan, for this was during Japan's period of isolation when leaving the country was an offense punishable by death.
When Captain Davis became mentally ill and was left in Manila, the crew elected a new captain, and Manjirō was made Harpooner. The Franklin returned to New Bedford, Massachusetts in September 1849 and paid-off its crew; Manjirō was self-sufficient, with $350 in his pocket.
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