The Life of John Manjiro: The First Japanese in America

Washed up on the shores of an uninhabited island in Japanese waters the still young fourteen year old and his companions were at a loss of what to do. They sat, waiting. Waiting for any signs of help that might come and pull them out of their state of castaway. Signaling any passing ships with a crude flag made from a branch and shirt. Over a month on the island with only the five of them, none knowing what to do. Being young they called out for their mothers, “Okasan, Okasan!” All hope was soon to be lost when a glimmer of hope came by in the form of a Massachusetts whaling ship. The distant outline of a ship seemed like a delusion at first but soon enough the five members of the island grabbed their signal and waved it frantically. To their fortune, they were spotted. To the other four companions it was a rescue, to the fourteen-year-old boy it was the beginning of an adventure. An adventure in which he would encounter with a foreign people, explore a culture of a far away land, and exchange the ideas in which the clash of the east and west will occur once again in history.