5/25/2016 HistoryLink.org­ the Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History Search Encyclopedia Go Advanced Search Home About Us Contact Us Education Bookstore Tourism Advanced Search 7072 HistoryLink.org essays now available Timeline Library < Browse to Previous Essay | Browse to Next Essay > This essay made possible by: Donation system not supported by Safari The State of Washington Shortcuts Washington Department of Archaeology and First Japanese known to reach the future Washington Historic Preservation Libraries state arrive in January 1834. Cyberpedias HistoryLink.org Essay 9068 : Printer­Friendly Format Timeline Essays Sometime in January 1834, three young Japanese sailors run aground on the Olympic Peninsula in a disabled ship. They are People's Histories inadvertent travelers, blown off course by a storm, then carried by ocean currents to the coast of a land they had not known existed. Selected Collections They are found and briefly held as slaves by Makah Indians; Cities & Towns ransomed by the Hudson’s Bay Company; brought to Fort Vancouver for a few months, and then sent on their way. The first Counties Japanese known to have set foot in what is now Washington state, Biographies they travel the rest of the way around the world, but are never able to return to their homeland. Interactive Cybertours Ill­fated Voyage Slideshows Sixteenth­century Japanese sailing vessel Illustration by James F. Goater Public Ports The three sailors were the sole survivors of a crew of 14 that set out on October 11, 1832, from the port of Onoura, on the southeast Audio & Video coast of Japan, with a cargo of rice and porcelain. They were bound for Edo (Tokyo) on what was supposed to be a routine journey of a Research Shortcuts few hundred miles. Instead, their ship ­­ the Hojunmaru ­­ was Map Searches Alphabetical Search caught in a typhoon, stripped of its rudder, and carried out to sea. Timeline Date Search Topic Search Isolationist policies adopted by Japan’s rulers in the 1630s Features prohibited the construction of ships capable of sailing on the open Book of the Fortnight ocean. The Japanese relied instead on single­masted vessels with Audio/Video Enhanced large rudders that could be raised or lowered for navigation in Monument to the Three Kichis, Fort Vancouver, History Bookshelf coastal waters. The size and design of the rudders made them Washington, 2009 Klondike Gold Rush Database Photo by Glenn Drosendahl Duvall Newspaper Index vulnerable to being torn away in heavy seas. In that case, crews Wellington Scrapbook could try to stabilize the craft by cutting down the mast, but that left More History them with no way to sail or steer back to port. Washington FAQs Washington Milestones The Hojunmaru had a solidly built hull, making it somewhat Honor Rolls seaworthy. The crew had sufficient food (rice from the cargo and Columbia Basin Everett fish from the sea). They had a barrel of water and the ability to Olympia augment it by desalinating saltwater and collecting rainwater. What Seattle they did not have were fruits or vegetables. Most of the crew died Spokane Tacoma during the long months adrift, probably of scurvy. Walla Walla Roads & Rails After drifting for about 14 months across 5,000 miles of ocean, the ship washed ashore near Cape Flattery. The precise location is unknown, but some evidence points to Cape Alava, about 20 miles south of Cape Flattery, adjacent to the ancient Makah fishing village of Ozette. Left alive were the ship’s navigator, Iwakichi, 28, and two apprentice cooks, Kyukichi, 15, and Otokichi, 14. Like most of the rest of the crew, they were from the village of Onoura, then a port city, now a beach resort. Their names are known in part because of a memorial erected by their fellow townspeople shortly after their ship disappeared. HistoryLink.org Staff Historian Cassandra Tate Interlude at Fort Vancouver at Three Kichis monument, Fort Vancouver, Washington, 2009 Photo by Glenn Drosendahl The survivors staggered to shore and promptly encountered a group http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=9068 1/4 5/25/2016 HistoryLink.org­ the Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History of Makah seal hunters. Neither the Japanese nor the Makah would have had any idea that the other existed. Japan had been sealed off from the rest of the world for more than 200 years, and the Makah had had only limited contact with European fur traders. In any case, the Indians took command of the situation and claimed the sailors as captives. The Indians reportedly retrieved a number of items from the beached ship. Five fragments of ceramic bowls believed to have been on the Hojunmaru were later found on Makah land at Cape Alava. Alexander C. Anderson (1814­1884), an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, reported meeting a group of Indians at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1834 who "produced a map with some writing in Japanese characters; a string of the perforated copper coins of that country; and other convincing proofs of a shipwreck" (quoted in Keddie, 10). But the ship apparently broke up and sank before much could be salvaged from it. The Makah escorted the castaways inland to a nearby village ­­ possibly Ozette ­­ and held them there as slaves for several months. News about the strange captives was forwarded from tribe to tribe until it reached John McLoughlin (1784­1857), chief factor of Fort Vancouver, regional headquarters for the Hudson’s Bay Company. Depiction of Japanese castaways meeting He sent out an overland expedition to rescue the sailors in mid­ John McLoughlin, Fort Vancouver, 1834 March 1834, but that effort failed. He then ordered William H. Illustration by Walter F. Enright McNeill (1803­1875), captain of the Hudson's Bay Company brig Lama, to ransom the men while on regular business near Cape Flattery. The captain was to "do your utmost to Recover the unfortunate people said to be wrecked in the Vicinity of that place." He was also to "reward the Indians for their trouble so as to induce them, if any should be so unfortunate as to be wrecked on their Shores, to treat them with kindness" (Letters of John McLoughlin, May 16 and May 20, 1834). McNeill retrieved the sailors in June and delivered them to Fort Monument to Japanese castaways, Onoura, Japan, 2007 Vancouver early the next month. Through sign language and Photo by James F. Goater drawings they were able to communicate a fairly accurate account of what had happened to them. "They were first driven from their course by a Typhoon," McLoughlin later wrote to his superiors in London, "and subsequently a sea unshipped their rudder or broke their rudder irons, when the vessel became unmanageable . ..." When they ran aground, "about a year from the date they left their home," they still "had plenty of rice and water yet on board but that a sickness had broke out among the crew which carried off all except these three. A little after the vessel grounded and before the natives could get anything worth while out of her a storm arose and Backyard view, Onoura, Japan, 2007 broke her up" (Letters of John McLoughlin, November 18, 1834). Photo by James F. Goater The "three kichis" remained at Fort Vancouver for about four months. They learned a little English, were introduced to the precepts of Christianity, and gradually adapted to western clothing, diet, and customs. It is easy to imagine that they were "alternately befuddled and shocked by such exotic items as shoes and trousers, glass windows, the eating of red meat (generally prohibited in Japan) and the worship of the Christian god (punishable by death at home)" (Schodt, 55). ‘Dealt a Harsh Hand by Fate’ Temple grounds containing monument to Japanese castaways, Onoura, Japan, 2007 Photo by James F. Goater McLoughlin had originally assumed the sailors were Chinese. When he learned that they were Japanese, he thought they could be used to help open trading relations between Japan and Great Britain. He arranged to send them on to London, expecting that Hudson’s Bay officials and the British government would welcome the opportunity to return them to their homeland. The rescued mariners left Fort Vancouver on November 15, 1834, http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=9068 2/4 5/25/2016 HistoryLink.org­ the Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History on the company's brig Eagle. (Their names were recorded in the ship’s passenger manifest as Youakeeche, Quikeeche, and Otakeeche.) They arrived in London, via Honolulu and the Straits of Magellan, in June 1835. Instead of praising his initiative, Hudson’s Bay officials scolded McLoughlin for not leaving the sailors in Hawaii to find their own way home, "His majesty’s government not being disposed to open a communication with the Japanese government thro the medium of three shipwrecked Seamen" (Hudson’s Bay Company to John McLoughlin, August Beach at Onoura, Japan, 2007 28, 1835, quoted in Schodt, 71). Photo by James F. Goater The by now well­traveled voyagers were confined to the ship for about 10 days while it lay at anchor in the Thames River and the government decided what to do with them. Finally they were transferred to another brig and sent the rest of the way around the world, to the southern China port city of Macao. They were allowed one day to tour London before they embarked, becoming the first Japanese known to have visited that city. An American merchant named Charles W. King made an effort to repatriate them in 1837 but failed. Under edicts intended to insulate Onoura, Japan, 2007 Japan from all foreign influences, Japanese citizens were not Photo by James F.