![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In Japan, a society at that time that was closed to Westerners and suspicious of even the few Japanese who traveled abroad, Manjiro was jailed and interrogated for over a year. In 1849 Manjiro left New England to go to Sacramento as a part of the Great Gold Rush, and he actually earned $600 working in the gold mines, enough to finance his return to Japan. He was also the first Japanese to attend an American school, where he learned surveying, navigation, mathematics, and the English language. The bare facts of Manjiro’s life are almost unbelievable:Īs far as we know, he was the first Japanese person to set foot on American soil. Heart of a Samurai is the fictionalized story of Manjiro’s life and his attempt to straddle two cultures, Japan and the West, especially the United States. John Manjiro was a Japanese fisherman who, as a boy in 1841, was stranded on an island after a storm and rescued by an American whaling ship. ![]()
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