Hundreds of years ago, in an era of world history when Western countries were beginning to explore Asia, Japan stood apart from most of the rest of the world when it looked at the situation, thought “Nah,” and shut its doors to outsiders for hundreds of years.
This period of Japanese history, the Edo era (1603-1868), definitely had its upsides. Japanese culture and creativity hit news highs as people, for the first time in hundreds of years, enjoyed an almost unheard of degree of peace and prosperity. It’s an easy time to romanticize.
But a handful of Japanese people were hurt by the isolationists policies of the Tokugawa shogunate when, for whatever reason, they got separated form the Japan and were unable to return.
While these people obviously suffered a great deal by being separated from their homes, families, and everything they’d ever known, but they also experienced things that no other Japanese person during that time got to experience.
Ships floating adrift wasn’t unknown back in the days when navigation was done with a sextant instead of GPS. If the mast on your ship was knocked over or your sail got FUBAR, you couldn’t exactly radio for help or send out an SOS.
Sometimes it worked out alright for Japanese castaways. In 1813, the Japanese ship Tokujomaru drifted across the Pacific Ocean onto California, where its survivors were rescued. The survivors of the Tokujomaru managed to eventually made it back to Japan, sneaking in through Russia.
Not everybody was as lucky. Otokichi Yamamoto was aboard the Japanese ship Hojunmaru in 1832 when the ship was set adrift. The crew of the Hojunmaru floated aimlessly across the Pacific Ocean for over a year—during that time, 11 of the 14 crew members died.
When the Hojunmaru reached land, things went from bad to not quite as bad, but still pretty awful. The surviving crew, which included Otokichi, was enslaved for a while before being freed by traders.
The traders tried to return the castaways to Japan; not because the traders were particularly altruistic, but partially because they thought that these Japanese sailors would be the key to opening up trade with Japan.
Long story short, that didn’t happen. As foreign ships approached Japan with Otokichi other Japanese castaways in tow, those in Japan fired upon the ships with cannons, driving them away.
With virtually no hope of returning to his homeland, Otokichi decided to make the best of his situation. He found a wife and started a family. He found work, both as a translator and as a sailor again. Life outside of Japan, it turns out, wasn’t so bad after all.
Otokichi actually made it back to Japan a few times after being turned away. Acting as a translator, Otokichi joined foreign delegations visiting Japan. On one occasion, he pretended that he was Chinese; on another, he was actually offered repatriation, but declined so that he could remain with his family in Shanghai.
Otokichi made his final return a few years ago; in 2005, some of Otokichi’s remains were repatriated to his hometown in Japan.
It’s mind-boggling to think of a person today being put in the same situation as Otokichi: set adrift on the ocean with no contact with anybody and no chance of rescue. Nowadays, Otokichi would be Tweeting his journey on his Softbank phone (out sailing today #boat #ocean #blessed) and get rescued before he left Japanese waters. And it’s unthinkable nowadays that a law-abiding Japanese citizen wouldn’t be able to return to his own country.
But Otokichi’s journey, as rough as it must have been, was an incredible one. Not only for the fact that Otokichi and his comrades were among the handful of Japanese people who made it out of the country during the Edo period, but because in spite of being in one of the most helpless situations imaginable, Otokichi ended up a happy man with a family and good career. And really, what more could you ask for?
Wallpapers!
Our wonderful illustrator Aya has provided us with some desktop background sized versions of the header image. Enjoy!
