The Life Of Manjiro Nakahama

Book: Heart Of The Samurai

Character: Manjiro Nakahama

I think Manjiro's role in life was to prove that all Western's were not all bad and to see for himself.  He believed that they were misunderstood.   

When the wind picked up, I asked one of the older fishermen, Toraemon if the wind always roars like it had now.  He only told me to get back to work and payed no attention to the dark clouds.  Everyone was to dazzeled by the amount of fish we had and were about to bring into our boat.  People were so happy because the village had been going hungry for a while now.  No one seemed to notice the dark clouds that covered the sky like a blanket, exept for me.  When we started to go back to the shore and land was again within sight, we started panicking. We realized that we were drifting AWAY from our shores, not towards them.  My people call it the Black Current.  Then we realized in how much trouble we were in.  We were very afraid.  We had no oars, our mast had snapped, and it was raining.  The rain was freezing us over in sheets.  Then we came to a small island we named, Bird Island.  We ate most of our catch in the storm and in the helpless drifting in the open ocean, but when we saw that island we were so happy we could find a place that could possibly find a place to find help, food, and some rest.

A few weeks ago we got off Bird Island.  We saw a ship and we screamed at the top of our lungs to get their attention.  When we did get their attention, they sent their Captain Whitfield and his First Mate they call Jolly.  Who wasn’t very jolly if you ask me.  They took us aboard their whaling ship and fed us and gave us new clothes.  After that we went to sleep.  My best friends Denzo and Goemon kept telling me of the danger of being on the ship.  They could kill us.  He was right. We were in so much danger, but I didn’t think we were in any danger.  We could never return home, for these people were the barbarians of the West.  They started to teach me their language.  It was very difficult to learn what I now know to be a fork.  Denzo would not learn.  He was convinced that these people were evil, and they woud kill us in time.  Goemon thought the same thing.  I thought “ Why would they save us, then kill us?”  They fed us, gave us new clothes because our old one’s were wrecked.  I started to work as a whaler on their ship.  It was dirty work but it had good pay.  They had a hard time grasping my name so they gave me a new one.  John Mung.

The whaling was hard work.  I felt wrong about killing these animals, but I realized I needed to so I can earn Western currency.  One day, when we were stopped in a harbor, Goemon and I went to spend time on land.  A few days ago, Captain Whitfield had his prized posession stolen.  His silver pocketwatch.  We were just walking back to the boat when the First Mate Jolly and two men stopped us on the beach.  He accused us of steling the Captain's watch.  He did not trust us because we were from a foreign country.   They searched us and found nothing.  We emeptied everything onto the white sand of the beach. “Where are you hiding the watch?” he asked us.  We could barely understand him so we remained silent.  He pulled out his knife and asked us again.  When we did not answer again, he attacked.  We dodged every swipe of the gleaming knife.  He crashed into an oil barrel and knocked it over on a torch causing the whole thing to catch fire.  I grabbed the torch and waved it in front of him.  He tried to grab it from my hand but missed and his long beard caught fire.  He ran off screaming.  I noticed something glittering in the sand.  A silver pocket watch.  Jolly dropped it when he ran off.  We went to the Captain and explained everything.  He was most pleased with us.  Jolly had to do all the boat’s chores for a month.

A few years had passed and Denzo, Goemen and I have all stuck together.  One day I decided to go with Captain Whitfield to live on the mainland.  Denzo had dieda year before.  Goemen came with us.  We were both around the age 16.  I started to go to school while Goemon worked.  One day I met a girl.  It was a whole year before we started to talk to each other.  She was very nice to me.  Thats when we started to go on walks together.  I brought her flowers every day.  One day she took me to see her father.  I was so scared of what he might say or do to me. I had nothing to be afraid I found out later.  We fell in love and we would do everything together.  After school every day, I would have some work to attend to.  I had been saving a fund so that me and Denzo could go back to japan after 5 long years.  I finally saved up enough money so we could leave and see our family’s again.  We boarded The friend of the Captain’s ship.  I said a long goodbye to him.  We set off for Japan the next morning.

Picture:www.spinnerpub.com