1996 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Japanese Contacts with African-Americans Historically Studied in Japan-U.S.Relations Up to the End of World War II
| Project/Area Number |
07801049
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Japanese history
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| Research Institution | Tenri University |
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Principal Investigator |
FURUKAWA Hiromi Tenri University Faculty of International Culture Studies, Professor, 国際文化学部, 教授 (20047442)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KEARNEY Reginald Kanda Gaigo University Department of Foreign Languages, Associate Professor, 外国語学部, 助教授 (60265494)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1995 – 1996
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| Keywords | Japan-U.S.Relation / African-American / International Exchange / Educational Institution |
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| Research Abstract |
There were occasional contacts with Americans for approximately ten years since 1797, when the first American ship, the Eliza came to Dejima, a Ducth trading post in Nagasaki, under the Ducth flag. A few "black men" were seen on board these ships. During the first half of the 19th century some shipwrecked Japanese were rescued on the high seas by U.S.ships or whaleboats, crewed partly by African-Americans.
Among those rescued were John Mung (Nakahama Manjiro) and Joseph Heko (Hamada Hikozo), both taken to the main land America and given education, thereby acquiring some knowledge of racial discrimination. In 1845 a U.S.whaler, the Manhattan rescued twenty-two shipwrecked Japanese and sailed into Yedo Bay. The skilled helmsman of the ship named Pyrrus Concer, a former slave, greatly impressed the rescued and Japanese high officials as well.
After the Meiji Restoration that opened the country, there were friendly contacts between Japanese and black Americans on such occasions as the Iwakura Mission to the United States in 1872 ; Fisk Jubilee Singers' visit to Japan in 1878 ; Oberlin College's admission in 1881 of the first Japanese ; Hampton's teacher, Alice M.Bacon's three visits to Japan to help teach Japanese girls, beginning with 1888 ; Japanese students' enrollment in Hampton and Howard in the 1890s, etc.
Jenichiro Oyabe, who had studied at Hampton and Howard, set up a school for Ainu children in Hokkaido in 1905, a Japanese version of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute established by Gen.Armstrong. There was a Japanese student who attended Booker T.Washington's Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1906-08.
These are dealt in my essay, "Japanese Contacts with Black Educational Institutions in the United States : (1) Up to the End of the Meiji Era, " published in THE AMERICAS Past & Present No.2, brought out by the Tenri University Association of the Americas Studies in 1997.
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