History of Manjiro Nakahama (John Mung)
Back in 1841, the New Bedford whaling ship "John Howland" rescued a group of young
Japanese men from a deserted island far from the coast of Japan. Captain William
Whitfield struck up a friendship with a 14-year-old named Manjiro and offered to bring
him back home to Fairhaven.
It was in May of 1843, after a two-year voyage around South America and back to
Massachusetts, that the ship docked in New Bedford Harbor and Manjiro became the
first Japanese man to live in the United States.
After years of learning several trades, he made his way to Hawaii and earned enough
money to make his way back to Japan in 1853. In 1918, his grandson visited Fairhaven
and presented a Samurai sword to the town in recognition of their hospitality to his
grandfather.
Over the next 69 years, a relationship developed between the Nakahama and Whitfield
families and in 1987, a Japanese delegation came from Tosashimizu, which encompasses
Manjiro's old hometown of Nakanohama, and initiated the idea of a sister-city
relationship with New Bedford and Fairhaven. Five years later, a sporting exchange
developed between and the first team from Tosashimizu visited Fairhaven. Teams from
New Bedford and Fairhaven visited Japan in 1994 and 1996 and hope to visit again in
2000.
Click on the links below to find out more about New
Bedford, Fairhaven Massachusetts and John Manjiro.
News Page
John Manjiro Page
The Manjiro Socie...