Japanese American Relations fostered in Fairhaven, Massachusetts?

While we were in Fairhaven, Massachusetts for a tour of the Mayflower II in drydock, we visited the Northeast Maritime Institute.  I didn't know that this building was previously a Unitarian Church with a very interesting history until I saw these granite markers outside of the building...

THIS BUILDING WAS THE 

ORIGINAL UNITARIAN CHURCH

WHERE THE WHITFIELDS AND

MANJIRO NAKAHAMA ATTENDED

SERVICES IN THE 1840'S

CAPTAIN WILLIAM H. WHITFIELD

NOVEMBER 11, 1804

FEBRUARY 14, 1886

ON JUNE 27, 1841, CAPTAIN WILLIAM

WHITEFIELD'S CREW OF THE 

WHALING SHIP JOHN HOWLAND

RESCUED FIVE SHIPWRECKED JAPANESE

FISHERMEN ON AN UNINHABITED

VOLCANIC ISLAND IN THE PACIFIC

OCEAN.  THIS ENCOUNTER WAS THE

BEGINNING OF THE FIRST FRIENDLY

CONTACT BETWEEN THE JAPANESE

AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

WHALE SHIP

JOHN HOWLAND

"ONLY THOSE WHO RISK GOING

TOO FAR WILL EVER KNOW HOW

FAR THAT THEY CAN GO"

MANJIRO NAKAHAMA WAS THE FIRST

JAPANESE TO LIVE IN AMERICA.

HE WAS EDUCATED IN FAIRHAVEN

MASSACHUSETTS AND

PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN FOSTERING THE

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JAPAN AND

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY 

ENLIGHTENING THE JAPANESE OFFICIALS

ABOUT WESTERN CULTURE, TECHNOLOGY,

AND DEMOCRACY PRIOR TO THE ARRIVAL

OF COMMODORE MATTHEW PERRY ON

HIS HISTORIC MISSION THAT ADVANCED

THE SIGNING OF THE U. S.- JAPAN TREATY

OF 1854.

I loved finding a hidden bit of American history here outside of this historic church.  I know that at the time of these events, Japan was a closed country, and Manjiro would have risked death returning.  During this period of isolation leaving Japan was punishable by death.  Instead he became educated, participated in the Gold Rush as a '49er, and eventually returned home.  He was recieved with great honor and worked with the ambassadors to the United States.  In the 1870s he studied military science in Europe and became a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University.  He died in 1898 at age 71.

You can read more about Manjiro Nakahama and his honorable career rising from a simple fisherman to a diplomat for the Japanese Emperor at this Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakahama_Manjir%C5%8D

The Whitfield-Manjiro Friendship Society
11 Cherry Street
Fairhaven, Massachusetts
phone 508-858-5303
website http://whitfield-manjiro.org/

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo