Joseph Heco
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Joseph Heco (born September 20, 1837 – December 12, 1897) was the first Japanese person to be
naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...
as a
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
citizen and the first to publish a
Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...
newspaper.


Early years

Hikozō Hamada was born in Harima province, the son of a local landowner. Following his father's death, his mother remarried. The fatherless boy had been accepted by a temple school for training and education, something unusual for someone of his social class. His mother died when he was twelve, but his stepfather, a seaman on a freighter often away from home, continued to care for the boy. A year later when returning from
Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...
after a sightseeing journey, their ship, the , was dismasted and blown off course in a severe storm in the
Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...
. The American freighter ''Auckland'' picked up seventeen survivors from the sea and brought them to
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
in February 1851. This was the second time Japanese castaways would come to San Francisco. John Manjiro was the first, although
Hasekura Tsunenaga was a kirishitan Japanese samurai and retainer of Date Masamune, the daimyō of Sendai. He was of Japanese imperial descent with ancestral ties to Emperor Kanmu. Other names include Philip Francis Faxicura, Felipe Francisco Faxicura, and Ph ...
had earlier sailed past
Cape Mendocino Cape Mendocino ( Spanish: ''Cabo Mendocino'', meaning "Cape of Mendoza"), which is located approximately north of San Francisco, is located on the Lost Coast entirely within Humboldt County, California, United States. At 124° 24' 34" W longit ...
. The ''Eiriki Marus cook, Sentarō, then became the first Japanese person known to have his photograph taken, and would soon traverse the continent. In 1852 the group was sent to
Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...
to join Commodore
Matthew Perry Matthew Langford Perry (August 19, 1969 – October 28, 2023) was an American and Canadian actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. He gained international fame for starring as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom ''Friends'' (1994– ...
as a gesture to help open
diplomatic relations Diplomacy is the communication by representatives of state, intergovernmental, or non-governmental institutions intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern Diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. ...
with Japan. However, Heco met an American interpreter who asked him to return to the United States with him and learn English, with the thought that Heco would be able return to Japan with important language skills when the country was open for trade. Heco accepted the offer and arrived in San Francisco in June 1853. Heco attended a
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
school in
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
and was baptized "Joseph" in 1854. He returned to the West Coast for further study, when in 1857 he was invited by California Senator William M. Gwin to come with him to
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
as his secretary. Here he became the first nonofficial Japanese person to be introduced to a U.S. President. Heco stayed with Gwin until February 1858. He then joined Lt. J.M. Brooke on a survey of the coast of
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and Japan. In June of that year, Heco became the first Japanese subject to become an American citizen.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hamada Hikozō''" in .


Interpreting career

Realizing the treaty ports in Japan were scheduled to open on July 1, 1859, Heco left his ship and went to
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
. Here he joined Townsend Harris, returning to Japan on the . In
Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
, Heco also met E.M. Door, scheduled to be the American Consul at
Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...
. Heco accepted Door's offer of a job as his interpreter. Heco left Shanghai on June 15, 1859, and arrived at
Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...
. Heco had been asked to stay in the background, but following an incident between an American sailor and a Japanese, he intervened when the Japanese interpreter did not know enough English to handle the situation. The Japanese interpreter was dumbfounded and questioned Heco closely. The ''Mississippi'' left Nagasaki on June 22 – without Heco ever setting foot on land. Heco worked as interpreter for the U.S. Consulate in Kanagawa but resigned on February 1, 1860. He became a general commission agent in nearby
Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...
, waiting for the arrival of his partner from California. However, the partnership was dissolved on March 1, 1861, after doing poorly for a year. Heco returned to the United States in September 1861 on board the USS ''Carrington''. In Yokohama he met Wilhelm Heine, Francis Hall and
Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin. Sometimes anglicized to Michael Bakunin. ( ; – 1 July 1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, s ...
and traveled back to San Francisco with Bakunin in September. In March 1862 he met
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
. Heco returned to Kanagawa at the end of September 1862 and began work at the U.S. Consulate once again. After nearly a year, he left to establish a trading firm. In 1863, Heco began his publishing career with ''Hyōryūki'' (漂流記 ''Record of a Castaway''), an account of his experiences in America. From 1864 to 1866, Heco helped publish the first Japanese language newspaper, the '' Kaigai Shinbun''. Today, Heco is regarded in Japan as the father of Japanese journalism.


Business career

On January 3, 1867, Heco went to Nagasaki to look after the business of an American friend, A. D. Weld French, who was leaving Japan. He registered at the U.S. Consulate in Nagasaki as an American citizen. Later in the month, the
daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...
of Hizen asked Heco to be his agent in Nagasaki. On May 13, Heco also went to work for Glover & Co. One of the partners, K.R. Mackenzie, asked Heco to help acquire the rights to the Takashima
coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...
. Eventually, however, with Heco's assistance, Mackenzie and Glover overcame various problems to establish a partnership. In June 1867, Kido Koin and
Itō Hirobumi Kazoku, Prince , born , was a Japanese statesman who served as the first prime minister of Japan from 1885 to 1888, and later from 1892 to 1896, in 1898, and from 1900 to 1901. He was a leading member of the ''genrō'', a group of senior state ...
( Chōshū
samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
) called upon Heco under the guise of being Satsuma officials, and asked questions about the United States and England, especially regarding the U.S. Constitution. In October, they called again and asked Heco to serve as their agent in Nagasaki. He did so for two years without remuneration. Heco later helped Itō visit England with the assistance of British Admiral Henry Keppel of the H.M.S. ''Salamis''. On January 1, 1868,
Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...
was opened as a treaty port and, according to Heco, "Yokohama, Nagasaki, and the China ports all sent their quota of bearded foreigners on the hunt for the Almighty Dollar." Heco described these early days of 1868 as troubled times. "Wild and disquieting rumours of the happenings in Kyoto and Osaka were ever arriving." In February 1868, the victorious forces of the
Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...
of the
Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...
promised that they would not harm foreigners in Nagasaki. Heco went with Francis Groom of Glover & Co. to
Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
to negotiate the transfer of the CSS ''Stonewall'' to the Japanese government. That summer Heco was asked to find a Western physician for the daimyō of Hizen. He found Dr. Samuel Boyer of the . Heco moved between Nagasaki and Osaka at this time and reported on the rice riots of 1869. In February 1870 the Japanese government began to persecute the 3000 Christians from Urakami, and Glover & Co. went bankrupt.
In the month of August the firm I had been serving since 1867 lover & Co.failed all of a sudden. The first meeting of creditors was held at the English Consulate in Nagasaki on the 16th Sept., and on the 19th, the firm laid a full statement of affairs before them.
In October, Heco accompanied Mackenzie to Kobe. He was soon back in Nagasaki, leasing a house on the bund o. 1 Ouraand began a business as a commercial agent. He also was appointed by the daimyō of Hizen to look after his interests in the Takashima coal mine. Visiting the daimyo in Kobe, in 1871, he stayed a month. Then in December, he went with Thomas Glover to visit the daimyō of
Kumamoto is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a populat ...
at his
castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
, but the daimyō was away at the time. They still, however, received a tour of the castle before returning to Nagasaki. In May 1872, Heco received an offer to work under Inoue Kaoru, the Minister of Finance. He left Nagasaki in early August to do so. However, he had the opportunity to witness the Meiji Emperor's visit to Nagasaki on July 19 before he left. Heco stayed with the Finance Ministry until the beginning of 1874, when he left of his own accord. In May 1875 Heco went to work in Kobe, where he remained until becoming ill in 1881. Heco died in 1897. As an American he was buried in the foreign section of Aoyama Cemetery in
Aoyama, Tokyo is a neighborhood in Tokyo, located in the northwest portion of Minato, Tokyo, Minato Ward. The area is known for its international fashion houses, cafes and restaurants. refers to the area on the north side of Aoyama-dori (Aoyama Street) betw ...
.


Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Joseph Heco,
OCLC OCLC, Inc. See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the ...
/
WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
encompasses roughly 30+ works in 100+ publications in 5 languages and 1,100+ library holdings.WorldCat Identities

Heco, Joseph 1837-1897
/ref> * 漂流記 (1863) * 開国之滴: 漂流異譚. 上 (1893) * ''The narrative of a Japanese; what he has seen and the people he has met in the course of the last forty years'' (1890) * ''Erinnerungen eines Japaners: Schilderung der Entwicklung Japan's vor und seit der Eröffnung bis auf die Neuzeit'' (1898)


See also

* 19156 Heco, an asteroid named after Heco * Foreign cemeteries in Japan


Notes


References


Our Biographies
* Heco, Joseph (Narrative Writer)
James Murdoch James Rupert Jacob Murdoch (born 13 December 1972) is an American - British businessman. He is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the former chief executive officer (CEO) of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019. He was the chairma ...
(Editor), ''The Narrative of a Japanese: What He Has Seen and the People He Has Met in the Course of the Last 40 Years'', Yokohama, Yokohama Publishing Company (Tokyo, Maruzen), 1895, 2 volumes (
Wikisource Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content source text, textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one f ...
) * Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan Encyclopedia.''
Cambridge:
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...
.
OCLC 58053128
* Oaks, Robert F. "Golden Gate Castaway: Joseph Heco and San Francisco, 1851–1859." ''California History'' 82:2, 2004. * Hsu, Hsuan L. "Personality, Race, and Geopolitics in Joseph Heco's Narrative of a Japanese." ''Biography'' 29:2 (Spring 2006). * Yoshimura Akira. ''Storm Rider''. Harcourt, Brace: 2004.


Further reading

*


External links

*
Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

Joseph Heco's papers

The narrative of a Japanese : what he has seen and the people he has met in the course of the last forty years / by Joseph Heco; edited by James Murdoch.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heco, Joseph 1837 births 1897 deaths 19th-century American journalists 19th-century American male writers 19th-century Roman Catholics American autobiographers American journalists of Asian descent American male journalists American Roman Catholic writers American writers of Japanese descent English-language writers from Japan Interpreters Japanese autobiographers Japanese emigrants to the United States Japanese journalists Japanese male writers Japanese Roman Catholics Naturalized citizens of the United States People of the Meiji era Shipwreck survivors Writers from Hyōgo Prefecture