Ashizuri Misaki, which Manjiro saw.
In the normal course of life, Manjiro would have lived and died a fisherman in Tosa, present day Kochi Pref. His fortunes changed when he, aged 14, was marooned along with his four shipmates, later saved by an American whaling boat, taken to Hawaii and eventually to Bedford, Massachusetts, the ship's mother port. Captain Whitfield took a shine to this young boy and gave him an opportunity for education at American school. Captain renamed him John Mung. He sailed for several years on a whaling ship. In total, he lived overseas for about ten years, during which his horizon was expanded. The life was not always easy and there was discrimination and misunderstanding, but John Mung absorbed and learned through his experiences and after returning to Japan, he became a valuable source for the country to know about overseas when foreign countries demanded Japan to open up. He was allowed to carry a family name and picked up Nakahama. Now that his story is available in English, he will be better known from now on. The Nakahama family and Whitfield family have kept in contact over generations. Their tie is solid.
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