 The theme for Honolulu Festival’s 5th U.S.-Japan Cultural Exchange Seminar Program held at the Hawaii Convention Center on March 15th was “Joseph Heco”. Perhaps his name is not familiar to many of us, however, Heco was the first Japanese to become an American citizen 150 years ago at the end of the Edo era.
From left: Dr. Gay Michiko Satsuma,
Associate Director, Center for Japanese
Studies at University of Hawaii at Manoa;
Dr. George Mercer Brooke III,
descendant of Lt. John Mercer Brooke;
Mr. Dwight Damon, descendant of Rev.
Samuel Chenery Damon,
Honolulu’s seamen’s chaplain. During the same period there was another man named John Manjiro who was saved by an American whaling ship while drifting on the coastal waters of Japan, returned to Japan ten years later and was appointed by the shogunate to assist in establishing relations with America. Heco, on the other hand, was baptized a Catholic in Baltimore, became an American citizen and upon returning to Japan worked at the American Consulate in Yokohama. The beginning of both of their lives may have been insignificant and full of misfortunes, but by contrast, both were pioneers in the latter part of their lives in opening relations between Japan and America.
This year’s seminar gave us an opportunity to look into Heco’s life not only from the perspective of researchers, but also from a personal point of view, from those connected to his life by ancestry. We were able to discuss the important role Heco played in establishing the first relations between Japan and the United States.
Dr. Samuel N. Mukaida, President of
the Joseph Heco Society of Hawaii The participation of Dr. George Mercer Brooke III of Lexington, Virginia, in particular, was of great interest. His great grandfather Lt. John Mercer Brooke was responsible for assisting Heco in getting back to Japan. Lt. Brooke is also well known for being the technical adviser of the Kanrin Maru, the Japanese ship commissioned to sail to San Francisco with Katsu Kaishu, Fukuzawa Yukichi and John Manjiro aboard.
Hawaii is located in the center of the Pacific Ocean. And because of that, we are connected to much history involving the relations between Japan and the United States. The Honolulu Festival hopes to continue this tradition of planning seminars based on topics relating to the friendship and goodwill of these two countries.
The 5th U.S.-Japan Cultural Exchange Seminar Program was co-sponsored by the Honolulu Festival Foundation, Consulate General of Japan in Hawaii, Japan-America Society of Hawaii and Joseph Heco Society of Hawaii .
The Joseph Heco Exhibit and Kamishibai ( Storytelling Board)
 The 14th Annual Honolulu Festival featured an exhibit of Joseph Heco at the Hawaii Convention Center. There was a panel display highlighting Heco’s life history. Also part of the exhibit was a Joseph Heco Kamishibai (the word “kamishibai” literally “paper drama”) created by the college students of Kapiolani Community College. This Kamishibai, a traditional Japanese form of storytelling using picture boards, explained Heco’s story so that everyone even the children could understand. Each storyboard was handmade by the KCC students led by their professor Linda Fujikawa.
Fujikawa says, “As part of their class work the students need to understand the importance of being able to communicate to others what they have learned. They need to apply what they have learned. And they are able to build their confidence by sharing their knowledge with others.”
The members of the Joseph Heco Society of Hawaii who participated in the exhibit area were very happy that the kamishibai made it easy for the young children to understand Heco’s story and appreciated the hard work of the KCC students. The Society hopes to use this kamishibai feature in their future projects. The students in turn were excited that they were able to share their knowledge with the children.
Attendees read each panel
of the Joseph Heco exhibit
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The story boards that the KCC
students made for their
Joesph Heco Kamishibai project |
A member of the Joseph Heco
Society of Hawaii thanks
Professor Fujikawa and
her students for their hard work |
Lei Sato, student at Kapiolani Community College
The Honolulu Festival gave me an opportunity to learn about Joseph Heco, a person in history that I had never heard of in my schooling in Japan. We were able to apply our knowledge of Heco through kamishibai, a traditional form of Japanese culture. Since this traditional Japanese form of storytelling no longer exists in Japan today our project began by researching what a kamishibai is really like. Then we wrote storyboards with drawings on it explaining Heco’s life story so that the children can easily understand the story.
Heco lost his parents when he was a child. His stepfather got him to sail on a shipping vessel that got shipwrecked by a typhoon. After drifting on the open sea for two months he was rescued by an American ship which changed his life forever. He was the first Japanese to meet American Presidents on American soil, he received an American education and became Joseph Heco, an American citizen.
When you think about it, he is our starting point, our pioneer, for our class is made up of students from Japan studying in a foreign country. I can understand the difficulty that he went through trying to fit in a foreign country with foreign people, trying to understand the language and culture. I can relate to what he went through only too well. And by learning about him I was able to gain strength and hope for myself. What a great opportunity for me.
We were also able to share a bit of traditional Japanese culture, the art of kamishibai, with the spectators, “by sliding the drawing boards so that they can view it and listen” to our story about Joseph Heco, a Japanese hero. This was a great exhibit and a wonderful experience.
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