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it is quite possible that at one point, a samurai used a fax machine (Original Tweet)


Uploaded by Philipp Jul 23, 2021 at 09:47AM EDT

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Origin Entry: A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln

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demosthenes131 · 4d · edited 4d S I think I can answer the first question as I had been looking into a similar question. Kaoru Ishiguro for Shukan NY Seikatsu dug into the newspaper clippings at the New York Public Library to find records of the first Japanese mission to the US which occurred in 1860. This was following the 1858 signing of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce signed between the United States and Japan. This occurred after Matthew Perry "opened" the country, though Japan wasn't closed as much as extremely restricted and limited trade to five "gateways" including Nagasaki where the Chinese traded with Japan and the Dutch East India Company also were permitted to operate. But to the point of samurai in America, Masao Miyoshi in As We Saw Them: The First Japanese Embassy to the United States discusses this Japanese envoy coming to the United States to ratify the treaty. It appears they departed from Uraga they first arrived in San Francisco and stayed for a month. The head of the mission was Admiral Kimura Yoshitake. They were accompanied by an American who had been shipwrecked in 1859 in Yokohama, John Mercer Brooke. The Japanese government asked Brooke to accompany the mission aboard the Kanrin Maru, the Japanese corvette that made the trip. Both Miyoshi and Young (journal article cited below) discuss samurai being part of this group. The mission was under the command of Kimura Yoshitake, who Brooke referred to as "admiral." His title in Japanese translated to "Magistrate of Warships." The samurai in charge of the ship was Katsu Rintarõ, who was seasick during the trip. He later became the chief architect of the Imperial Japanese Navy. (Rintarõ was a childhood name he had, and he has several names attributed to him. Katsu Kaishu is another well known name as well as Katsu Yasuyoshi). Another samurai on the trip, Fukuzawa Yukichi, later went on to author several books, including and English to Japanese dictionary and a children's book that become an official textbook, All the Countries of the World, for Children Written in Verse. He also founded Keio University. Edit: I should add that this delegation met with President James Buchanan in DC. The delegation boarded the USS Powhatan and the Kanrin Maru escorted it to DC. Wikipedia has this picture of Fukuzawa Yukichi with Theodora Alice in San Francisco in 1860 while they were there. The Voyage of the Kanrin Maru to San Francisco, 1860. Dana B. Young California History Vol. 61, No. 4 (Winter, 1983), pp. 264-275 1.6k Reply Give Award Share Report Save
Women with a time machine I am your granddaughter Men with a time machine Really? Send a fax to lincoln Watashi wa shimasu
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Uploaded Jul 23, 2021 at 09:47AM EDT

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A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln

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