A few days ago we received the somber news that Richard “Dick‟ Slagle, one of the original pillars in the story of Ranald MacDonald, died peacefully at home in Republic, Washington on February 9, 2021 at age 101. Those FOM members who traveled with us to Republic and then on to Toroda were lucky enough to meet Mr. Slagle in 2018 at the Ferry County Historical Society Museum in Republic, when the Friends of MacDonald celebrated our 30th anniversary. 数日前、「私の父親で、ラナルド・マクドナルドのストーリーを語る上で初期の重要人物の一人であったと思われるリチャード ‶ディック‟ スレーグルは、去る2021年2月9日にワシントン州リパブリックの自宅で101歳の人生を全う、安らかに永眠しました」という訃報を娘さんのジィ―ン・ディレーニー夫人から受け取った。FOM創立３０周年記念行事の一環としてラナルドの墓参にトロダへ行ったFOMメンバー有志一行は、その途中リパブリックへ寄り、フェリー郡歴史協会博物館で幸運にも、スレーグル翁と握手、歓談、共に記念撮影をする事ができた。それは２０１８年８月２２日の事だった。
In the last sentence of his daughter’s message to us, she wrote the following: “I do want to share, however, the one thing I’ve realized in recent days is that my Dad, Dick Slagle, had many layers of commitment, and he left us all with a huge gift of meaning, continuity, and connection. I’m very thankful for that.” As you read through this message, we know you, too, will come to appreciate her words. ジィ―ン夫人は彼女の手紙の最後に次のように述べて居る。「最近悟った事で、皆さんとシェアーしたい事ですが、 父、ディック・スレーグルは、生前この世に幾重にも及ぶ約束事や関りを持ち、それらの意義、継続性、更には多くのコネという偉大なギフトを残して行きました。私はその事に深く感謝しています。」と。 このニューズレターを読む事によって、読者の皆さんも彼女の言葉をより良く理解する事でしょう。
Dick was born to Elizabeth and J.W. “Jesse” Slagle on July 4, 1919 – joining his 9-year-old brother Maury. Younger-brother Dave was born in 1921. [The family had lost four-year-old Eleanor in 1917.] Dick’s mother, Elizabeth, came to Republic as an elementary school teacher in 1904, and his father, Jesse started the Republic Drug Store that same year. They were married in 1909. Elizabeth was from St. Clair, Missouri, and Jesse was from Franklin, North Carolina. ディックは１９１９年７月４日に、母エリザベスと父J.W.“ジェッシー”スレーグルの間に生まれ、９歳年上の兄モウリ―に加わった。 弟のデイブは1921年に生まれた。[家族は1917年に4歳の妹エレノアを失った.] ディックの母親のエリザベスは1904年に小学校の教師としてリパブリックに来て、父親のジェシーは、同じ年にリパブリックで薬局を始めた。二人は1909年に結婚。エリザベスはミズーリ州セントクレア出身で、ジェシーはノースカロライナ州フランクリン出身でした。
Dick loved Republic and all the surrounding mountains. He had many adventures with his close friend Johnny Anderson, and explored the hills to the west of town with Jack Summerville. He delivered The Spokesman-Review and knew where everyone lived in town. His first job was working for the Forest Service, and he became an Eagle Scout. Dick graduated from Republic High School in 1937. In 1942, Dick graduated from Washington State College (now WSU) in pharmacy, spent the summer on White Mountain lookout, and was soon drafted into the Army. He was stationed at Camp Grant in Salt Lake City, Utah, then Rockford, Illinois, and was transferred to Normandy, France in September of 1944 (after D-day). In France, he worked as a pharmacist in a tent hospital unit of 3000 patients near Lison, and worked at hospitals in Metz, Rouen, and Liege, Belgium. 50 years later in 1994, he was able to travel back to those locations in France with his nephew, Tom. Dick worked with his brother Maury in the Republic Drug Store for 40 years. He married his wife Helen in 1951. Jack was born in 1953, and Jean in 1955. After Helen’s death, Dick married Ruth in 1998. ディックはリパブリックとその周辺のすべての山々を愛していた。親友のジョニー・アンダーソンと多くの冒険をし、ジャック・サマービルと一緒に町の西の丘を探検した。彼はスポークスマン・レビュー紙を配達していたので、誰が町のどこに住んでいるかを知り尽くしていた。彼の最初の仕事は林野庁で、ボーイスカウトではイーグル・スカウトになった。ディックは1937年にリパブリック高校を卒業。1942年に、薬学でワシントン州立大学（現在のWSU）を卒業、夏をホワイトマウンテンの山火事見晴らし台で過ごし、その後すぐに陸軍に徴兵された。彼はユタ州ソルトレイクシティのグラント基地へ、次にイリノイ州ロックフォード基地に駐屯し、1944年9月（D-dayの後）にフランスのノルマンディーに移送された。フランスでは、リソン近郊の3000人の患者からなるテント病院で米陸軍薬剤師として働き、ルーエンのメッツとベルギーのリエージュの病院でも働いた。（５０年後の） 1994年に、ディックは甥のトムと一緒にフランスのそれらの場所に旅行で再び訪れる事ができた。ディックは兄のモーリーとリパブリックのドラッグストアで40年間働いていた。彼は1951年に妻のヘレンと結婚、息子ジャックが1953年に生まれ、娘ジィーンは1955年に生まれた。最初の妻ヘレンの死後、ディックは1998年にルースと再婚。
Dick loved to travel, enjoyed Curlew Lake, and was refreshed by getting out into the Colville National Forest, and he was dedicated to the conservation of the Kettle Range. At home, he loved to read, and was always happy to have a cat on his lap. He was a person of faith, and a member of the Presbyterian Church. He understood the value of preserving local history and was a founding member of the Ferry County Historical Society. He was the local weather observer for the National Weather Service for 50 years. ディック・スレーグル翁は旅行が大好きで、カールー湖を楽しみ、コービル国有林に行ってリフレッシュし、ケトル山脈の保全に尽くした。 家では読書が大好きで、その際、彼の膝の上に猫が居るのは常だった。 彼は信心深く、長老派教会の信者だった。 彼は地元の歴史を保存することの価値を理解し、フェリー郡歴史協会創設メンバーの一人だった。 スレーグル翁は約50年間、国立気象庁の地元の気象観測者でも在った。
In lieu of flowers, FOM suggests a contribution may be made to:
1938 FOM MEMBER Richard M. (Dick) Slagle of Republic, WA (second from right), was in the party which placed a cast concrete marker on the grave in 1938. He took photos of the ceremony with his “little $1 box camera”.
“I was a recent high school graduate,” he writes, “and in June of that year was approached by our local scoutmaster … He had been asked to have the Boy Scout troop participate in a ceremony at a grave and to make a marker. Not having any other information and only several days’ time, we set about the task of making a cement cross. When the cement was poured we scratched in the name as neatly as we could: “Ranald MacDonald”.
“On the day of the ceremony we loaded the cross into a school bus and rode to the Kettle River location, about 30 miles north of Republic. It was a warm summer day and about a dozen or so people assembled in the little Indian cemetery on the edge of a bench. It overlooks the Kettle River, the mouth of Toroda Creek and the ranch where Ranald MacDonald was visiting at the time of his death.
Jennie Nelson Lynch, circa 1938
“Among the people gathered were Judge William C. Brown of Okanogan, a man with a lifelong interest in regional history and especially the history of the native people. Judge Brown had organized the event and as he spoke I first heard the story of Ranald MacDonald. “However, the high point of the program was to hear Mrs. Jennie Lynch (the former Jennie Nelson). At that time she was probably in her 70’s, an active Indian lady and a favorite of her uncle Ranald. As our group stood on this spot and looked over the scenic Kettle River valley she told the story of her memories of her uncle and his fondness to visit their ranch and of his last trip and final illness … “ … in 1894, Ranald died in the arms of his beloved niece, Jenny Lynch, saying “Sayonara, my dear, sayonara”.
I first met Mr. Akira Yoshimura in the autumn of 1988 at a meeting of the Friends of MacDonald in Tokyo. I had read Umi No Sairei (Festival of the Sea) and was fascinated to hear him speak of the countless trips he had made to Nagasaki to gather materials for that book. I suggested that I thought it would be a good idea to translate this work into English. There were several reasons for this. First of all, putting the text into English would make it available to an extended audience. Secondly, at that time the only account of Ranald MacDonald’s adventure in Japan was his autobiography – which was necessarily limited to what MacDonald himself had personally seen and experienced. Festival of the Sea provides a much broader context for MacDonald’s story by showing us how it appeared from a Japanese perspective. Yoshimura’s work also concludes with an extended account of the career of Moriyama Einosuke, MacDonald’s star “pupil”. This establishes the true value and legacy of MacDonald’s experience in a way that Ranald MacDonald himself never knew.
After that initial meeting with Mr. Yoshimura, time passed and in 1997 Jo Ann Roe published Ranald MacDonald: Pacific Rim Adventurer, which began to put MacDonald’s experience into a broader context. In 2003 Frederik L. Schodt published Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan. In this work, he provided much more context and relied on numerous Japanese sources including Umi no Sairei, but still, we see the story primarily from Macdonald’s perspective. I felt that Yoshimura’s work provided an important counterpoint perspective, so I undertook to make a translation. I wrote to Mr. Yoshimura, and with his encouragement, I did make a rough translation, but life intervened and I never did accomplish more than a rough draft. Then Mr. Yoshimura died and the project languished. In 2017, however, Mr. Sekikawa Natsuo invited me to participate in a symposium at the Yoshimura Akira Memorial Library. I was unable to do so, but Mr. Sekikawa’s enthusiasm inspired me to go back and revise my earlier draft of the translation and bring it to completion.
Yoshimura Akira was born into a merchant family in the downtown (Nippori) section of Tokyo. From an early age, however, he was more interested in literature than in business. Through his college years and beyond he wrote and published stories, and in the late 1950s and 60s several of his works were nominated for the prestigious Akutagawa Prize [a Japanese literary prize awarded semiannually for the best work of fiction by a promising new Japanese writer]. Although he was never awarded that prize, his reputation was firmly established in 1966 at the age of thirty-nine with the publication of The Battleship Musashi (Senkan Musashi). In this work he pioneered a new genre, what has come to be called “documentary fiction”. He collected detailed information from historical records and from interviews with people involved to explain the significance of the construction of the Battleship Musashi. In the process of describing the building of the ship, he also created an essay on the nature of modern war. His insight was that, engaged in modern, all-out war, the Japanese people had to use everything in their power to try to prevail. The symbol for that effort was the Battleship Musashi. In the end, of course, it was a failed effort, but nevertheless it was a valiant and committed effort which reflected the dedication and commitment of the Japanese people as a nation. That was what Yoshimura celebrated in his work.
Although Yoshimura continued to write fiction with contemporary settings, he is primarily known for his history-based documentary fiction, and from 1980 on his interest turned to late Edo-period Japan. Since he could not interview the participants in the events he dealt with, he thoroughly researched the diaries, letters, and other documents pertaining to his subject. He made repeated trips to the site where events took place to the point where he could even actually describe the weather at the time and place certain events occurred. We might way that even though he was writing fiction, he included as little fiction as possible in his works. Yoshimura hinted at a possible reason for this: in a middle school composition class, he once wrote an essay entitled “My Father’s Hand” – and although his father was alive and well at the time, in the essay he described his father’s body laid out in a coffin. On the back of his father’s hand was a large mole, which he caressed with his fingertips. He wrote that this was the first time he had experienced the sensation of touching his father’s skin – as the eighth of none sons his father had never taken him by the hand and he had therefore never had the opportunity to touch his father’s skin. Yoshimura’s teacher thought this was an excellent essay and read it aloud to the class, but when his father read it he was furious, shouting, “You have written something here which has no basis in fact!” Perhaps it was from this experience that Yoshimura showed such devotion to getting the ‘facts’ right.
In his historical fiction, Yoshimura often wrote about those who had been overlooked in historical accounts. Frederik Schodt has described Ranald MacDonald as “a man who did an extraordinary thing and then fell through the cracks of history”. In this sense MacDonald was a prime subject for Yoshimura’s pen. Moriyama Einosuke, who figures prominently in Festival of the Sea, is another case in point. Having proven himself as Japan’s most accomplished interpreter of English, Moriyama played a crucial role in crafting the Bafuku’s (Shogunate) first treaties with all the other countries of the world. Moriyama negotiated with Commodore Perry, and later with Townsend Harris, but he also negotiated treaties with all the other European countries that demanded a role in the opening of Japan. In the 1850s and 1860s, Moriyama was virtually the only person who knew both sides of the equation – what a treaty said in English and what it said in Japanese. Both sides relied on him to ensure that they agreed on the same things. He continued with his work under enormous pressure, for truly the destiny of the Japanese Nation was on his shoulders. Once the new Meiji government took power, Moriyama disappeared from sight until Yoshimura redirected our attention to him. Moriyama’s disappearance from the scene was only partly due to the fact that the new Meiji government wanted its own interpreters, not those of the old Tokugawa government. It was also the case that Moriyama was simply burned out by the time the regime change too place. Some historians have held Moriyama responsible, unfairly in my opinion, of having led Japan to agree to ‘unequal treaties’. Indeed, those treaties he helped negotiate were unequal, but they also protected japan from being colonized by one or more of the Great powers, yet the indignity of the treaties rankled and some blamed Moriyama. So for many reasons Moriyama had been largely ignored by historians until Yoshimura illuminated his crucial role in the opening of Japan.
We see something similar in the case of Hori Tatsunosuke, another interpreter and contemporary of Moriyama, about whom Yoshimura wrote in his historical novel Kurofune. Hori is known to history as the first Japanese to have a meaningful encounter with Commodore Perry’s squadron. He stepped aboard the Susquehanna and uttered three words in English: “I speak Dutch.” Hori was recognized as a man of competence as an interpreter of Dutch, but he had the ill luck to be stationed in Edo during the winter of 1848-49 and so was unable to receive tutelage in English from Ranald MacDonald. Throughout his career he was overshadowed by Moriyama who, thanks to MacDonald, had a greater facility in Spoken English and was able to consort more comfortably with foreigners. So, Hori experienced frustration and embarrassment, but he persevered, and in the end was able to make the transition to the new Meiji government which Moriyama did not (could not) do. And Hori compiled a Japanese-English dictionary – which Moriyama had begun to do but had not completed. Hori also became a respected teacher of English, an endeavor Moriyama rarely had time for. In Yoshimura’s telling, perseverance paid off for Hori and in his own way had made a meaningful and lasting contribution to the opening of Japan. But he, too, has been largely forgotten. Yoshimura recognized this and clarified Hori’s role in history.
One of the hallmarks of Yoshimura’s historical fiction is the celebration of those forgotten figures who, through their dedication and perseverance, have made meaningful and lasting contributions. Certainly we see this in Festival of the Sea where Ranald MacDonald had the courage and determination to wade ashore alone in a country where foreigners were forbidden to set foot, and in Moriyama, who stood exposed and alone as Japan’s spokesman to the other nations of the world. These were remarkable men who did remarkable things, and Yoshimura Akira was the bard who brought their stories to life. ~ S.K.
*** Associate Professor Emeritus, Japanese Literature; Asian Studies, East Asian Languages. Stephan Kohl has published extensively on Japanese literature.
Ranald MacDonald was the first son of Hudson’s Bay Company Chief Factor Archibald McDonald. Our mother, Jean Murray Cole, Archibald MacDonald’s great-great granddaughter, has written extensively about both Archibald and Ranald. My sister Catherine and I were raised on stories of their adventures.
Cole sisters at MacDonald Monument, Rishiri Island
On August 25, 2019, we travelled to Rishiri Island to see where Ranald landed in 1848.
Catherine lives in Edmonton, Alberta and works as a heritage consultant. I live in Toronto, Ontario and where I work as a lawyer. We flew from our respective homes in Canada and met at the Sapporo airport to board the plane to Rishiri Island.
Mr. Eiji Nishiya welcomed us at the Rishiri Island airport, and that evening we met with him and two teachers from Rishiri High School, Mr. Toshi Kano and Ms. Mayumi Nakanishi, to discuss our itinerary for the next few days. The next day Mr. Nishiya and Catherine hiked Mount Pon (444M) and Mr. Kano and I climbed to the peak of Rishiri Fuji (1790 M). Catherine and I enjoyed the onsen in the hotel that evening.
Mr. Nishiya gave us a tour of the Island by car on our second day on Rishiri; we visited Ranald MacDonald’s landing place with the monument commemorating his arrival as well as the place where he was imprisoned. We were quite moved as we stood on the beach. It was a windy day and we could imagine how Ranald felt as he navigated his small boat towards the island. We each collected a stone from the landing place as a memento. Mr. Nishiya also introduced us to some local fisher-people who were preparing sea urchins they had harvested. They cracked one open and invited us to taste the fresh uni. Mr. Nishiya collected a glass float from near their cabin for each of us to take home as a souvenir. Little did we know this would not be our last fishing experience on Rishiri. Later that afternoon, we visited Rishiri High School where we were greeted by the Principal and Vice Principal. We were surprised to learn that the school has 71 students and 24 teachers. This is a very high ratio of teachers to students compared to North America. We then went to Ms. Nakanishi’s classroom of students aged 15-16 years old. Catherine gave a PowerPoint presentation to the students about Ranald’s early life and his later years in North America. Several of the students gave presentations about Japanese culture and food and Rishiri Island flowers. They presented us with beautiful cream puffs and a local drink so that we could sample Japanese sweets. They then asked us questions about Canada. We gave the students tokens of our appreciation: Canadian flag pins and Hudson Bay Company bookmarks. That evening Mr. Nishiya, Mr. Kano and Ms. Nakanishi joined us for dinner at the Rishiri Island Inn. The next day, we visited the museum in the morning and went sea kayaking in the afternoon. To our surprise, we were not paddling, but fishing in the Sea of Japan! Catherine caught a 14 kilogram hamachi fish. We took the hamachi to our hotel in hopes the chef would prepare it for us. The hotel declined so Mr. Nishiya took the fish to a sushi restaurant. That evening we talked about how fortunate we were to have started our first visit in Japan on Rishiri Island and experience the warm and generous hospitality of our host Mr. Nishiya, Mr. Kano and Ms. Nakanishi.
We met at the hotel on the morning of our last day on the island. Mr. Nishiya and Mr. Kano took us out for ramen at the famous restaurant. It was a very stormy day and we wondered whether we, like Ranald, would remain on Rishiri but went to the airport and were able to fly to Sapporo, connect to Kyoto and, after a week of meetings, eventually Tokyo. We met Ranald MacDonald scholars, Mr. Yuji Aisaka and Ms. Yuko Imanishi, for dinner at a restaurant on the Kamo River in Kyoto. We also met Profs. Toshi Tanaka and Norie Yazu of the Japanese Association for Canadian Studies and enjoyed tori-suki at a restaurant in Tokyo.
We look forward to a future visit when we’ll be able to go to Nagasaki to follow that chapter of Ranald’s story. On return to Canada, Catherine spoke to the Japanese-Canadian Seniors Group in Edmonton about our experience and they were very interested to learn about Ranald’s life. Next year is the 40th anniversary of the sister province relationship between Hokkaido and Alberta.
We really appreciated the generous hospitality extended to us by all of the people who hosted us on Rishiri Island, in Kyoto and in Tokyo. We hope to continue to build relationships with our friends in Japan through Ranald’s story and look forward to our next visit.
~~ Emily Cole
Posted in Gates Ajar | Comments Off on Gates Ajar June. 2020 Vol.32 No.1 ~ Following in the Footsteps of our Illustrious Ancestor: Ranald MacDonald by Emily Cole
Last year – 2018 – was quite a year for Friends of MacDonald. Not only did FOM as a committee of the Clatsop County Historical Society reach its 30th year of existence, the “Ranald MacDonald Short-term Study Abroad Program” at Rishiri high school also reached its sixth year in 2018. Although times and members change, I think I can speak for everyone in wishing that both organizations remain healthy and continue to grow for many more decades.
Due to the large number of brain cells that were devoted to organizing and then accomplishing the Friends of MacDonald 30th Anniversary Luncheon, Annual Meeting and Group Excursion to the northern reaches of Washington State to memorialize our organization with a visit to Ranald’s last resting place we realized that we postponed reporting another successful visitation by students from Rishiri high school to Astoria, Oregon, and to Spokane and Toroda, Washington in 2017. We will remedy that omission in this, the first issue of the Friends of MacDonald Newsletter as it enters its 31st year of ‘publication’ – and will continue our report on the 2018 students in the next (to be published shortly, we hope and intend).
We went into some detail in Gates Ajar Vol. 30, No. 1 that was published in March of 2018 about our visit to Rishiri High School in December of 2017, and briefly introduced Jin Hiranuma and Mako Sato, the two Rishiri students who visited Astoria and points beyond in the autumn of 2017, but regretfully overlooked the in-depth report that we have given other students from Rishiri. Jin and Mako will both graduate from high school in April 2019 and are planning on attending university in Japan. We have no doubt whatsoever that they will be successful in anything they try.
Alice and I visited Japan in December last year. On the 11th we flew from Narita in Tokyo to the New Chitose Airport near Sapporo; the next day – Dec. 12th – we flew from Okadama Airport in Sapporo to Rishiri Airport … under the provision that, IF the weather around Rishiri Airport was not suitable for the plane to land, the plane would turn around and return to Okadama Airport. Fortunately, when we arrived at Rishiri Airport, the weather had turned favorable for landing. Our understanding is that there had been a blizzard prior to our plane’s arrival, and up until the last several minutes landing was not a guarantee.
We were met at the airport by Rev. Kyouji Furukawa, Chairman of the “MacDonald Scholarship Fund Support Group”, Mr. Eiji Nishiya, Deputy Manager of MSFSG, Mr. Motomura, Principal of Rishiri High School (who officially invited us to come to Rishiri) and Ms. Nakanishi and Ms. Suzuki, teachers and two of the familiar faces from Rishiri High School, who had each chaperoned students to America in recent years.
Snowy Hokkaido … in particular the “real middle-of-winter on Rishiri Island” – for several years now Alice and I have discussed going to see the deep snow on Hokkaido. Out of nowhere, a request came from Rishiri High School Principal Motomura for me to go and give a lecture there in December. It did not take any time at all for us to decide and to respond positively for going. The Hokkaido Board of Education designated Rishiri High School to be an “Improving English Language Education” research school. Also, for the past 5 years Rishiri High School has sent students to America as part of their “short-term overseas study program” to encourage learning English. The lectures relating to the project at the high school and a review of the project were to be held at Rishiri High School on December 15th. It was Principal Motomura’s suggestion that we try to arrive a few days in advance since ‘bad weather’ could jeopardize our schedule – there is only ONE flight per day from Okadama in Sapporo to Rishiri (and vice versa) – so we arrived on the 12th.
As we were driven from the airport along the snowy road to where we were to stay – the Pension Green Wind – we saw frequent changes to the weather, and we looked at each other and nodded our heads, agreeing that Principal Motomura’s suggestion to try to get there early had been “a good one”. We were greeted by Miyazaki’s “Totoro” on the way to the high school – “Drive Carefully on Rishiri !”
The lecture and presentation was held in the Rishiri High School Auditorium; the event started out with an official greeting by Principal Motomura in English. [Principal Motomura is a former English teacher – and his English was very good.] His greetings were followed by a report entitled “Studying in Astoria (Oregon) and Spokane (Washington)” which was presented by two Rishiri High School Juniors, Jin Hiranuma and Mako Sato. Jin and Mako came to America in the autumn of 2017 and were the 5th pair of students to come to Astoria/Spokane in the last 5 years. They took turns giving their presentation, speaking about their valuable experiences in English. Next the Chairman of Friends of MacDonald – me – presented the “real” Ranald MacDonald to the student body (as opposed to the Ronald McDonald, the mascot of hamburger fame). I introduced MacDonald and his contributions by Power Point in English. After that, based on my “50 plus years of life in America”, I gave “life advice” to the Rishiri High School students in Japanese. My message was, “It’s good to hope and dream of the future, but the most important thing is to concentrate and work hard on what’s in front of you right now!” That message has been my personal mantra/motto during my life in America.
Alice followed with her own message in English – “There is a big, wide world out there – – – get out of your comfort zone and follow the example of Ranald MacDonald, the Adventurer!”
The final lecture was presented by Dr. Hisashi Naito, Professor of Business Management at Hokkai Gakuen University, entitled “Look, Think and Act Globally” and explained the arrival of a new ”Glocal World” in fluent English [which he stressed that he had studied and mastered without going abroad.]
Local dignitaries who attended the presentation included Rev. Kyouji Furukawa, Mr. Ken’ichi Kurokawa, Mr. Eiji Nishiya of Ranald MacDonald Scholarship Fund Support Group and Mr. Kazuki Kosugi, Superintendent of the Rishiri School Dist. plus representatives from Hokkaido Department of Education, Wakkanai High School, Toyotomi High School, Edasachi High School, Rebun High School, Rishiri Junior High School, Senposhi Grade School, Kutsugata Grade School and some parents. It was a well-attended event.
A symposium entitled “Japan’s Diplomatic Relations Began with Drifters” was held at Yui no Mori Arakawa in Tokyo on July 17, 2017. Panelists included Mr. Frederik Schodt, author of ‘Native American in the Land of the Shogun’, and Tokyo- based author/scholar Ms. Sen Ishida; the moderator was author Natsuo Sekikawa, board member of the Japan Writers’ Association. Page 3 is a write-up of the symposium from the ‘Weekly Dokushojin’ publication; Mrs. Yumiko Kawamoto’s report on the symposium can be found below. The following is a flyer that was circulated for this event:
５０－１）1 階ホールで盛大に行われた。文芸協会の web 上の「お知らせ」には「鎖国下の日本に、外国語を習得しようと、また、翻訳を試みようとした人がいました。手探りで学ぶ困難さ、そして異文化への強い憧れと知識欲。吉村昭作品の『海の祭礼』『冬の鷹』に描かれた時代と人を、吉村記念文学館があるゆいの森あらかわで語り合います。（シンポジウムは日本語で行います）」という文面がある。一般参加者にはわかりやすい説明文である。
We knew it was going to be a special meeting as soon as we got off the elevator on the second floor of the Heritage Museum in Astoria – we were not ‘late’, but we found the hallway filled with FOM members and guests chatting and patiently waiting to enter the gallery area of the old, Circa 1904 Astoria City Hall. We were thrilled to see so many familiar faces – and a number of new faces as well. We – all of the Friends of MacDonald members – are pleased and gratified that our membership stays strong. It is often difficult for organizations such as ours to remain healthy over the years; that said, we feel that our success stems from the allure Ranald MacDonald himself. As far as historical figures go, I think I speak for all of our members when I say that Ranald is definitely one of the more interesting characters to spring out of the Pacific Northwest, if not America itself.
We began our meeting by welcoming charter member and former FOM Chairman Prof. Stephan Kohl, former chairman Jim Mockford, and author of ‘Ranald MacDonald: Pacific Rim Adventurer’, JoAnn Roe, who, at age 93, drove BY HERSELF to Astoria from Bellingham, WA to be with us at this year’s luncheon. We were also honored to have Consul General and Mrs. Uchiyama of the Japan Consular Office in Portland, Chinook Council Vice Chair Sam Robinson and his better half Mildred (who entertained us with Chinook drums and songs of gratitude to the Creator who watches over us all), and local Chinook artist Charles Funk and his wife Mary. Members of Clan Donald were also in attendance, as well as visitors from Montana and Japan. Jim Mockford reminded us of our history as a Committee of the Clatsop County Historical Society, and – with occasional corroboration from Professor Kohl – told the story of the early days of FOM when Bruce Berney of Astoria and the late Mas Tomita of Epson Portland (among others) work against all odds to establish FOM. ~ Chairman Mas Yatabe
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The following reports (in Japanese) were written by two students from Rishiri High School, Yuto Shima and Haruno Tsutsumi, and their foreign language teacher, Junichiro Miyamoto, after completing their visitation to Spokane and Toroda, Washington and Portland and Astoria, Oregon, spending 5 days in each State. They visited the grave site of Ranald MacDonald near Toroda, Washington and attended classes at Colville High School in Republic, Washington with other local students. They were guided by a long- time member of FOM and the author of the book “Unsung Hero”, Atsumi Tsukimori McCauley of Spokane, WA. Next the three flew to Portland where they were joined by Rishiri H.S. Principle, Mr. Tsubokawa, and the PTA President, Mr. Yoshida. The five were guided by FOM Chairman Mas Yatabe to meet with Council General of Japan in Portland, Kojiro Uchiyama, who gave the two students’ self-introduction speeches in English a high grade of “A” as if they were his students, which made Principal Tsubokawa, Foreign Language teacher, Mr. Miyamoto and Mr. Yoshida, the PTA President very happy. The five from Rishiri were driven by Chairman Yatabe to Astoria where they visited the birth place monument of Ranald MacDonald and later they were taken to Astoria High School where the students met host families and the Principle of Astoria High School, Mr. Lynn Jackson. Although their stays in Washington and Oregon were short, they, in particular the students, learned a great deal about the diverse nature of the people and the culture of US, and the independence of US students compared their Japanese counterparts. Both students were very appreciative of the host students’ and their families’ kindness in Republic, Washington and in Astoria. Oregon.
Amsterdam, September 11, 2016 ~~ The Cultural Public Benefit Organization awarding the prize, Friends of MacDonald • The Dutch Connection, abbreviated as FOM NL, would not have existed if Frederik L. Schodt had not written a biography of Ranald MacDonald (1824-1894). In his Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan (Stone Bridge Press, Albany CA, 2003) he brings to life a ‘true cultural and racial hybrid—in the best sense of the word— (who) assumes heroic proportions because of his success in carving his own path in life, in an often unfriendly world’, in short, an example to follow. But, besides this book, Schodt – he calls himself a niche writer – has written many other works on related subjects, essays, historiography and translations. Therefore FOM NL granted him a special prize of 2500 euro for his oeuvre.
On October 11, 1848, year of revolutions in Europe and the gold rush in California, Japan still being ‘closed’, Ranald MacDonald met in Nagasaki with the Japanese ‘Dutch Interpreters’ and the Dutch ‘opperhoofd’, ‘chief’. This small event, which made it to the headlines in the Dutch newspapers because ‘the opening of Japan’ was hot in those days, was the reason to choose October 11th for the annual award ceremony.
The “International Ranald MacDonald Prize” will be awarded annually to the work of a debut writer or artist which is exceptionally ‘true, good and beautiful’ and sheds new light on the relations between Asia, Europe and North America. The novel In het licht van wat wij weten / In the light of what we know (Hollands Diep, Amsterdam, 2015) by Zia Haider Rahman fits this description precisely. Indeed, this book is so comprehensive, so wide ranging and has, eventually, such a remarkable outcome, that the first winner exceeded all expectations. Its quality will be the touchstone for any future award. The prize amounts to 5000 euro and the ceremony was held October 11, 2016.
I first met Mr. Akira Yoshimura in the autumn of 1988 at a meeting of the Friends of MacDonald in Tokyo. I had read Umi No Sairei (Festival of the Sea) and was fascinated to hear him speak of the countless trips he had made to Nagasaki to gather materials for that book. I suggested that I thought it would be a good idea to translate this work into English. There were several reasons for this. First of all, putting the text into English would make it available to an extended audience. Secondly, at that time the only account of Ranald MacDonald’s adventure in Japan was his autobiography – which was necessarily limited to what MacDonald himself had personally seen and experienced. Festival of the Sea provides a much broader context for MacDonald’s story by showing us how it appeared from a Japanese perspective. Yoshimura’s work also concludes with an extended account of the career of Moriyama Einosuke, MacDonald’s star “pupil”. This establishes the true value and legacy of MacDonald’s experience in a way that Ranald MacDonald himself never knew.
ool, Mr. Toshi Kano and Ms. Mayumi Nakanishi, to discuss our itinerary for the next few days. The next day Mr. Nishiya and Catherine hiked Mount Pon (444M) and Mr. Kano and I climbed to the peak of Rishiri Fuji (1790 M). Catherine and I enjoyed the onsen in the hotel that evening. 
We were met at the airport by Rev. Kyouji Furukawa, Chairman of the “MacDonald Scholarship Fund Support Group”, Mr. Eiji Nishiya, Deputy Manager of MSFSG, Mr. Motomura, Principal of Rishiri High School (who officially invited us to come to Rishiri) and Ms. Nakanishi and Ms. Suzuki, teachers and two of the familiar faces from Rishiri High School, who had each chaperoned students to America in recent years.
ってくれた子に、「日本人は文を書くときにひらがな・カタカナ・漢字の 3 つを使うんだよ」と私の名前を使いながらそれぞれ紹介しました。するとその子は「私の名前を漢字で書いて」と要求してきました。当然書くことはできなかったのですが、私たちが普段当たり前と思っていることがそうではないことを身をもって感じられた出来事でした。文化・言語の違い、人との出会いや新たな発見をできたからこそ、心から楽しむことができたのだと思います。
Amsterdam, September 11, 2016 ~~
