History has many key players and contributors to the narrative. And as new information is found, there is room to allow the unheard actors' voices and stories to be told to a generation that has never read their experiences. NATIVE AMERICAN IN THE LAND OF THE SHOGUN: RANALD MACDONALD AND THE OPENING OF JAPAN is a good example to how those who read and write about history tend to overlook particular individuals who may not have been leaders or dignitaries. Ranald MacDonald may have not have been president or delegate to a state, but he was an extraordinary man that has a place in American and Asian history because he represents a person who happened to be in a place during a time of transition where trade and public relations were beginning to develop between America and Japan.
Ranald MacDonald was a mix blood Native American, half Chinook and half Scot, who had an essential role in opening Japan's doors to the western world. Based on MacDonald's 1923 posthumous autobiography and a lengthy list of primary documents, especially MacDonald's letters, Frederik L. Schodt writes a compelling narrative about MacDonald's life and his involvement with the trade industry and his travels to Japan, which could not have been possible without his lively adventurous spirit during the most exciting periods in US history as it was expanding its trading endeavors to the East. MacDonald's contributions and participation with the Hudson Bay Company, a trading company in the Pacific Northwest that is closely associated with the historic British East India Company, was one of his links to reaching Asia. This is a uniqe retelling of a part of history that many people do not even know existed, but Schodt puts together his narrative like a jigsaw puzzle with the people and events that appear to excessively revolve around MacDonald's story. As a result, there are several portions of the history that overshadows MacDonald's role, and his story gets lost within the shuffle of events; questions arise where there are missing links to what may have occurred, such as the significance of MacDonald and the Lahaina Islands of Hawaii as well as a long list of references that appear detached to MacDonald's story.
But one of the insightful chapters of the book was the discussion of MacDonald's contact with the Ainu people of Japan, the indigenous inhabitants of the Rishiri Islands. The people of the island held MacDonald with high regard and dedicated a museum in his honor. In addition, it is also refreshing to read the accounts by individuals from the Congregational Missionary, such as Samuel C. Damon who wrote an article about MacDonald's adventures and associates the historical importance to the "opening" of the doors to the East to the West at the time when Japan was maintaining isolationism within its ports. But Damon emphasized that attempts were being made, prior to Commodore Perry's excursion, with Commodore Biddle and the USS Columbus in 1846 with hopes that trade would reoccur.
NATIVE AMERICAN IN THE LAND OF THE SHOGUN is a daring narrative that challenges history and shapes how it is told. Schodt places great emphasis on the significance of how a bridge was built between East and West, especially as it relates to one individual, Ranald MacDonald who happened to help translate English for the Japanese people as well as cultivate relations between America and Japan.
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日本英学史上重要なマクドナルド研究に不可欠の書
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江戸から明治への歴史の重要な過渡期に活躍したNative Americanを知りました。
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