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Otokichi

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Re: Otokichi

#61

Post by mattigames »

inglor_cz wrote: post #2

Is there anybody who could confirm that even castaways were subject to death penalty upon return to the shogunate? That sounds really cruel.

Cruelty is the second name of humanity, with Japan creating many such events such as the Nanjing Massacre (also known as the Rape of Nanjing) where they killed over 200.000 Chinese people and raped over 80.000 women, and I quote "many soldiers went beyond rape to disembowel women, slice off their breasts, and nail them alive to walls, Fathers were forced to rape their daughters, and sons their mothers, as other family members watched[...] So sickening was the spectacle that even Nazis in the city were horrified, one proclaiming the massacre to be the work of bestial machinery"

Re: Otokichi

#62

Post by krsdcbl »

astrange wrote: post #50

I thought this was going to be one of those random Japanese words that people pretend have deep philosophical meanings like "ikigai" and "tsundoku". > Once in Macau, Otokichi, Kyukichi and Iwakichi were welcomed by Karl Gutzlaff, a German missionary and Chinese translator for the British Government. Gutzlaff, who had views on evangelizing Japan, enthusiastically learned the Japanese language from the trio, and with t…

According to a source posted elsewhere in the discussion here (https://www.historylink.org/File/9065), communication might not have been such a difficulty as they had started learning English years before that.

> In Macao, the British government handed the sailors over to Karl Gutzlaff, a German missionary and linguist. Gutzlaff continued their training in English and also enlisted their help in translating parts of the bible into Japanese.

Re: Otokichi

#63

Post by [deleted] »

themodelplumber wrote: post #14

Fascinating. Something that made me curious: > There the ship was fired on repeatedly, and King was not able to accomplish his objective to establish diplomatic contact So...why not place a brief message into a few bottles and drop them in the waters around the populated zones? "We have here your citizens named so-and-so, and will return around this date, and then this date + about 12M, to try again. Please don't sho…

[deleted]

Re: Otokichi

#64

Post by thatguy0900 »

nnf wrote: post #4

It is endlessly fascinating to me to contemplate how much the world has changed in a relatively short period of time, and specifically with regards to how much time was required for communication between people separated by great distances.

That's what I was thinking. Even after reaching London, it was two years before someone offered to take them to japan

Re: Otokichi

#65

Post by ed25519FUUU »

The amount of Japanese-centric content on the English wikipedia is quite staggering. It goes to show you that the interest (and/or bias) of the contributors is what will ultimately shape the content of the site.

Re: Otokichi

#66

Post by runarberg »

tpmx wrote: post #21
opportune wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is almost trivially true due to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yupik_peoples

That crossing was from North Asia (Siberia), not East Asia though? Crossing the Bering strait (88 km) seems a lot less demanding than crossing the pacific from East Asia to North America (~7000 km or so).

I think that is the point of the parent. People made numerous crossing between Asia and America as it was and is simple with good canoes (and later kayaks).

Note also that Kamchatka is not that far from Chukotsky and it is not far fetched to think that the Aino peoples from Northern Japan could have some shared cultures with the Yubik peoples, the latter bringing that culture to Northern America and the Indians that had been living there for 10.000 years.

Re: Otokichi

#68

Post by kiddico »

astrange wrote: post #50

I thought this was going to be one of those random Japanese words that people pretend have deep philosophical meanings like "ikigai" and "tsundoku". > Once in Macau, Otokichi, Kyukichi and Iwakichi were welcomed by Karl Gutzlaff, a German missionary and Chinese translator for the British Government. Gutzlaff, who had views on evangelizing Japan, enthusiastically learned the Japanese language from the trio, and with t…

Who have you met that thinks tsundoku has a philosophical meaning? It's buying too many books...

Re: Otokichi

#70

Post by totalZero »

> The three castaways were looked after and briefly enslaved by the Makah Indian tribe.

Seems a bit brutish to enslave half-dead, washed-up youths.

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