In June 1913, twenty-four-year-old Otojiro Hagimori sailed a 50-foot fishing boat from Yawatahama, Japan to Point Arena, California with 15 men onboard. The Pomo Indian Tribe in Point Arena rescued and fed the men. Shortly after, U.S. Immigration authorities apprehended and deported the young men back to Japan.
The following is an excerpt from an essay written by Otojiro Hagimori. This essay, translated from Japanese, originally appeared in a 1932 publication called The Fighting History of the Japanese in America, a collection of personal essays written by the Issei, the first generation of immigrants in the U.S. This re-published essay appeared in the 75th Anniversary of the Nanka Ehime Kenjinkai commemorative book in 1985. – K. Moriyama
“…It was spring when 16 youngsters rode the 50-foot Tenjin Maru in mid-January and set sail for America. Stopping here and there at Japanese ports after leaving their home port of Kawanazu, they finally set off from Japanese waters in mid-April.
During the day, there was no wind, and they could only go where the ocean currents took them. During the night, they caught the westerly winds in their sails. After 20 nights, their boat was caught in a waterspout and turned around and around like a top. The 16 sailors called for the help of Konpira Daigongen until their voices were hoarse. Fortunately, after 30 minutes, the winds abated.
Fifty-five days out, after days of comfortable weather, the skies became clouded, and the westerly winds became stronger and wilder. Sailing into the high waves, the young sailors took turns clinging to the helm. On the second day of the storm, the rudder broke, and there was nothing to do but cling to the side of the boat and pray loudly to Konpira Daigongen. On the evening of the fourth day, the winds finally died down. Feeling as though they were rescued from hell, they gave thanks. The next morning, as the fog began to clear, they sighted land.
Fifty-nine days after leaving Oshima, the last Japanese Island, we reached Elena on the Pacific Coast. We still had a bit of food left, but we couldn’t stand up for a while. Shaking off the lice, we changed into the suits we bought in Kobe. Tired from the long voyage and fearful of being discovered by immigration officials, we landed and reached an Indian village nearby. The Indians were kind and fed us. Then dividing up into smaller groups, we started to cross the wilderness. Some of us were caught the second morning. I myself was caught the second evening. After a long, hard, adventurous voyage, only to end up in a foreign jail.
We were put back on our boat by immigration officials and taken to San Francisco on September 15. We were loaded onto the brig aboard a Chinese ship, along with some 100 whores, pimps, drug peddlers, and stowaways. Those with legitimate passports and a little money were able to get off and sightsee in Hawaii. We could only look out a small window seaward and could nothing…although we could hear the voices of the legitimate passengers above us.
After returning to Japan, we were again detained by the sea police for three days. They hauled us before the district court and fined our leader 15 yen, the rest of us 10 yen each. Since none of us had any money, they let us go with the promise that we would pay after we got home.
Those who went on that voyage were Shigematsu Sakida, Iwasuke Yamauchi, Yoshihiro Yano, Takajiro Nakaoka, his younger brother Yazaemon, Otoji Hagimori, Maajiro, Kikuji Ueno, Tomekichi Ueno, Heisuke Ishida, Tadashi Ishida, Mimimatsu Matsuda, Yahichi Ueno, Kanjiro Ueno, a Matsumoto and a Sasaki…”
In 1996, the Yawatahama civic leaders gifted Point Arena with a monument dedicated to these adventurous young sailors. The monument includes the names of the 15 young men who braved 59 days out on the open seas to reach U.S. soil. In 2012, a delegation from the Los Angeles-based Ehime Prefecture Association honored these men with a pilgrimage to Point Arena.
The inscription on the Monument reads as follows: “This monument is dedicated to the fifteen young men from Yawatahama, Japan who sailed 11,000 kilometers across the Pacific in a 15-meter wood boat to realize their vision of coming to America. Landing at Point Arena on August 13, 1912, their dreams and courage continue to be a source of inspiration and a foundation of the friendship between the people of Yawatahama and Point Arena.”
