Called the U.S.’s first ambassador to Japan, a 14-year-old
fisherman by the name of Manjiro is considered America’s
first Japanese immigrant, arriving in the country on May 7,
1843, by way of a whaling ship.

According to the National Endowment of the Humanities,
the boy and his crew were caught in a violent storm, with
their ship eventually washing up on a desert island 300
miles away from their coastal Japanese village.

Rescued five months later by an American whaling ship,
Manjiro was adopted by American Capt. William Whitfield,
who renamed him John Mung and brought him back to the
states to his home in Massachusetts.

Nakahama Manjirō (John Mung) 
(January 27, 1827 – November 12, 1898)

William H. Whitfield 
(November 11, 1804 – 14 February 1886)