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Because They Were Shipwrecked

By “Awake!” correspondent in Japan

THEY had delayed too long already. Impetuously, they left the shelter of Nagoya’s bay area and, heading for Tokyo, sailed into a bleak Pacific. The boisterous winds were running riot, slapping and beating the mighty ocean. The irritated seas angrily lashed back. Then, joining forces, the elements sucked the boat into their maelstrom and challenged the men to fight for control of their craft. Both sides fought until their power was spent. The winds and ocean at last subsided.

What was left of the little Japanese merchant boat was unnavigable. Lives had been lost. Later others were to grow sick and die on the drifting wreck. Of the original fourteen-member crew only three survived, and by an amazing coincidence they were brothers. After fourteen months of floating aimlessly in the Pacific, Iwakichi (aged 28), Kyūkichi (aged 15) and Otokichi (aged 14) were washed up like driftwood on Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia, Canada.

During the next five years they were to suffer man’s cruelty to man, alternated with unexpected kindness. Understandably, the experience left them bitterly disappointed and emotionally drained. Yet, during that difficult time, these three uneducated country boys accomplished a scholarly feat that most of us would never attempt. As their achievement has helped many of us, we can say that we have been affected indirectly by that shipwreck that took place long ago in 1832. But what happened in Canada?

The Indians promptly captured them and forced them into a life of hard labor with no apparent prospect of returning to Japan. But strange things happen!

In May 1834 an English ship belonging to the Hudson Bay Company called at Queen Charlotte Islands. Captain MacNeil, when trading with the Indians, saw the plight of the three brothers, and feeling sorry for them he took them away. In Vancouver he handed them over to Dr. MacFarling, of the same company, who promised to do all he could to help them return to Japan. At last a little respite!

Through MacFarling’s kindness the three left Vancouver on the British warship Eagle bound for London. The trip took them first to Hawaii. Then around Cape Horn, South America, and north to England.

The Eagle docked in the Thames for ten days. While in London the brothers were taken sight-seeing, thus becoming, so it is thought, the first Japanese to set foot on English soil. There were sights to be seen nowhere else in the world​—Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and Saint Paul’s Cathedral! There were no rickshas, but to their surprise horses were pulling carriages. What things the brothers would have to tell when they got back to Japan! But would they return?

The British government rightly decided they should be sent home. So they were put on the ship General Palmer, belonging to the Hudson Bay Company, which was leaving for Macao in China. (Hong Kong was not yet developed as a port.) Again a long, long voyage right down the coast of Africa and around the Cape of Good Hope.

In December 1835 the ship arrived at Macao and the three shipwreck survivors were handed over to the care of Gutzlaff​—a shrewd move by the British government. You see, at the time Japan was a “closed” country. The reigning family of shoguns, continuing a 200-year-old policy, refused to listen to the voice of the people or of the outside world and permit communication and trade with foreign countries. Gutzlaff was joint Chinese-secretary in Macao for the English commission. The British government hoped that, by using Gutzlaff in returning Japanese to Japan, trade relations could be opened. Would this work? How did Gutzlaff feel?

Gutzlaff’s lifelong ambition was not to promote trade for Britain, and yet he welcomed these Japanese young men with open arms, thanking God for them. To understand this we need to know more about Gutzlaff.

Gutzlaff was born in Pomerania, now Poland. When growing up he wrote, “I want to learn six languages and become a messenger of the gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in every place under heaven.” His goal narrowed down to the Orient.

At the age of twenty-three he went to Batavia (now Jakarta), Indonesia. Here he seized opportunities to learn Chinese, Malay and a sprinkling of Japanese. Unable to preach in Sumatra as assigned, he went to Thailand, studied Thai and translated the gospels of Luke and John. All together, he studied at least ten languages so that he could reach people of many nations.

Between 1831 and 1834, boarding Chinese junks and other craft, Gutzlaff made three “Bible Voyages” preaching right up the coast of China from the south to the north. He preached in Manchuria and western Korea, where it is said he was the first Christian missionary to visit, Cheju Island, Okinawa and Taiwan. He had his eye set on Japan also, but how could anyone get into a closed country?

Contact With Japan

It was in 1835 that Gutzlaff took up his post for the British government, and in December of that year the General Palmer delivered the three brothers to Gutzlaff’s care. Gutzlaff now had a precious contact with Japanese people. He could teach them Christianity and, at the same time, learn Japanese. So he was overjoyed to take them into his home in Macao.

Returning the Japanese brothers was no easy task. Rigid control allowed only one Dutch ship a year to visit Nagasaki in western Japan. Seclusion was enforced on the Japanese. There was a law forbidding anyone to leave the country and another banning the building of any ship over fifty tons. So no Japanese boat was likely to come to Hong Kong. The brothers had to wait patiently for a chance to return to their beloved homeland.

An Original Original

In the meantime the brothers helped in translating the gospel and three letters of John​—no small task considering the language barriers. There were other difficulties too. Of the three, only the eldest could read and write Japanese. Even he could write only one of the two sets of phonetic letters and no Chinese characters (kanji), which are generally used for the main words, such as nouns, adjectives, verbs, and so forth. These young men were of humble birth and had received no formal education. The Japanese they knew and spoke was the dialect of their locality of Owariryo, near Nagoya. Consequently, their translation is written phonetically in rich country dialect and idioms.

Furthermore, Shinto and Buddhist interpretations of the Bible were employed. An outstanding example is the translation of the Greek word “baptisma,” usually translated in English as “baptism” and “immersion.” It was translated as kori wo toraseru, which refers to an old Japanese religious practice of pouring cold water over themselves for the purpose of cleansing when making a request of the gods. A few other interesting words are:

God (theos) Paradise, heaven

Word (logos) Wise One

holy spirit (pneuma) god

angels heavenly gods

lord, master Emperor, Mikado

bread rice cake

These translations were completed in November 1836. Due to difficulties between the English and the Chinese, the manuscripts were sent to Singapore where they were printed the following May. Gutzlaff hoped that the printed translations of John’s writings would be ready before the brothers would leave for Japan. But while the mail boat that should have brought the Bibles to Macao was delayed, an opportunity to board a ship bound for Japan presented itself.

Home, Bittersweet Home!

America was taking positive steps to open up relations with Japan, and at the beginning of July 1837 an American ship called Morrison docked in Macao on its historic voyage to Japan. The three brothers boarded this 564-ton sailing ship. At last they could go to Japan! At last they would be with those who loved them! At last they would be home!

The Morrison entered Tokyo Bay on July 27. The three brothers almost went out of their minds with excitement. They could see Japan! Gutzlaff opened up negotiations for the return of the Japanese he had brought. The stinging reply from the Japanese government was to refer Gutzlaff to a decree of 1637 that ordered that any Japanese leaving the country could return only on pain of death. The brothers could not enter Japan! To give strength to their words and to make it quite clear a foreign vessel was not welcome, the Japanese opened cannon fire on the Morrison, driving the ship out of Tokyo Bay.

However, neither Gutzlaff nor the Americans would give up so easily. The Morrison next went in the direction of Nagoya, but the winds were so strong that the ship could not drop anchor. So the Morrison went down to Kagoshima on the southern tip of Japan to try again. Here, too, tragically, they were bombarded by cannon fire. The disappointment of the three brothers was acute. They had seen the mountains and trees and earth of the home they loved so dearly, but they could not make it their own again.

Back in Macao, Gutzlaff arranged a set time each day for the translating of the Bible to continue. But, in spite of their hard work, only the first manuscripts of John’s writings were ever printed. Gutzlaff was never able to take his Bible to Japan. In 1841, however, a well-known American missionary called Hepburn found the Japanese Bible in Singapore and was able to put it to use when, some years later, Japan was opened to foreigners.

What happened to Iwakichi, Kyūkichi and Otokichi? No one knows for sure. Some say that one of them possibly went to America on the Morrison while his brothers accepted Gutzlaff’s faith and aimed to preach in Japan. Others say they merged into the Chinese society and were forgotten. There is no record that any of them returned to their homeland.

It would be a rather pathetic story if it were to end here. Happily, Iwakichi, Kyūkichi and Otokichi will soon be back in the general resurrection as promised by Jesus Christ. (John 5:28, 29) And won’t they be surprised to learn that their poor translation of God’s Word, being the very first into Japanese, influenced all other Japanese translations in the years after! You see, Hepburn and his associates used it when making the 1880-1888 translation that has been widely used by Jehovah’s Witnesses in Japan.

If you meet Japanese Christians, ask them what they think of Hepburn’s Bible. The reply will usually be, “The language is hard to understand.” Then, because very few know why, you can explain the lingering influence of the first translators, Iwakichi, Kyūkichi and Otokichi​—those simple country boys who could hardly write, but who accomplished a remarkable “first,” all because they happened to be shipwrecked.

[Map on page 16]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

ENGLAND

London

AFRICA

Cape of Good Hope

CHINA

JAPAN

Queen Charlotte Is.

HAWAII

Vancouver

NORTH AMERICA

SOUTH AMERICA

Cape Horn

[Map on page 19]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

MANCHURIA

CHINA

KOREA

JAPAN

Tokyo

Nagoya

Nagasaki

Kagoshima

Cheju Island

Okinawa

HONG KONG

TAIWAN

MACAO

THAILAND

PACIFIC OCEAN

Singapore

Sumatra

Jakarta

INDONESIA

[Picture on page 17]

Karl Gutzlaff

[Pictures on page 20]

Gospel of John printed in Singapore, based on the translation and script of the three Japanese and Gutzlaff

New World Translation of John in modern Japanese