Program Description
"Ranald MacDonald was born in Astoria Oregon in 1824, the son of a Scottish Hudson’s Bay clerk and the daughter of the ‘Big Chief’ Com’comly of the Lower Columbia Chinook tribe. As a young man, he signed on to the whaler Plymouth headed for the Sea of Japan, where he left the Plymouth with the intention of posing as a castaway on the shores of Japan. On July 2, 1848, MacDonald came ashore on Rishiri Island and was taken in by the indigenous Ainu people. MacDonald’s arrival in Japan occurred during a period when Japan was closed to all foreign contact and trade. He was turned over to the Japanese officials on the Island of Hokkaido and transferred to Nagasaki, the sole designated port for foreigners during this time.
While under “house arrest,” MacDonald became an instructor of English for the interpreters of the Tokugawa Shogunate. He was the first native English speaker to teach the language in Japan and was instrumental in helping the Japanese understand English and interact with English-speaking foreigners. MacDonald's students later served as interpreters during Commodore Perry's negotiations with the Shogunate in 1854.