Joseph Heco - Early Years

Early Years

Hikozō Hamada was born in Harima province, the son of a local landowner. Following his father’s death, his mother remarried. The fatherless boy had been accepted by a temple school for training and education, something unusual for someone of his social class. His mother died when he was twelve, but his stepfather, a seaman on a freighter often away from home, continued to care for the boy. A year later when returning from Edo after a sightseeing journey, their ship, the Eiriki Maru (栄力丸?), was wrecked in a severe storm in the Pacific.

The American freighter Auckland picked up seventeen survivors from the sea, who might have been the first Japanese people to set foot on California when they were brought to San Francisco in February 1851, although Hasekura Tsunenaga had earlier sailed past Cape Mendocino. The Eiriki Maru's cook, Sentarō, then became the first Japanese known to have his photograph taken, and would soon traverse the continent.

In 1852 the group was sent to Macau to join Commodore Matthew Perry as a gesture to help open diplomatic relations with Japan. However, Heco met an American interpreter who asked him to return to the United States with him and learn English, with the thought that Heco would be able return to Japan with important language skills when the country was open for trade. Heco accepted the offer and arrived in San Francisco in June 1853.

Heco attended a Roman Catholic school in Baltimore and was baptized "Joseph" in 1854. He returned to the West Coast for further study, when in 1857 he was invited by California Senator William M. Gwin to come with him to Washington, D.C. as his secretary. Here he became the first nonofficial Japanese person to be introduced to a U.S. President. Heco stayed with Gwin until February 1858. He then joined Lt. J.M. Brooke on a survey of the coast of China and Japan. In June of that year, Heco became the first Japanese subject to become an American citizen.