Joseph Heco - Interpreting Career

Interpreting Career

Realizing the treaty ports in Japan were scheduled to open on July 1, 1859, Heco left his ship and went to Hong Kong. Here he joined Townsend Harris, returning to Japan on the U.S.S. Mississippi. In Shanghai, Heco also met E.M. Door, scheduled to be the American Consul at Kanagawa. Heco accepted Dorr's offer of a job as his interpreter. Heco left Shanghai on June 15, 1859 and arrived at Nagasaki. Heco had been asked to stay in the background, but following an incident between an American sailor and a Japanese, he intervened when the Japanese interpreter did not know enough English to handle the situation. The Japanese interpreter was dumbfounded and questioned Heco closely. The Mississippi left Nagasaki on June 22 - without Heco ever setting foot on land.

Heco worked as interpreter for the U.S. Consulate in Kanagawa but resigned on February 1, 1860. He became a general commission agent in nearby Yokohama, waiting for the arrival of his partner from California. However, the partnership was dissolved on March 1, 1861 after doing poorly for a year. Heco returned to the United States in September 1861 on board the USS Carrington. In Yokohama he met Wilhelm Heine, Francis Hall and Mikhail Bakunin and traveled back to San Francisco with Bakunin in September. In March 1862 he met President Abraham Lincoln.

Heco returned to Kanagawa at the end of September 1862 and began work at the U.S. Consulate once again. After nearly a year, he left to establish a trading firm. In 1863, Heco began his publishing career with Hyōryūki (漂流記 Record of a Castaway), an account of his experiences in America. From 1864 to 1866, Heco helped publish the first Japanese language newspaper, the Kaigai Shinbun. Today, Heco is regarded in Japan as the father of Japanese journalism.