By Akiko Kusunose
NAP Contributor
People attended a luncheon celebrating the bicentennial of MacDonald’s birth. MacDonald’s portrait can be seen in the rear, and the design of the commemorative stamp issued this spring can be seen in the foreground. Photo credit: Friends of MacDonald.
Ranald MacDonald, Japan’s first native English teacher, is known for having landed in Japan five years before Commodore Perry’s arrival in 1853. On August 23, 2024, the Friends of MacDonald held a luncheon celebrating the bicentennial of his birth at the Grant House in Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Park, located on the north bank of the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington.
MacDonald was born in 1824 in Fort George (now Astoria, Oregon), to a Native American Chinook mother and a Scottish father who worked for a British trading company. He spent his childhood in Fort Vancouver (fur, supplies and goods trading post). One day MacDonald heard a story about three Japanese men who had drifted ashore in the northwestern corner of Washington State. He was so fascinated by Japan that he decided he would go there someday. As he grew older, he became a whaler as a means of getting to Japan. Then in 1848, he arrived off the coast of Hokkaido in northern Japan. In exchange for his services, he obtained a boat and landed on Rishiri Island off the coast of Hokkaido under the guise of drifting ashore.
Later in Nagasaki, Japan, he taught English to the Japanese people, becoming Japan’s first native English teacher. One of his students, Einosuke Moriyama, later played a major role as an interpreter during the turbulent negotiations with foreign countries at the end of the Edo period. Although MacDonald stayed in Japan for less than a year, he left a significant mark on Japanese history.
Many people have been moved by MacDonald’s daring travels to Japan where he faced possible death and imprisonment. Akira Yoshimura, a well-known author of nonfiction and historical novels, wrote The Festival of the Sea (1986), a retelling of MacDonald’s adventures. He introduced MacDonald to the world.
In Oregon, the Friends of McaDonald was established in 1988 under the umbrella of the Clatsop County Historical Society in Astoria, his birthplace. Since then, the Friends of MacDonald has been engaged in activities to promote MacDonald’s achievements, including a short-term program for young people from Rishiri Island to visit the United States.
In attendance for the celebration was Consul General of Japan in Portland, Oregon, Yuzo Yoshioka. It was also attended by locals; representatives from Rishiri Island, where MacDonald first set foot in Japan; and representatives from Aichi Prefecture, Japan. To mark the 200th anniversary of his birth, an English translation of The Festival of the Sea book by Dr. Stephen Kohl was published by the Clatsop County Historical Society in 2019. In addition, the long-requested MacDonald commemorative stamp was issued this spring in Japan.
