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Nakahama Manjiro, also known as John Manjiro, was one of the first Japanese people to visit the USA. He was born in Kochi Prefecture in 1827 and became a fisherman. In 1841, as a 14-year-old, his fishing boat wrecked during a storm and the crew was beached on a deserted island in the area near Kochi. Then an American whaling ship, The John Howland, rescued him and his companions. Four of the companions were let off in Hawaii, while John Manjiro stayed onboard and eventually settled in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

He studied English and navigation for a year or so, and then signed on to the whaling ship Franklin to travel back to the Pacific maritime region. In 1847 Manjiro met up with his friends and companions from his fishing boat in Hawaii. They missed their native land of Japan, but knew that they could not return at that time due to restrictions of anybody entering Japan – including Japanese such as themselves!

Manjiro continued sailing on the Franklin, traveling all over the Pacific Ocean, but never setting foot in his homeland of Japan. Then in 1850 he and two of his friends decided to return to Japan; they sailed by themselves and landed before arriving in Okinawa in 1851.

Following detainment and questioning by Japanese officials, he soon was returned to Kochi and became a valuable source of information to the Japanese government. In 1853, he was summoned to Tokyo where he became an interpreter to the Shogun (military dictator of Japan), and was instrumental in the success of the diplomatic trade communications with Admiral Perry of the USA.

Manjiro continued his service to the Japanese government throughout his life traveling to the USA with a Japanese official government delegation, and also to Europe to study the education and military ways of westerners in Europe. He eventually became a professor at Tokyo Imperial University and spent the latter part of his life in the Kanto Region near Tokyo. He eventually passed away in 1898.

There is a statue and a plaque dedicated to John Manjiro at Cape Ashizuri in Kochi Prefecture in Shikou.