A Japanese Robinson Crusoe

An Introduction

An Introduction by Greg Robinson and Yujin Yaguchi The year 1898 saw the United States transformed from a continental power into a Pacific and Asian empire. On May 1, just days after the U.S. government declared war on Spain, Admiral George Dewey launched an attack on Manila, and a fullscale invasion of the Philippines followed in July. In December, as a result of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the SpanishAmerican War, the United States took over the overseas territories of the defeated Spanish empire. In addition to seizing Puerto Rico and imposing a protectorate over Cuba, Washington annexed Guam and occupied the Philippines—setting off another war with the Filipinos, who had risen to liberate their country. Meanwhile, in July, by means of a joint resolution of Congress, U.S. legislators pushed through the annexation of Hawai‘i, a takeover favored by the Islands’ ruling white oligarchy but against the expressed will of most of its people. The primary goal of such expansion was to build a bridgehead to Asia. By controlling these territories, Americans provided themselves with a protected route by which to push their trade and influence into China (through the “open door” claimed by Secretary of State John Hay soon afterwards). They also sought to counter the growing power of Japan, which was itself building an Asian empire. In 1894 Tokyo successfully negotiated with Britain to abolish extraterritoriality, a provision of earlier unequal treaties that had been claimed by subjects of Western powers for more than three decades. In the Sino-­ Japanese War of 1894–1895, Japan defeated China and took over Taiwan, the Pescadores Islands, and the Liaodong Penin- 1 sula “in perpetuity” (although it soon had to give up the latter as a result of a Triple Intervention by the Germans, French, and Russians). A decade after that victory, Japan would again emerge triumphant in the Russo-Japanese War and gain recognition as one of the important powers of the world. It was in this climate of international expansion and American interest in Asia, along with Japan’s emergence on the world scene, that a pioneering Asian-American memoir, Jenichiro Oyabe ’s A Japanese Robinson Crusoe, made its appearance.1 Oyabe ’s text relates his spiritual autobiography: his boyhood in Japan; his adoption by Ainu (Japanese aborigines) in the northern island of Hokkaido; his conversion to Christianity; his journey to enlightenment in the West; his arrival in New York and his discovery there by General Samuel Armstrong, founder of Hampton Institute; his education at Hampton, Howard University, and Yale University; and his subsequent work as a missionary. The work charms by its picturesque—and picaresque— account of the author’s adventures. Like a Victorian novelist, Oyabe spins a tale that mixes faith and exoticism, leavened with social analysis and humor. The author’s story of his encounter with a racist barber in New York, soon after his arrival in the country, displays a notably light touch (plus a fine ear for American speech): After a few weeks I went into a barber shop to have my hair trimmed. “Aee, John, git out from here. Oi don’t cut a Chinaman ’s hair!” I was scorned by the old barber. I told him that I was not such a man, but a Japanese. “Ou, ye Javanese, a country of lots coffee! All right; sit dan, my goot fellar.” (113) Still, the chief fascination of Oyabe’s work lies in his narrative of his gradual development into a “Japanese Yankee,” a story that fuses classic American narratives of self-creation and the self-made man (as well, in certain cases, the American tradition of the tall tale) with the literature on immigrant assimila2 Introduction tion and belonging. Although Oyabe compares himself with Robinson Crusoe, that great castaway of English literature who discovers God in his forsaken state, Oyabe is hardly marooned and left to face local “savages.” Rather, he presents himself as a man who consciously chooses his destination, the United States, in search of salvation and the education that will make possible his future mission to the “savage” Ainu. Oyabe might thus be said to represent a combination of Robinson Crusoe and his faithful servant Friday, the Christianized man of color who begs to be enlightened into Western ways. Similarly, the author’s conversion and the pilgrimage of faith he makes to the United States are driven as much by a desire...