No traveler in the nineteenth century became a greater catalyst of change than Manjiro Nakahama, a man revered in Japan and virtually unknown in the U. S. The New Bedford Samurai began his adventures as a runaway, illiterate boy from an island nation locked tight against the world, ruled by a strict caste system, and by and large ignorant of six hundred years of progress. By the end of his life, Manjiro had circumnavigated the globe five times, saw (and helped) his country change from the feudal Shogunate to a nation committed to playing a major role in global affairs, and imported from the U. S. to his native land both an enthusiastic spirit of democracy and the entrepreneurial know-how that resulted in severe ecological damage.
"A brilliant fusion of a nonfiction novel and an ecologically concerned memoir, Anca Vlasopolos' latest book, The New Bedford Samurai, takes the reader on multiple journeys. She takes us back through time, bringing to life the true saga of a nineteenth-century Japanese castaway, Manjiro Nakahama, and through space, taking us with her to Japan, where we learn of the plight of the short-tailed albatross. What's more, this creative, eloquent, and heartrending book makes us care." ~ Susan Morgan, author of Place Matters: Gendered Geography in Victorian Women's Travel Writing about Southeast Asia.