Becoming a US Citizen, 1854

Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.

From The Narrative of a Japanese by Joseph Heco, 1895.

Click Here to Read Part One

[Joseph Heco, born Hikozō Hamada, was the first naturalized Japanese citizen of the United States. He came to the United States after a shipwreck deposited him and other survivors in San Francisco. From there, he began working as a diplomat and interpreter for the United States and Japan, traveling between both countries. Heco became a US citizen in the 1850s. His memoirs here describe his growing up as a displaced youth in the United States and his path to becoming a citizen.]

January 17th, [1853.] Mr. Sanders had to go to Russia on some business connected with that country. So he called me aside and told that he should like to take me with him to Europe, but the better course for my interests would be to put me to school while he was away. On his return he said he would take me back to California. As to my present needs, his family and his brother-in-law would see to them just as he would do himself. When I heard this I felt very sad and sorry at the thought of parting from him, for by this time I looked upon him even as upon my own father.

A few days after he left I was placed in one of the Catholic Colleges kept by the "Brothers." Here I stayed till the old gentleman returned from Europe in 1854. My studies lay in learning to spell, write, and cipher, and in reading some religious books. My teacher, Brother Waters, was most painstaking and attentive while my fellow students were exceedingly kind: at each recess they would come around me and teach me the language as. well as help me with my lessons.

In six months the summer vacation came and I was sent with Mr. Sanders' children to live at a farm owned by his mother-in-law about 7 miles from the city. Here there were about forty negro slaves, the most healthy and cheerful people I ever saw. Their ways and manners were exceedingly funny; their dances in the evening used to interest me especially.

The day after my arrival the old lady ordered me a glass of milk fresh from the dairy, with sugar and a lump of ice in it. When the house-keeper brought it to me I asked what it was, and she pointed to the cattle in the distance and said cow's milk. So I declined to take it, inasmuch as in my country we had been taught to look upon all four-footed animals as unclean. The housekeeper went and told the old lady that I had refused the milk, and upon this the old lady came to me and said that the milk was good for me and would make me strong and that I must drink it. So I had to obey, as all were standing round watching me. And I drank that milk, and was greatly surprised to discover that it tasted so nice and soothing. And I began to think that there were many more good things in the world than I had dreamt of. From that time onward I have always been very fond of milk.

The first Sunday after my arrival we all had to go to Church. The old lady ordered a horse for me and a negro as a groom. This was the first time I ever rode a horse, and I enjoyed that ride very much and ever afterwards I rode whilst I was on that plantation. And I ever afterwards was fond of riding and when I returned to Japan my fondness for this exercise got me into strange and unexpected difficulties.

In above five weeks we, returned to Baltimore, and a few days afterwards Mr. Sanders came back from Europe. He had been appointed Russian Naval Paymaster on the Western Coast of America. After this I did not go back to school as Mr. Sanders intended to start for California.

Nov. 1st, 1854, As our departure for California was near at hand, Mrs. Sanders, who was very ardent in the matter of religion, was anxious that I should be Christianized, or converted to the Christian faith and baptized before I left Baltimore.

So I agreed, and one day I went with a lady who was staying in her house to the Cathedral. There we met Father I forget his name who ushered us into a closet, a little enclosed box-like place. Here he questioned me on various matters and points. Then he told me to select a name out of those he read from a book and repeated. Several of the names he repeated did not sound nice, and all seemed to be the same. At length he came to, and read out the name of "Joseph." That sounded so pleasant to my ears that I at once said "that name will do for me." After this the Priest and all of us walked up to the front of the altar and here I was christened and baptized with Holy Water and received the above name of 'Joseph.’

Two days thereafter we set out for San Francisco via New York and Panama and arrived at our destination on the 28th of November 1854.

Two weeks after our arrival I was placed in a school that afterwards became united with San Francisco College. Here I continued till the November of the following year. Then occurred the Great Commercial Panic of 1855, in which the San Francisco bankers suffered severely. Among others the house of Sanders and Branam was obliged to suspend payment, or in other words, to close up the shop altogether. This circumstance caused me great grief on account of my good old gentleman.

This meant an end to my schooling for a time. Then with the aid of another kind friend I returned to school for six months more. But he also was involved in the panic, and thus I had to leave school for ever.

Then I turned my thoughts to obtaining a situation in a commercial house in San Francisco.

So I went and asked my old gentleman to secure me some such post among his business friends. To this request he willingly assented, and in a few days he obtained for me a place in the house of Macondray & Co., and I entered their service on April 5th, 1856. This house was a large commission firm of four partners, with a manager and a large staff of clerks and porters, and received consignments from all parts of the world.

While thus situated learning something of business and perfectly satisfied with my place, Senator Gwin one day sent a friend to Messrs. Sanders and Gary (my friend and my employer) requesting that I should be allowed to accompany him to Washington. At first they declined, but as the Senator persisted in sending his friend with the request, they at last consulted and addressed a note to Senator Gwin asking him what object he had in view in wishing to take me to Washington with him. In reply he wrote as follows:

San Francisco, August 3rd, 1857.

Dear Sir,

In answer to your note of this date, I will state that I propose to take Heco, the Japanese boy, with me to Washington to act in the capacity of a clerk, and also if it could be accomplished to have him employed in the State Department preparatory to his being sent to his native country with such knowledge of our Government and such endorsement as will be of service to him when he arrives in Japan.

It will be sometime before I can get him a place in the State Department and some difficulties may result from his not being an American citizen, but I do not anticipate that they will be of such character that they cannot be overcome.

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

WM. M. GWIN.

COL. B. C. SANDERS,

San Francisco..

On receiving this letter they advised me to go with the Senator. So I made ready to do so, and leaving San Francisco on September 20th, 1857, we arrived in New York on the 7th of the following October and took up our quarters at the Metropolitan Hotel.

One morning Mrs. Gwin came into my room accompanied by a gentleman and told me to go with him and get a new suit of clothes. I told her that I had plenty of clothes to last me for some time, and that I did not want any new clothes. She replied that the clothes I had were not suited to Washington Society, and that I must go and order a suit in the present fashion. Then she turned to the gentleman and said "Now Mr. C. you will please take him to the best tailor and shoemaker and order for him a new suit, shirts and a pair of boots, won't you?"

Then Mr. C. asked me to accompany him, and I went thinking that since Mrs. Gwin wished me to have a new suit, it was to be a present from the Senator. So we went to Broadway where a suit was ordered and a pair of boots bought. The clothes came in due course before we left for Washington. They fitted me to a nicety and I thanked Mrs. Gwin and the Senator for them.

About a week after our arrival in the national capital the Senator published in the local newspapers a letter from Mr. Sanders to the Senator written before we had left California. This letter gave an account of myself and of the manner of my coming to America and of what I had been doing since my coming. The object of the Senator in publishing this letter was to excite curiosity about me before he presented me to the newly installed President of the U. S. No sooner had this letter appeared in print than the residents of the place became very friendly and invited me to dinner and evening parties and so forth. Before ifs publication, no notice had been taken of me whatsoever, as was of course perfectly natural.

November 28th. In the morning the Senator took me in his carriage to the State Department and introduced me to the Secretary of State (Gen. Cass) and to the Acting Undersecretary and chief clerk, Mr. Wm. Hunter. From there he took me to the White House and introduced me to President Buchanan. The President shook hands with me very cordially as did all the officials to- whom I had been introduced at the State Department.

The Senator stated the object of our visit. This was to have me placed in the State Department preparatory to my return to Japan, as he believed that that country was shortly to be opened for commerce. He said if I was so placed I would naturally acquire a knowledge of American Institutions which might be of some service to both countries.

The President made answer that he would be most happy to aid me and place me in the State Department, but he was afraid there was no vacancy open, for since he had taken his seat, so many months had elapsed that all posts were filled, down even to the copyist.

"However" he said, "you may inquire at the State Department and if there is any opening I shall be most happy to appoint your young friend."

The Senator replied that he had already been to the Department, and finding that there was no vacancy there he had come to ask the President to do him the favour of creating some special post for me. To this the President answered that there was no appropriation for any new post, but that the Senator might see to such appropriation when the Session of Congress began.

The President was a large-built old man of 70. One of his eyes was affected. He was dressed in a black suit, and held his head on one side.

In December Congress met, but as far as my affair was concerned nothing was done, and the matter seemed to be at an end.

I stayed with the Senator till February, 1858. During this time I made several friends and acquaintances among the former a Lieutenant John M. Brooke. He was then in Washington trying to get up a surveying expedition to the coasts of China and Japan, and to determine the position of some reported dangerous rocks and shoals in the Pacific. He made me a promise that if he succeeded in his object, he would give me a position in the expedition that would enable me to return to my native country.

But his project made but slow progress and I had little to do or to learn with the Senator, as my duties lay in assorting and filing his numerous letters, and writing replies to his dictation. So one day I asked the Senator to let me go, if he really could not place me in the State Department, or get me some post under the Government.

He said that if I wished to return to California he would give me a passage back. I told him I did not care to go back to California yet, (on account of Lieutenant Brooke's expedition) but would like to go to Baltimore where I had some friends and might get into some business house. The Senator then said that if I wished to leave him I might do so, and he would give me a letter to the Collector of the Port of Baltimore who might give me a temporary position. So saying he wrote the following letter and handed it to me:

Senate Chamber, February 15th, 1858.

My Dear Sir,

Joseph Heco, the bearer of this is a native of Japan, whom having become a citizen of the United States, I brought with me from California to have employed in the State Department. Up to this time I have been unable to get him there employed for the want of a vacancy, but I am still in hopes of succeeding as the session progresses. In the meantime I have advised him to go to Baltimore where he has friends and get employment in the Custom House or a commercial house if he can. He is a clever young man of good habits, industrious and honest, and I shall be much gratified if you could give him even temporary employment in your office.

Very truly yours,

WM. M. GWIN.

Hos. J. T. MAJOR,

Collector, Baltimore.

After the Senator had granted my leave and provided me with the above letter I expected that he would give me my passage money to California since he knew my salary balance would be very small. So I asked him for my accourit, whereupon he handed me the following accounts and no allowance for passage money. For I afterwards was told that if I went back to California my passage would cost him nothing. The Senator's accounts with me stood thus:

To salary Sept. 5th, 1857 to Feb. 1858 at $30 per month: 150

Less Cash paid from time to time: 55

Against this he handed me a bill for new clothes bought at New York at the wish of his wife amounting to $75. Thus he give me as my balance in cash, $20.

The Senator was well-known to be wealthy, with extensive plantations and several hundreds of slaves in the South. He and his wife posed as leaders of fashionable society in the capital, giving numerous balls and dinner parties and so forth. And yet his treatment of myself, a poor stranger, was not munificent. He took me away from a firm where I was well situated, learning business and perfectly satisfied with my position, and after taking me to a strange and distant place he turns me adrift with a precious twenty dollars!

Click Here to Read Part Three

Heco, Joseph. The Narrative of a Japanese. American-Japanese Publishing Association, 1895.

Joseph Heco

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