The year was 1841. Japan had been closed to the outside world for two hundred fifty years: no foreign visitors were allowed, and anyone who tried to return to the country after leaving it could be sentenced to death.

Fourteen-year-old Manjiro was working on a small fishing boat several miles off the coast when it was caught in a storm and shipwrecked on a small island. The other fishermen despaired of ever returning to their villages, but Manjiro told himself that no matter what, he would somehow make it home. When the fishermen were finally rescued by an American whaling ship, the captain took a special interest in bright and curious Manjiro, and invited him to come live in Massachusetts with him. There, Manjiro was treated like Captain Whitfield's son, and although the customs were strange to him and he encountered some prejudice, he began to feel as though Massachusetts was his second home. Still, Manjiro never gave up his dream of trying to find a way to return to Japan.

This is the true story of a determined and resourceful young man whose intimate knowledge of two cultures later led him to play an important role in the opening of Japan to Western trade and ideas.

From the dust jacket