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Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan
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How Japan, after 250 years of self--imposed isolation, began the process of modernization is in part the story of Ranald MacDonald. In 1848 this half-Scot, half-Chinook adventurer from the Pacific Northwest landed on an island off Hokkaido. Although promptly arrested and imprisoned for seven months in Nagasaki, the intelligent, well-educated MacDonald fascinated the Japane
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Start your review of Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan
As Schodt has been translating books from Japanese into English for many years it came as no surprise that he provided a great deal of contextual information about Japanese history, culture, and society while describing the experiences which protagonist Ranald McDonald had in Japan in 1948. It was impressive, however, that he did a lot of research to do likewise for his portrayal of the Chinook indigenous nation of the Pacific Northwest and the Hudson Bay Company circa the early to mid 19th cent
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MacDonald was in Japan for 8 months of 1848. One must read nearly 200 pages of this 365-page book before he even LANDS in Japan. Of course some history and backstory is necessary as a prelude, but Schodt fills out his tome with every single possible thing of the slightest possible relevance and then figures, what the hell, let's pad it even further with the irrelevant. Honestly, this book should have been about 100 pages long, and it would probably still be unsatisfying then, as the author isn't
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I found this book very interesting, but I am an American living in Japan so that is my personal bias. Tells the history of a man from Northwestern America has he enters a closed Japan and ends up teaching English while imprisoned. One of his pupils goes on to be an important interpreter for Imperial Japan.
This gets 4 stars because there are few books on the subject and the author provides context and sources for his information.
However!! Ithought it amusing that this author speaks of a previous author, saying the he "produced a text that was insufferably difficult to read...with frequent digressions from the subject". I think that is an apt summary of THIS book. ...more
However!! Ithought it amusing that this author speaks of a previous author, saying the he "produced a text that was insufferably difficult to read...with frequent digressions from the subject". I think that is an apt summary of THIS book. ...more
Read this in pieces as I dove into the research on R MacDonald. Schodt does a solid job of connecting MacDonald's life to larger historical contexts. His skills with the Japanese language and culture adds substantially to our understanding of what MacDonald accomplished.
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Frederik L. Schodt is an American translator, interpreter and writer.
Schodt's father was in the US foreign service, and he grew up in Norway, Australia, and Japan. The family first went to Japan in 1965 when Schodt was fifteen. They left in 1967 but Schodt remained to graduate from Tokyo's American School in Japan, in 1968. After entering the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1970 Schodt ...more
Schodt's father was in the US foreign service, and he grew up in Norway, Australia, and Japan. The family first went to Japan in 1965 when Schodt was fifteen. They left in 1967 but Schodt remained to graduate from Tokyo's American School in Japan, in 1968. After entering the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1970 Schodt ...more
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