How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Through the trees and far down the beach, Manjiro could hear the native people singing. Mele and hula, their music and dancing was called. They weren't supposed to do it; the missionaries said it was wrong. Manjiro thought the music was lovely; it had a motion like the sea—it rolled over you and through you like water. Western missionaries had come to Japan, too, a couple of hundred years earlier, and they were one reason Japan had closed its doors to foreigners. Seeing how the native islanders here were expected to change almost everything about their lives for the missionaries, Manjiro could understand why Japan had expelled them. (2.10.9)
Ah finally—some context to Japan's isolationism. It's easy to knock Japan for closing its borders to outsiders, but Manjiro gives a good reason for Japan's isolationist approach. And he does so by seeing an almost-parallel situation in Hawai'i: colonialism suppressing the native Hawai'ian culture. Who knows what Japan would have become if it hadn't closed its borders for a period of time?
Quote #8
Manjiro pointed to the sky. "Look," he said. Pink light rimmed the eastern horizon and ran down the sea. "Doesn't it look like the light from another world, spilling through a slightly open door?"
"No," Goemon said. "It looks like the sun is about to rise."
"It's like how I feel about America," Manjiro said. "It's as if I see this little bit of light from an open door. It promises…I don't know what! But I want to go through that door and find out what is there." (2.11.50-52)
Manjiro's only in Hawai'i (not even a U.S. state) and he's already seeing things differently. Or he's expressing his different perspective more willingly, anyway. All in preparation for his next destination: America.
Quote #9
He felt as if had flown over oceans and traveled through veils of fog and mist to arrive in a magical land of enchantment.
Tidy houses glittered up the hillside, punctuated by tall spires—tall as ships' masts.
People swarmed down the hills and through the streets. Boys skipped along, pushing hoops ahead of them with sticks. Women spun their parasols and lifted their skirts to avoid puddles. Some of them called out the names of loved ones—husbands, sons, fathers, brothers—who'd been away for years. (3.15.13-15)
Manjiro doesn't make an explicit comparison to Japan here, but we get the sense that Japan in the 19th century was anything but active and busy, like this port in New Bedford. Something's certainly different between here and there since he's so captivated.