In the late 1930s, when tensions were building between Japan and the United States, a group of concerned Americans and Japanese conducted a private meeting in Japan in an attempt to prevent war between our countries.  

The meeting was held on the suggestion of Mr. Kiyoshi Nakahama, who was the third-generation descendant of Manjiro Nakahama.  Manjiro was the 14-year-old boy rescued by Captain William Whitfield in 1841 on a small island in Japan 370 miles south of Tokyo.  The Ambassador of Japan from the United States at the time was Mr. Joseph Grew, who obtained permission from President Franklin Roosevelt for the meeting.

President Roosevelt sent Mr. Willard Whitfield to Japan to represent the United States as he was the fourth-generation descendant of Captain Whitfield.  The Whitfields and the Nakahamas had maintained a close family connection since the early encounter of their ancestors in 1841.

The meeting took place in the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and other American and Japanese people longing for peace were invited and attended.  Ambassador Grew presided over the friendly get-together with his wife Alice, who was a great-granddaughter of Commodore Perry.  Years earlier the mother of Alice, Lilla Cabot Perry, was a well-known artist and studied under Mr. Claude Monet in Paris.  Lilla and her husband, Thomas Seargeant Perry, moved to Giverny, France, with their three daughters and rented a home next to Monet’s home.  These early experiences in life with her parents and their friends were sure to give Alice much self-confidence, poise, and knowledge.  When she married Joseph Grew, Alice became a strong partner and advisor, especially during the tense 1932-1942 years when he was Ambassador.

A mystery I have pondered is why Ambassador Grew did not discuss this Peace Party meeting in his book “Ten Years in Japan” published in 1944.  He discusses many other meetings with pictures in his well-documented book, but notably omits discussing the Peace Party.  I speculate that because relations between the United States and Japan were tense in 1940, he was uncomfortable about making it an official meeting between people from both countries.  Ambassador Grew disagreed with the trade sanctions the US had placed on the Japan government and believed they would be counterproductive.

The photograph in this article of the attendees at the Peace Party is in the possession of Ms. Kyo Nakahama, a close friend of mine. Kyo and I renew our friendship once a year when we meet as part of a Grassroots Summit sponsored by the John Manjiro-Whitfield Center for International Exchange (CIE) in Tokyo. This photograph of the attendees of the Peace Party is published in Kyo’s book, written in two languages, and in her father’s book written in Japanese. Another publication of this picture is in the book about Manjiro by Mr. Yoshimasa Kamiya. He discusses Mr. Kaju Nakamura, an admirer of Manjiro working for peace and an attendee of the Peace Party. Nakamura-san and his wife are standing to the left of Willard Whitfield in the photograph. This photo is not well published and if one searches the internet for it, or any mention of the Peace Party, I feel they will not be positively rewarded.

A friend of mine living in Japan, Ms. Hiroko Todoroki, who once oversaw the Grassroots Summits for CIE, is interested in Japan history.  Since she retired from CIE, she has graciously maintained a Black Ships Blog for some of my articles in English and her translation into Japanese.  Hiroko informed me that in 1940 Mr. Nobuo Murakami was the apprentice chef at the Imperial Hotel and helped serve the food for the guests at the hotel attending the Peace Party.

Murakami-san worked at the Imperial Hotel for his whole career and became the head chef and executive chef.  Hiroko remembers the article about the Peace Party, which Murakami-san wrote in the hotel magazine.  He was not only a famous chef at a hotel, but also as a cooking teacher in the NHK TV program, "Kyo no Ryori (Today's Cooking)."  Hiroko said, “it was knowledgeable and fun, and I used to watch.”  Murakami-san died in 2005 at the age of 85, but during his 56-year career at the Imperial Hotel he played a major role by introducing French cuisine to ordinary Japanese households.  These foods might have been some of the same foods attendees at the Peace Party were served in 1940.

The fact that descendants of Manjiro, Whitfield, and Perry attended the Peace Party in 1940 reflects friendship between families sharing similar feelings about peace.  The Manjiro/Whitfield family friendship (maintained even throughout World War II) is the longest (1841-Present) friendship in the world between two families from two countries.  This friendship between the Nakahama and Whitfield families comes alive during the Grassroots Summits.  I am proud that my family connection with both families, which loosely started in the 1850s, was reinforced in 1940 with the Peace Party.  I hope many Americans will join me in Wakayama, Japan, in July 2024 for the 31st Japan America Grassroots Summit and meet the current Manjiro and Whitfield descendants.