Collection inventory

Overview of the Collection
Creator:	Heco, Joseph, 1837-1897
Title:	Joseph Heco Collection
Inclusive Dates:	1852-1991
Bulk Dates:	1858-1863
Quantity:	2 linear ft.
Abstract:	Papers of Japanese-American businessman and newspaper publisher Joseph Heco (Hikozo Hamada). Includes letters, manuscripts, memorabilia, photographs, clippings. Also later printed material about Heco, including books, serials, and Joseph Heco Memorial Society newsletters.
Language:	English, Japanese
Repository:	Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Ave., Suite 600 Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center/university-archives

Biographical History

Joseph Heco (1837-1897) was a Japanese-American journalist and newspaperman. He is regarded in Japan as the father of Japanese journalism.

Hikozo Hamada, the farmer's son who would become Joseph Heco, was born in 1837, toward the end of the Tokugawa Era, a time of the closing of Japan to foreign influence. A few years after his father's death, his mother remarried. Fortunately the fatherless boy had been accepted to a temple school for training and education, an unusual occurrence for someone of his social class. His stepfather, a seaman on a freighter often away from home, loved and continued to care for the boy when the mother subsequently died during his twelfth year.

At thirteen years of age, Heco's stepfather took him on a sightseeing tour of Edo. On their way home, a severe storm in the Pacific wrecked the ship. Seventeen survivors, Heco among them, were rescued by the American freighter "Auckland." According to Payson Jackson Treat's book Japan and America, these seventeen were the first Japanese to reach California.

In 1852 the United States Government sent the group to Macao to join Commodore Perry, a gesture they hoped would help open diplomatic relations with Japan. Afterwards Heco went to Baltimore where he studied at a Catholic school and was baptized "Joseph" in 1854. In 1858 he became a naturalized citizen. He was the only Japanese to have shaken hands with Presidents Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan.

In 1859, Heco entered Japan as an interpreter for American merchant and diplomat Townsend Harris and for the first U.S. Consul at Kanagawa, E.M. Dorr; these were his first steps on his native soil since the rescue nine years before. After the Civil War broke out in the United States, Heco returned briefly to his adopted country, becoming the only Japanese to shake the hand of President Abraham Lincoln.

In 1863, Heco established a trading firm in Japan and also began his publishing career. His knowledge of English and of foreign customs and his belief in the value of newspapers proved helpful in the growing diplomatic community.

Heco died in 1897. The Joseph Heco Memorial Society continues to honor his accomplishments and contributions.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Joseph Heco Collection consists of Joseph Heco's papers from during his lifetime, as well as contemporary and later printed material about him. Heco's Papers include letters, manuscripts, speeches, copies of various official documents, memoranda, and maps. Printed material includes Joseph Heco Memorial Society newsletters, Yokohama Historical Archives issues and reprints, and several books on Heco and on Japan generally. All printed material is in Japanese.

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Arrangement of the Collection

The original papers are in no particular order. Printed material is in alphabetical order by title, as far as possible.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

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Subject Headings

Persons

Subjects

Places

Genres and Forms

Occupations

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Joseph Heco Collection,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Portions purchased; portions gift of Haruyoshi Chikamori; portions gift of Hisako Ito.

Finding Aid Information

Created by: -
Date: 1984
Revision history: 26 Sep 2005 - EAD file created (MRR); 19 Jul 2006 - minor changes to subject headings (MRR); 19 May 2008 - corrections, additions (MRC); 13 Feb 2025 - collection rehoused, inventory corrected/updated (MS)

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Inventory

	Papers
Box 1		Item 1 - Narrative of a Japanese, Yokohama Printing and Publishing Co., Ltd. - Heco's autobiography (2 folders)
Box 1		Item 2 - Work folder (2 folders)
			Included here are letters; the negative of a Heco photograph [missing as of 9/26/05]; a copy of an article, "Friend," Honolulu; several articles about Heco in Japanese from Japanese newspapers; and correspondence of Percival Densmore Perkins, bookseller, publisher, and author of an influential book on Lafcadio Hearn.
Box 1		Item 3 - Ledger notebook marked "Prices current."
			Included here are letters in Heco's handwriting, data concerning export duties etc., clippings, and newspaper reports of the arrival of the steam-sloop Wyoming from Shimonoseki, a city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, on 20 July 1863. The Wyoming was an American warship which participated in an engagement against three Japanese armed vessels and six shore batteries on July 16, 1863; Heco was apparently on board during the battle. There is a handwritten note from George S. Fisher, U.S. Consul, dated 12 July 1863, telling Heco to be on board the Wyoming at 4 o'clock sharp "without fail," a pencil drawing by Heco of the vessel with notes telling how many shots they fired and where they hit, and a map of Shimonoseki.
Box 1		Item 4 - "Old Japan" - 48 page manuscript in Heco's hand, with 6 pages inserted between pp 10 and 11
Box 1		Item 5 - two ordinances concerning prostitutes and "long term contracts" 1872 - copies in Japanese
Box 1		Item 6 - commercial treaty between the U.S. and Japan 1858 - copy in Japanese
Box 1		Item 7 - "The Convention of Yedo" 25 June 1866 - text of the convention, signed by England, France, America, Holland and Japan including a revised tariff, as printed by Japan Times
Box 1		Item 8 - ordinance regarding the fundamental structure of the new government formed after the Meiji Restoration 1869 - copy in Japanese
Box 1		Item 9 - Hyoryu-ki [Memoirs of a Castaway] 1863 - original from which Narrative of a Japanese was later written; this is Heco's copy of the Japanese edition
Box 1		Item 10 - Document presented to the Tokugawa government but refused as impossible of realization 1865 - in Japanese, written by Heco
Box 1		Item 11 - Three letters in Japanese concerning revision of the tariffs 1866
Box 2		Item 12 - Five speeches by the Honorable Charles Sumner in the U.S. Senate 10 Dec 1861, 11 Dec 1861, 9 Jan 1862, 20 Jan 1862, 13 Feb 1862 - on the back of one is written in Heco's hand in pencil, "Recd from the Senate Jany. 25/62"
Box 1		Item 13 - Manifesto issued during Tokugawa era - dated in pencil in Heco's hand, "Yedo 1863," the time of Choshu trouble; in Japanese
Box 2		Item 14 - Joseph Heco's memorandum to the Prince of Hizen 1868 - in Japanese; annotated in pencil in Heco's hand, "Osaka June 10, 1868 by J.H. Presented to the Prince of Hizen in Kyoto"
Box 2		Item 15 - A lengthy explanation of military drill and strategy "occidental style," with illustrations 1868 - in Japanese; annotated in English in Heco's hand, "Written by J. Heco Nagasaki in 1868"
Box 2		Item 16 - Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Commerce between Her Majesty and the Tycoon of Japan 1858 - printed copy in English;.signed, in the English, Japanese and Dutch languages, at Yedo, August 26, 1858; autographed "Joseph Heco, Esq., Yokohama. With Edward Clarke's compts"
Box 2		Item 17 - Explanation to Prince Hosokawa how to operate and manage the warship he had purchased from England. Document in Japanese 1867
Box 2		Item 18 - Exhibition catalogue 1940 - catalogue of exhibition by Yokohama City of Perkins Collection, with explanation of documents in Japanese
Box 2		Item 19 - Document 1862 - in Japanese; written by Heco to be presented to Sakai Utanokami, a prince in the Tokugawa government
Box 2		Item 20 - Speech of Hon. D.W. Voorhees of Indiana in the House of Representatives 20 Feb 1862
Box 2		Item 21 - Remarks of Hon. Henry May on the oppression of Maryland 18 July 1861 - given in the House of Representatives; inscribed "Henry May to Jos. Heco."
Box 2		Item 22 - Speech of Hon. M.S. Wilkinson on the expulsion of Mr. Bright from the Senate, given in the Senate 20 Jan 1862
Box 2		Item 23 - Speech of the Hon. J.D. Bright on the Resolution proposed for his expulsion, given in the Senate 5 Feb 1862
Box 2		Item 24 - Map of Tokyo showing extent of fire damage - in Japanese, with strip of paper attached showing "Mr. Waters' house"
Box 2		Item 25 - Explanation of warehouse in Kanagawa 4 March 1866 - in Japanese; Heco's suggestions to Miyamoto Koichiro, Mayor of Yokohama; annotated in pencil, "Written by self, 1866"
Box 2		Item 26 - Map of Nagasaki - in Japanese, inscribed "To Heco Esq. S.Q. Araki Land Office"
Box 2		Item 27 - Description of 100 cities and large towns of America with railroad distances through the U.S. and 13 maps of New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, St. Louis, Buffalo, Milwaukee, New Orleans and San Francisco 1852
Box 2		Item 28 - Japan Daily Mail, one issue 14 Feb 1889
Box 2		Item 29 - Pencil sketch, "Mr Bates' house, Dec. 16 1858" 1858
Box 2		Item 30 - Documents A, B, C, and D, and Heco's copies of them, 1872 (2 folders)
			These comprise Heco's recommendations to the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance concerning setting up a system of feudal domains, parliament and law courts in such domains, and the transfer of the capital back to Kyoto.
Box 2		Item 31 - Map of tourist sites in Japan 1884
Box 2		Item 32 - Photographs
			Photographs are: Joseph Heco in middle age; Heco as an older man with commemorative stone marker "The Old Residence of Joseph Heco, Pioneer of Japanese Newspaper"; Mr Saunders; and the USS St. Mary. There is also an engraving, "The President and the Japanese Embassy."
Box 2		Item 33 - Nihon Gaiko Tembyo [Let's go to Japan] March 1934 - in Japanese, about Heco
Box 3		Item 34 - Kaikoku isshi Amerika Hikozō jijoden, Kyōto-shi : Guroria Sosaete, Shōwa 7 1932 - Japanese edition of The Narrative of a Japanese, Heco's autobiography
Box 3		Item 35 - Shimbun no Kwanso: Hamada Hikozo no Jiseki [Pilot of Recent Journalism: Works of Hikozo Hamada], by Motosaku Tsuchiya
Box 3		Item 36 - Shin kyujidai, "Hiko no kaigai shinbun ni tsuite. Kaigai Shimbun" [About Heco's overseas newspapers] Feb 1915 - in Japanese; edited by Hikozo
Box 3		Item 37 - 2 issues of Meiji Bunka [Meiji Culture], "Beri no Bankoku to Hiko no Kaigai shimbun" [Veri's Bangkok and Heco's overseas newspapers] Oct 1929, Nov 1929
Box 3		Item 38 - Correspondence between P.D. Perkins and T. Nakamura, Yokohama (and other notations concerning Heco).
Box 3		Item 39 - Japanese popular songs about "Kurobune" [Black Ship] - added by collector, not part of Heco's original estate
Box 3		Item 40 - Unidentified manuscripts - in Japanese; added by collector, not part of Heco's original estate

	Printed material
Box 3		Book: ジョセフ彥海外新聞 [Joseph Heco Foreign Newspaper], Tōkyō : Waseda Daigaku Shuppanbu 1977
Box 3		Book: 開国 / [校注者]田中彰 [Opening of the country, edited by Akira Tanaka], Tōkyō : Iwanami Shoten 1991
Box 3		Book: 開国への渦潮 [Whirlpool towards opening up the country], Tōkyō :Gyōsei, Shōwa 61 1986
Box 4		Clippings about Heco 1964 - on centenary of Heco's founding of first newspaper in Japan
Box 4		"Father of News Paper – Joseph Heco," by Haruyoshi Chikamori 1986 - in Japanese; article from Chugaku Kokugo, describing the unveiling ceremony of the memorial stone of Hikozo Hamada
Box 4		Joseph Heco Memorial Society newsletter, no's 1-10, 17 1973-1977, 1984
Box 4		Kaigai Shinbun [Overseas Newspapers] 1976 - in Japanese; reprint from Historical Documents of Kanagawa Prefecture, v.14
Box 4		"Promotion Magazine": たまくす: 横浜開港資料館普及誌 No.4 1986 - featuring the opening of Yokohama port by Western powers; mentions Heco
Box 4		Scrapbook 1850s - clippings
Box 4		Yokohama Archives of History exhibit materials 1976
			This consists of material sent from the YAH about the 1985 exhibition that was held at the Archives. Included are reprints of articles from the Kanagawa Shimbun, the Yokohama Archives of History News, an exhibition poster, information about the exhibit, and photographs of the exhibit.
Box 4		Yokohama Archives of History Review Mar 1986 - two copies (2 folders)

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