1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:08,000 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,480 Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right 3 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:16,640 Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:30,080 Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Yomamoto O Tokichi was fourteen 5 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:33,280 Speaker 1: when he left his home in Japan in eight thirty two. 6 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:35,480 Speaker 1: He'd taken a job on the crew of a rice 7 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:38,519 Speaker 1: transport ship bound for a dog The ship left the 8 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:41,680 Speaker 1: harbor on October eleven, and not long after it was 9 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:44,520 Speaker 1: hit by a powerful storm that knocked the vessel way 10 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:48,640 Speaker 1: off course. It drifted far into the Pacific Ocean. It's 11 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:51,760 Speaker 1: rudder and mast had been ripped away, leaving the ship 12 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:56,320 Speaker 1: unable to steer in any direction. For over a year, 13 00:00:56,680 --> 00:01:00,320 Speaker 1: the transport ship floated aimlessly in the Pacific, It's crew 14 00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:05,080 Speaker 1: growing increasingly desperate and hungry. They ended up surviving on 15 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:08,600 Speaker 1: desalinated water and by eating their cargo, the rice they've 16 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:11,319 Speaker 1: been tasked with carrying to Ado. By the time they 17 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:13,880 Speaker 1: washed ashore on the West coast of the United States, 18 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:17,960 Speaker 1: only three crew members were left alive, including Yamamoto, who 19 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:22,520 Speaker 1: had turned fifteen during the journey. But their hardships weren't 20 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:26,399 Speaker 1: over yet Washington State hadn't yet been admitted to the Union, 21 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:29,319 Speaker 1: and the indigenous people living in the area were wary 22 00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: of strangers. The Makah tribe welcomed Yamamoto and his fellow 23 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:36,399 Speaker 1: crew members at first, but after the castaways had recovered, 24 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:39,880 Speaker 1: they were enslaved before being given to John McLoughlin of 25 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:44,479 Speaker 1: the Hudson's Bay Company. McLoughlin didn't see three young men 26 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:48,960 Speaker 1: children really in dire need of help. He saw opportunity 27 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 1: and a way to begin trade negotiations with Japan. He 28 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:54,720 Speaker 1: put them on a boat to England, where they were 29 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 1: to convince the monarchy to fund his endeavor. The Brits 30 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:01,280 Speaker 1: didn't bite, though they didn't see any value in furthering 31 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:05,520 Speaker 1: McLoughlin's dreams of international trade, but rather than send Yamamoto 32 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:08,040 Speaker 1: and his friends back to the US, they were shipped 33 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:10,600 Speaker 1: off to China, where they could find safe passage home 34 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:14,200 Speaker 1: from there. But just as their journey was coming to 35 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:18,120 Speaker 1: a close, fate had other ideas. They were intercepted by 36 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:21,800 Speaker 1: Carl Gutzlaff, a German missionary who worked for the British government. 37 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:24,880 Speaker 1: He wanted them to teach him Japanese so he could 38 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:28,120 Speaker 1: bring his religion to the people there. The three survivors 39 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:30,880 Speaker 1: did as they were told, educating Carl in their tongue, 40 00:02:30,919 --> 00:02:33,960 Speaker 1: before meeting an American trader who also wanted to talk 41 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:38,600 Speaker 1: to Japan about a possible trade partnership. The American promised 42 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:40,919 Speaker 1: to take them to Ado, the city that they had 43 00:02:40,919 --> 00:02:44,519 Speaker 1: intended to go on their original journey. Finally, their journey 44 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:46,840 Speaker 1: would find some closure and they could return to their 45 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:51,160 Speaker 1: families and their previous lives. Unfortunately, the trader couldn't get 46 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:54,519 Speaker 1: his ship anywhere near the country. Every time he approached 47 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 1: the shore, cannon fire ensued, forcing him to ultimately retreat 48 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:03,240 Speaker 1: to southern China. Japan, you see, had enacted the Sakaku policy, 49 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:07,480 Speaker 1: a word meaning closed country. Anyone seeking to enter or 50 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:12,280 Speaker 1: leave was met with hostility, often resulting in death. So 51 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:15,280 Speaker 1: Yamamoto and the other crew members built new lives for 52 00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:18,680 Speaker 1: themselves in China. They worked as translators for the British 53 00:03:18,760 --> 00:03:23,160 Speaker 1: government and several British companies. Yamamoto in particular, bounced around 54 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:26,320 Speaker 1: from place to place, job to job, working on ships 55 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:30,200 Speaker 1: and helping sneak Japanese castaways back home aboard Dutch and 56 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:34,320 Speaker 1: Chinese ships. Two countries not bound by the Sokoku policy, 57 00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 1: and yet, despite his work and helping others find their 58 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,760 Speaker 1: way to Japan, Yamamoto never took advantage of his position 59 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:45,119 Speaker 1: to return home permanently. He did visit twice on business, 60 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:47,600 Speaker 1: but never found a place for himself like he had 61 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:51,120 Speaker 1: in China. He married two times, and with the second wife, 62 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:54,120 Speaker 1: he raised four children. As part of his work for 63 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:57,160 Speaker 1: the British government, he was a naturalized subject and took 64 00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:00,800 Speaker 1: on the name John Matthew Odison before return into Singapore 65 00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:04,440 Speaker 1: to live out his final years. Yamamoto died in eighteen 66 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:07,880 Speaker 1: sixty seven at just forty nine years old. His life 67 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:10,480 Speaker 1: had been cut short, but he had packed it full 68 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:15,640 Speaker 1: of adventure. But it's not all sad. No matter where 69 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:18,520 Speaker 1: he lived or who he worked for, Yamamoto was and 70 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:23,000 Speaker 1: always would be, a Japanese citizen. He'd left behind a family, friends, 71 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:27,159 Speaker 1: people he'd loved but would never see again. His body 72 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:29,680 Speaker 1: was buried in Singapore, where he lived with his wife, 73 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:32,920 Speaker 1: but he'd been a man of two worlds. As such, 74 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:36,119 Speaker 1: it was only fitting that half of his remains should 75 00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: be returned home to Japan, which is exactly what happened, 76 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 1: but not right away. Yamamoto's remains, or half of them 77 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:50,760 Speaker 1: at least, returned in two thousand five, eighty seven years 78 00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:55,479 Speaker 1: after his death, and last I checked, he has no 79 00:04:55,640 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 1: plans to leave. The nineteen eighties were a wild time. 80 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,680 Speaker 1: Advances in technology brought the personal computer to the masses, 81 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:19,800 Speaker 1: as well as fear about the future. We didn't have 82 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:22,479 Speaker 1: any idea of what the Internet would bring. There was 83 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:26,560 Speaker 1: no warning about social media, and nobody was branding themselves 84 00:05:26,640 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 1: as an influencer. But a war was brewing, one that 85 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:33,680 Speaker 1: would bring two world powers together in a display of 86 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:38,680 Speaker 1: unity not seeing any other time in history. It began 87 00:05:38,960 --> 00:05:42,400 Speaker 1: as the Cold War was ending. President Ronald Reagan and 88 00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:45,599 Speaker 1: Communist leader Mikhail Gorbachev had gone back and forth in 89 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:48,480 Speaker 1: an effort to end the global arms race. The Soviet 90 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:52,520 Speaker 1: Union had promised to eliminate ballistic missiles and intermediate range 91 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:56,679 Speaker 1: nuclear forces or i n f s from Europe. In return, 92 00:05:56,960 --> 00:06:00,280 Speaker 1: the United States promised to not continue their research into 93 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:05,440 Speaker 1: strategic defense initiatives for ten years. But President Reagan wasn't 94 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:08,760 Speaker 1: interested in stopping research. While he hated the concept of 95 00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:13,040 Speaker 1: mutually assured destruction, his goal was to implement his strategic 96 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:17,159 Speaker 1: defense initiative a missile defense system that would prevent a 97 00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:22,800 Speaker 1: ballistic missile attack from space. Neither side trusted the other, though, 98 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:25,120 Speaker 1: but that didn't stop either of them from working on 99 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:28,440 Speaker 1: a possible solution. The talks came to a head in 100 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:32,679 Speaker 1: September of ninety six when Garbagecheff suggested a meeting somewhere 101 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:36,159 Speaker 1: neutral where they could discuss matters in peace and perhaps 102 00:06:36,320 --> 00:06:40,599 Speaker 1: come to some kind of an agreement. Reagan agreed, and 103 00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:43,839 Speaker 1: thirty days later, on October eleven, the President of the 104 00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:47,039 Speaker 1: United States and the leader of the Soviet Union gathered 105 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:49,640 Speaker 1: at a house in Reikiavik, Iceland that had once been 106 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:53,040 Speaker 1: used as the British consulate, and it was there where 107 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:59,080 Speaker 1: they began negotiations. Things didn't go well at first. Garbage 108 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:02,880 Speaker 1: Jeff was described as belligerent, wanting only to discuss ending 109 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:06,200 Speaker 1: the arms race. Reagan, on the other hand, had several 110 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:10,520 Speaker 1: problems he wanted remedied, including the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan 111 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:15,400 Speaker 1: and various human rights violations. Unable to find common ground, 112 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:17,640 Speaker 1: the two men decided to leave the house and take 113 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:20,920 Speaker 1: a walk around the property with their interpreters. The discussion 114 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:24,120 Speaker 1: they had was only heard by the people present. History 115 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:27,080 Speaker 1: tells us nothing of value was mentioned, as the summit 116 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:30,720 Speaker 1: fell apart not long after. The Cold War wouldn't end 117 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:36,040 Speaker 1: for another five years. However, Gorbachof certainly remembered what he 118 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:39,520 Speaker 1: and the former president discussed. You see, Reagan was an 119 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:44,240 Speaker 1: avid reader, specifically of science fiction. Edgar Rice Burroughs was 120 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:47,440 Speaker 1: a favorite, but so were some contemporary authors, two of 121 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:51,120 Speaker 1: whom ended up writing policy for the president's bold new initiative. 122 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:55,440 Speaker 1: Because Reagan saw space the way Jean Roddenberry had as 123 00:07:55,480 --> 00:08:00,280 Speaker 1: the final frontier, Jerry Purnell and Larry Niven, the co 124 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:03,320 Speaker 1: authors of the nineteen seventy four bestseller The Moat in 125 00:08:03,400 --> 00:08:06,280 Speaker 1: God's Eye, had been asked to join a new committee 126 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:10,679 Speaker 1: dedicated to advancing America's future technology efforts. It was called 127 00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:14,920 Speaker 1: the Citizens Advisory Council on National Space Policy and was 128 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:19,720 Speaker 1: comprised of former astronauts, military personnel, scientists, and other science 129 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:23,880 Speaker 1: fiction authors. Over the course of three days, the Citizens 130 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:27,080 Speaker 1: Advisory Council met at Niven's house, where they drafted a 131 00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:31,160 Speaker 1: policy designed to combat Reagan's fears. Later, during his walk 132 00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:34,520 Speaker 1: with Mr Gorbachev and reiky Vik, he brought those fears 133 00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:38,920 Speaker 1: up in their conversation outside. President Reagan no longer saw 134 00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:42,600 Speaker 1: Gorbachev or the Soviet Union as their ultimate enemy, and 135 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:45,319 Speaker 1: although their talks fizzled in reiky Vik, the two men 136 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: understood that at some point they would need to set 137 00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:51,480 Speaker 1: aside their differences and join forces. There was another threat 138 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:54,679 Speaker 1: on the horizon, one that would require as much firepower 139 00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:59,959 Speaker 1: as our planet could muster. President Reagan asked Mr gorbache 140 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:03,160 Speaker 1: Off if he would help. When the time came. Mr Gorbachof, 141 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:06,319 Speaker 1: with the help of his translator, didn't scoff or laugh 142 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:09,880 Speaker 1: or insult the President in any way. He simply turned 143 00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:13,520 Speaker 1: to him and said, no doubt about it, And just 144 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:16,360 Speaker 1: what was this battle they were preparing for? And where 145 00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:20,679 Speaker 1: was that war going to take place? Nowhere? It turns out, well, 146 00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:24,000 Speaker 1: nowhere on Earth, that is. They had agreed to help 147 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:26,720 Speaker 1: each other for the greater good should a new enemy 148 00:09:26,840 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 1: arrive to threaten their safety, an enemy from outer space. 149 00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:38,640 Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet 150 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:42,520 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn 151 00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:47,160 Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. 152 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:50,720 Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership 153 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:54,079 Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works, I make another award winning show 154 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:58,000 Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television 155 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:00,240 Speaker 1: show and you can learn all about it over at 156 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:03,800 Speaker 1: the World of Lore dot come and until next time, 157 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:05,240 Speaker 1: stay curious.