It's about this japanese fisherman named Manjiro who is curious and smart and exceedingly poor. He's always dreamed of becoming a samurai, but he knows it's not possible for anyone of such a low status to come anywhere near acomplishing that. and his friends who go out on their boat . They get caught in a storm and then their boat washes up onto a remote volcanic island where they almost die. But right when they think all is lost, some american men come and rescue them. They are brought onto a ship and taught how to do things their way. It's really cool because it's all in the perspective of someone from Japan. And their way if thinking and of living is totally different from ours. In the story, they think of the men who rescue them as barbarians. And it's at the time where Japan still didn't let anyone in or out of their country.
Manjiro decides to stay on the ship and go visit America. They discriminate him because of the way he looks and speaks. Then he falls in love with this American girl but the relationship just doesn't work out. He decides he misses the ocean so he goes on this whaling ship. The captain promises that since they would be ailing close to Japan, Manjiro could take a lifeboat back home. But it turns out the captain has lost his marbles and Manjiro has to commit mutiny to keep everyone safe. He goes to California during the gold rush and gets enough gold to get a ship to go back to Japan. Once he gets there he has to go trough this whole process of accepting Japanese religion and promising that he had completely neglected the "barbarian" way of life and so on and so forth. Then he goes back to his family and they live happily ever after. And Manjiro is made a samurai.
Manjiro decides to stay on the ship and go visit America. They discriminate him because of the way he looks and speaks. Then he falls in love with this American girl but the relationship just doesn't work out. He decides he misses the ocean so he goes on this whaling ship. The captain promises that since they would be ailing close to Japan, Manjiro could take a lifeboat back home. But it turns out the captain has lost his marbles and Manjiro has to commit mutiny to keep everyone safe. He goes to California during the gold rush and gets enough gold to get a ship to go back to Japan. Once he gets there he has to go trough this whole process of accepting Japanese religion and promising that he had completely neglected the "barbarian" way of life and so on and so forth. Then he goes back to his family and they live happily ever after. And Manjiro is made a samurai.
