‘MacDonald’s,’ the first English school in Japan, was its teacher’s prison

JT onlineに院生時代を思い起こさせる記事がありました。記事は日本で最初の英語教師ラナルド・マクドナルドに関するものです。（Koyamamoto）

‘MacDonald’s,’ the first English school in Japan, was its teacher’s prison
Although it has been largely ignored by history, the first unofficial English school in Japan was “founded” in the late fall of 1848 in a prison cell in Nagasaki. Lessons took place within a compound encircled by a 6-foot stone wall. On top of the wall was broken glass, in case any of the criminals, including the teacher of this “school,” wanted to escape.
The school had no name, but if forced to create one, it would have to have been “MacDonald’s,” in honor of the first foreign English teacher in Japan: Ranald MacDonald.
MacDonald had loved Japanese culture ever since he was a 10-year-old boy, when he learned that a Japanese ship, the Hojun Maru, had wrecked and washed ashore in what is now Washington state, near Cape Flattery. There were only three survivors, and they temporarily joined MacDonald as students at the school he attended. Once their English improved enough, they told their harrowing tale: They had drifted across the Pacific Ocean for 14 months after losing their mast and rudder while on a routine domestic journey to deliver rice and porcelain dishes to the shogun. As was the policy back then, when Japan was still a closed country, now that the three survivors had made contact with the West, they could never return.
MacDonald listened in awe, impressed by their resilience. The three Japanese sailors — Otokichi, Kyukichi and Iwakichi (aged 14, 15 and 28, respectively) — described how they had survived on nothing but fish, rainwater and their surplus of rice. Dead bodies were placed inside barrels and thrown overboard.
The seed for adventure had been planted in MacDonald’s mind. As he moved through his childhood, he remained fascinated by that closed, unique country. And then, at the age of 17, he decided to do something about it.
On the cusp of manhood, MacDonald found himself sitting inside a bank. He’d become an accountant, and the tediousness of the position had been gnawing at him ever since he started the job. He contemplated college, then the military, but those cost more money than he had, and his father had refused to cover his costs.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/09/09/issues/macdonalds-first-english-school-japan-teachers-prison/#.Vfqw67SrbWE