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The is the name for the set of events surrounding the sinking of a British merchant vessel named ''Normanton'' off the coast of what is now Wakayama Prefecture on October 24, 1886. The vessel was registered to the Madamson & Bell Steamship Company when it ran aground and sank, drowning all the Japanese passengers aboard. The event sparked a major uproar in the Japanese population when the subsequent court case in the British Court for Japan highlighted the unjustness of the unequal treaties that were levied on Japan at the time by the leading countries of the West. == Overview == On the evening of October 24, 1886, the 240-ton British cargo ship ''Normanton'', laden with both goods and 25 Japanese passengers, left Yokohama Harbor and set sail for the port of Kobe around 8:00pm. However, en route to her destination she was caught in heavy wind and rains all the way from Yokkaichi in Mie Prefecture to the Cape of Kashinozaki in Wakayama Prefecture, where the vessel was shipwrecked. She ran aground on an offshore reef and was lost.〔Tanaka(1990)p.444〕 The ship’s captain John William Drake and all European (ethnic British and German) crewmen escaped the sinking ship in lifeboats, leaving the non-European crewmen (twelve Indians and Chinese) and the 25 Japanese passengers aboard to fend for themselves.〔Keene, Emperor of Japan, pp. 410-411〕 The Europeans were picked up by coastal fishermen who took them in warmly.〔〔Three of the survivors of the shipwreck died of hypothermia and were buried once the crew reached the shoreTanaka(1990)p.444〕 Out of the 25 Japanese passengers aboard the ''Normanton'', not a single one made it to safety. 〔According to Inuoe Kiyoshi's "Revising the Treaties"(条約改正, ''jouyaku kaisei'')(1955)there were only 23 Japanese passengers aboard the Normanton. Additionally, he asserts that of the 38 British crew members and 1 Indian cabin boy aboard, only 25 crew members, Captain Drake, and the cabin boy made it out alive. The other 13 crew members were lost at sea. Furthermore, the official time the boat sank is given as approximately 1:00 AM, October 25th. The time Drake, et al managed to paddle their way to the shore at Kushimoto and to rescue at 9:00 AM the same dayInoue(1955)p.39〕 On October 28, Inoue Kaoru, Minister for Foreign Affairs for Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi's first cabinet, received a telegram from Matsumoto Kanae, Governor of Wakayama Prefecture, briefly outlining the events surrounding the shipwreck. He was alarmed by the fact that all the Japanese passengers were lost, and ordered an investigation of the situation on the spot.〔 However, Japanese officials were hindered in their efforts to verify the facts of the incident by the wall imposed by the Unequal Treaties. Reportedly, they were never able to reach a satisfactory end to their investigation. At a Marine Accident hearing at the British consulate in Kobe the following month, Captain Drake was declared innocent of any wrongdoing. James Troup, British Consul approved the following official statement on November 5. "The crew urged the Japanese passengers to get to the lifeboats as quickly as possible, but the Japanese failed to understand the English instructions. In turn, they did not comply with the crew's wishes, but instead holed themselves up inside the ship and didn't even try to come out. The crew had no choice but to the leave the Japanese and take to the lifeboats. (Since the ''Normanton'' was a cargo ship, there was no staff in place to handle Japanese speaking passengers.)" The captain and the crew were found not guilty by the investigation.〔Inoue(1955)p.39〕 Public opinion in Japan was outraged over what was perceived to be a case of racial prejudice.〔Fujimura(1989)p.82〕〔Sakeda(2004)〕 A good example of public sentiment at the time can be found in the ''Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun'' (forerunner of the ''Mainichi Shimbun,'' founded in 1872.) The paper reported in an outrage that, "If the Captain and the more than 20 seamen under him were able to be rescued, it makes sense that at least one or two Japanese passengers would have been saved along with them. However, the ugly truth is all of them were lost." In another article, they claimed that, "If the passengers had been Westerners, they would have been rescued immediately. These men were left to die because they were Japanese".〔Ienaga(1977)p.102〕 The Japanese public was outraged on hearing the verdict. The following ran in the ''Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shinbun'', a paper that publicly protested the event in print. "No matter how ignorant you may think the Japanese are, to claim that they could stare into the face of danger and fail to recognize the gravity of the situation is absurd. The idea that these people were too stupid to know how to save themselves or even get help from others is a grave fallacy."〔〔白痴瘋癲 (''hakuchifuuten'') translates to "crazy fool."〕 Donations poured in from all over the country to support the families of the victims who lost their lives. Entire newspapers covered nothing but stories about the incident for days on end, supported by mournful editorials and articles calling for the removal of the officials in question. Even well-known legal scholars openly accused Captain Drake. Fringe politicians across the land held open meetings in which they publicly condemned Britain's violence and record of violating human rights while they rallied for the return of political power to the Japanese people.〔 Some English language newspapers were also shocked by the verdict. The North China Herald in Shanghai called the decision of the Board of Enquiry a "farce", a "miscarriage of justice" and a "complete whitewash"〔North China Herald, 22 December 1886〕 The Japanese government had gone great lengths in trying to re-negotiate the Unequal Treaties. Foreign Minister Inoue had been a staunch supporter of the country's Europeanization by hosting elaborate balls at the ''Rokumeikan,'' however he could do nothing to silence the storm of domestic controversy rising across the land. On November 13, he ordered the Governor of Hyogo Prefecture Utsumi Tadakatsu to prevent Captain Drake and crew from leaving Kobe's port, and brought charges of murder against the Captain and his men under the governor's name in the The British Court for Japan in Yokohama (upper consular court).〔 The prosecution took place the following day on 14th. The British held a preliminary hearing in Kobe, and then moved the case to Yokohama. On December 8, Judge Hannen of the British Court for Japan in Yokohama found Drake guilty of criminal negligence, and sentenced him to three months imprisonment. However, the British consular court rejected any compensation for the families of the victims.〔〔〔Chang, The Justice of the Western Consular Courts〕 In sentencing Drake, Judge Hannen told him: "We have been accustomed to expect from the merchant service of England heroism and devotion to the interests of the crew and passengers that I am afraid in this case were wanting."〔Japan Gazette 8 December 1886〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Normanton Incident」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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