Back when Japanese’ kindness
and compassion moved an entire empire
This is back to the time in 1890, when Ottoman Turks were moved by witnessing a heartwarming selfless act from their Japanese counterparts, cementing the positive reputation of Japan’s cultural values globally.
Frigate Ertuğrul officers with Japanese delegation, sometime around 1890. [ Photo collected from Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
During the years of 1878–87, the Ottoman Empire led by Sultan Abdul Hamid II and Empire Of Japan led by Emperor Meiji were attempting to create diplomatic ties between the two nations. When Prince Komatsu Akihito officially visited Istanbul in October 1887 and presented Japan’s highest order, the Order of the Chrysanthemum (大勲位菊花章) to the Sultan, the government of the Ottoman Empire decided to send a ship on a goodwill voyage to Japan in return. That ship was Frigate Ertuğrul, which sailed onto the seas on July 14, 1889, with around 607 sailors — including 57 officers, led by Rear Admiral Ali Osman Pasha. Their destination was Yokohama in Japan, where they reached on June 7, 1890 and was received by Emperor Meiji. The Ottoman Turkish delegate stayed in Japan for three months, and during that period, they received numerous medals, awards from the Japanese government, and attended diplomatic ceremonies and dinners.
On September 15, 1890, Frigate Ertuğrul set sail from Yokohama for Istanbul. At the time of departure, the weather conditions were good, but the next morning a reverse wind began to blow, getting stronger towards the evening. Soon, it became apparent that a storm was overhead as violent waves hit the ship. Soon, the mizzen mast of the ship collapsed from the storm, and the ship reported severe damages. As the crew continued in their attempt of repairing the ship and clearing out flooded water for next two days, it became apparent to them that the ship would soon sink. They made the decision to seek sanctuary at a port in Kobe, but in an unfortunate twist, their ship uncontrollably drifted towards the dangerous rocks at the eastern coast of Kii Ōshima (紀伊大島) island in Wakayama Prefecture, due to the violent waves and hit the reefs. Instantly, the ship fell apart at the first impact around midnight on September 18, and around 538 sailors, of whom 50 were officers including the commander Ali Osman Pasha, lost their lives.
The explosions followed immediately by the impact, jolted awake the nearby villagers on the island. As dead bodies of sailors and remnants of the ship started to float near their shore, the villagers of Ōshima realized the seriousness of the situation, and soon fishermen in groups started sailing towards the wreckage site, looking for survivors in the stormy night. The villagers rescued around sixty nine survivors — six of them were officers. Six of the survivors were uninjured, nine severely wounded and the others sustained light injuries. What followed next would forever change the relationship between Japan and Turkey. The villagers who were already overwhelmed at the death and destruction around their sea shore, soon chimed in together for one major cause — to treat the survivors and save them. Almost each and every villager of Ōshima, regardless of their age and profession, spent their entire night treating the survivors; giving them first aid, cleaning their wounds, bandaging them, providing them with food and clean water and others. Soon, rural professional doctors joined in, which was life-saving for the ones who needed serious medical treatment. Kii Ōshima was home to three villages comprising a total of about 400 households. The residents led a hardscrabble existence, but they shared their limited provisions generously with the Turks. They tended to the needs of the survivors, despite language barriers — the villagers left no stone unturned for them. They even went ahead and cleaned all the belongings of the survivors, and materials that were recovered from ship wreckage. In the words of a Turkish officer who was among the survivors : “The people of this fishermen village might be poor in terms of wealth, but they are truly rich from their hearts”. After a heartwarming exchange of farewell between the Japanese villagers of Ōshima and the Turkish sailors, the sixty-nine survivors were sent back to Istanbul in October 1890, abroad two Japanese naval corvettes. The Japanese even provided financial aid collected from public, for each survivors after they reached their homeland in Ottoman Empire. Yamada Torajirō (山田寅次郎), an important figure in the Japanese-Turkish relations, himself went to Istanbul to deliver the aid money for survivors and expressed his condolences on behalf of the Japanese nation for the deceased. As much as the actions of the villagers won hearts all over, the compassion shown by the professional doctors who treated the survivors were no less significant. The doctors refused any financial compensation from the Turkish and Japanese governments, stating that it was their humanitarian duty.
Copy of the diagnosis reports of the Frigate survivors and the letter from Torajiro Yamada. [Photo collected from Agara]
In 2023, Muryoji Temple, which is located in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, donated crucial historical documents related to the Frigate Ertuğrul disaster, from the temple’s safe to the government for better preservation. The documents were originally from the three doctors who treated the survivors — which included copies of medical diagnosis reports, report to the prefectural secretary, and a letter from Torajiro Yamada. The copy of the medical reports contains the names, illnesses, causes, symptoms, and treatment methods for 35 of the sixty-nine survivors. For the crew member Bektaş (then 27 years old), who was believed to have been struck by a piece of wood from the ship, the record states : “On the inner adductor muscle directly above the right thigh, there is a wound approximately two to three inches wide, reaching the muscle membrane, presenting a charcoal black appearance.” According to the documents, the doctors handed the original diagnosis record to the Japanese Navy, which was sent back to Istanbul. They received a notice instructing them to prepare and submit an account statement for the cost of medicine and treatment. They originally had no intention of requesting any fees and were motivated purely by the humanitarian spirit of rescue, feeling deep sympathy for the miserable survivors. They wished to donate the costs of medicine and treatment as a form of relief aid (義援, gien). According to the temple, the document was donated to the temple in 1930 by parishioner/danka (檀家) of the temple, Hisaharu Asari, who was also the nephew of one of the treating doctors, Dr. Ichiro Date (伊達 一郎).
Now the question is — why the Japanese people went this far for the people they hardly knew about ? The answer lies within the Japanese culture’s core aspects. The deeply-ingrained core cultural values Ninjo (人情), Giri (義理) and Omoiyari (思いやり) were the motivating factors behind such a great act of compassion towards people from another part of the globe.
Ninjo (人情) : Ninjo literally translates to “human emotion” or “human feeling”. It represents the natural, compassionate, and emotional impulse to help another person who is suffering.
Giri (義理) : Giri is a complex concept meaning “duty,” “obligation,” or the “burden of obligation.” It refers to the social debt an individual owes to society, a group, or a specific person, requiring them to act honorably and fulfill their responsibilities. The villagers and the doctors saw it as Giri to help the survivors to their fullest. The Japanese public who donated for the survivors saw it as their ‘moral obligation’ to ensure a financially safe future for them.
Omoiyari (思いやり) : Omoiyari literally means “to think about others”. It is the active, conscious desire to anticipate and understand the needs and feelings of another person and to act on that understanding without being asked and without expecting a reward.
The Ōshima fishermen risking their lives during a typhoon while looking out for survivors, the villagers sharing their scarce resources, the doctors refusing payment, the Japanese government ensuring proper dignified return of survivors back to their homeland — were all aspects of Giri and Omoiyari, backed by the concept of Ninjo.
This entire act of compassion left a deep impression among the Turks regarding the Japanese, establishing strong diplomatic and people-to-people ties between the two nations. For the first time, Turks came across these concepts of Japanese core cultural values. These Japanese’ act of compassion was repaid back by the Turks in 1985 during the Iraq-Iran War — when the Turkish government sent a Turkish Airlines plane to evacuate the 215 stranded Japanese citizens in Tehran. Around 200 Turkish citizens were also stranded in Tehran, and needed the airlift evacuation as well, yet out of generational obligation to ‘return the favor’ since Frigate incident, the Turkish civilians decided to let their Japanese brethren return safely back to Japan, while they chose a riskier path through the road to Iraq-Turkish border. This solidified another Japanese cultural concept of Kizuna (絆) — a modern word that has gained prominence, meaning “enduring bonds”, specifically, an emotional, enduring link or deep relationship between people. The Japanese act of kindness in 1890, which was repaid back to them in 1985, are acts of Kizuna between the two nations. From there, both Japan and Turkey have generously helped each other in times of emergencies as “brotherly nations”.
Once again, Japanese cultural concepts of kindness, empathy and humanity proved that “sometimes the unexpected close friendships are formed by acts of compassion”. Maybe this is what the world needs right now— love and empathy. Ninjo (人情), Giri (義理), Omoiyari (思いやり) & Kizuna (絆) are the Japanese concepts that the world needs to adopt if it wants to pursue a peaceful and better future.