The presentation of a Samurai sword : the gift of Doctor Toichiro Nakahama, of Tokio, Japan, to the town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts / by Viscount Kikujiro Ishii, Japanese ambassador to the United States, July the fourth, nineteen hundred eighteen.
The sword was presented to the town by Dr. Nakahama in commemoration of the rescue of his father, Manjiro Nakahama, in 1841, by Captain William H. Whitfield, of Fairhaven.
Original document: Book.
Summary
On July 4th, 1918, Japanese ambassador Viscount Ishii presented a 14th-century samurai sword to the town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts as a gift from Dr. Toichiro Nakahama of Tokyo, one of the first Japanese in the United States. The gift served not only as an honor to people of Fairhaven and the U.S., but also as a signal of the blossoming friendly relationship between the two countries.