A long journey
When we think about travelling 10,000 km as Canadians now, we recognize that as a significant journey. Imagine making that trip in the 1890s from Hakodate on the main northern island of Japan all the way to Sackville, NB without the benefit of airplanes or cars. I suspect that it took the better part of a month to get here.
Nevertheless, Raitaro Okuro made the trip and became Mount Allison’s first Japanese student. Undoubtedly, his choice was influenced by Methodist missionaries to Japan who taught him English. While at Mount Allison between 1890 and 1894, he attended the Male Academy where he was actively involved in gymnastics. He intended to continue his studies at the University, but in 1895 opted to begin studies at the Boston School of Theology with the aim of returning to Japan as a missionary.
Mount Allison’s Archives had little information about his subsequent life but his online biography recently generated interest from Trinity Church in Boston. They found our photographs and shared some of their own research in an , including details about his marriage and the baptism of his son.
They were able to confirm that by 1899, he was employed as a butler in the home of Boston businessman, Charles Bond. While working there he met and fell in love with Dorothy Duffieu, the family’s live-in English governess. The two were married in 1903 at the West Somerville home of manufacturer Albert B. Bent. They had one son, Arnold Raitaro Okuro (1905-1973). His wife died on a trip to England in 1917 and he was left to raise their son alone.
While living in Massachusetts, he became a leader in Boston’s Japanese community. A 1904 Boston Herald article describes a community event that offered songs, sword dances, readings, and instrumental selections. Okuro gave a short talk on relations between nations. At a 1906 gathering in celebration of the Japanese emperor’s birthday, Okuro was designated toastmaster.
In the 1920 United States census, Okuro was recorded as living in North Reading, MA. At the time, he worked as a bacteriologist at the North Reading State Sanitorium for tuberculosis patients where formerly he had been a patient. He died, aged 49, on Aug. 3, 1922.