Memorials to the U.S.S. Oneida

In January 1870, the USS Oneida departed Yokohama after delivering a shipment of weapons to the Japanese government. Unfortunately, it collided with a British steamer that was on its way in (the “Bombay”) and sank, taking with it 125 of its 186 officers and crew. Not seeing any signal of distress, the Bombay continued into port, neglected to make a report, and left any rescue efforts to two Japanese fishing boats in the vicinity. [Source] The incident caused a huge uproar among Yokohama’s international community. In the ensuing investigations, the British took a legalistic approach to the matter, saying it was the American vessel’s fault for neither signaling nor maneuvering properly.

The Americans adopted a more ethics-based approach, saying that the steamer should have acted on its professional obligation to render assistance. The imbroglio resulted in the British captain having his license suspended for six months, and the ship being “libeled,” meaning other ships from the same company were unwelcome in American ports. In the wake of the tragedy, Americans set up a memorial in the Yokohama Foreigners Cemetery (横浜外国人墓地) – one that American service members found undamaged after the Japanese surrender in 1945, and which still stands to this day. Sailors assigned to the Yokosuka Naval Base help clean up every November [Source]. Yet this is not the only memorial.

The U.S. government did not attempt to salvage the Oneida, despite it resting in the shallow waters of Tokyo Bay. As a result, in 1872 the wreck was sold in auction, and salvage rights passed to the new owner, who began work on it sometime later.

As American Eliza Scidmore wrote in his 1891 memoir Jinrikisha days in Japan, “The wreckers found many bones of the lost men among the ship’s timbers, and when the work was entirely completed, with their voluntary contributions they erected a tablet in the Ikegami [temple] grounds to the memory of the dead…” A ceremony then followed which was attended by 75 priests, the resident American admiral, and 100 men from the U.S. Asiatic Squadron.

Scidmore continued, “Americans may well take to heart the example of piety, charity, magnanimity, and liberality that this company of hard-working Japanese fishermen and wreckers have set them.” [Source, pages 139-140]

These were men who held no obligation to the lost Americans apart from a common humanity, and yet they treated the deceased with greater dignity than even their own government.

Although the memorial originally had copper lettering, this was removed during the dark days of World War II for its scrap value. This damaged the engraving, but it is still mostly legible. It reads, “In memory of some of the unknown dead of the U.S. Oneida, lost in Yeodo Bay January 24, 1870, whose remains were here interred by [innumer?/honor?]able [and] tender Japanese [hands]. [Inasmuch as ye] have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, Ye have done it unto me.” [Mt 25:40 KJV]