The letter that saved some Japanese but exiled its author

A man walks into a Black Muslim meeting in 1932 Detroit, claiming to be a Japanese major. He is not. What drives a man to abandon everything and invent a new life?

The letter that saved some Japanese but exiled its author

This episode explores the extraordinary life of Naka Nakane, a man who reinvented himself multiple times, from a Japanese pastor to a Canadian cafe owner, and finally to a mysterious figure in Depression-era Detroit. It delves into the profound question of what compels someone to shed their identity and build a new one, and what it means when that second life impacts more people than the first.

Person: Naka Nakane (aka Major Satokata Takahashi) Born: 1870 Location: Kitsuki, Japan Event: 1912 Saskatchewan anti-Asian employment bill Event: Vanishing in Tacoma, 1926

- Naka Nakane was born into a prosperous former samurai family in Kitsuki, Japan, and was educated by an American Methodist missionary. - He became a pastor and founded a church in his hometown before being expelled for alleged sexual impropriety. - In 1903, at 33, he sailed for Canada, eventually settling in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where he married and ran a cafe. - In 1912, he wrote a letter to the Saskatchewan Attorney General, William Turgeon, opposing a bill that would bar Asian men from employing white women. - His letter contributed to a meeting between Turgeon and the Japanese consul, leading to an exemption for Japanese businessmen from the law by 1913.

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