Becoming Japanese

reject, misfit, trailblazer, journalist / muckraker, writer / hack, pioneer / legend Patrick "Lafcadio" Hearn, who would later become 小泉八雲 { KOIZUMI Yakumo } , was a Greek Anglo-Irish* writer/journalist and English language teacher who might hold the distinction of being the very first person to legally acquire Japanese nationality via naturalization. He did this by marrying the daughter of a samurai who had just been stripped of his feudal class ranking due to the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 { Meiji ishin } ) and the introduction of Japan's first constitution: the Constitution of the Empire of Japan ( 大日本帝国憲法 { Dai-Nippon teikoku kempō } ), aka the Meiji Constitution ( 明治憲法 { Meiji kempō } ). * Although Hearn lived in America for much of his young adult life, he never legally became a U.S. citizen. It is assumed he was a British subject as his father was British and he was born on a Greek island that was British controlled. Why is he probably the first fore...