Obama celebrated by Obamas

Published 4:00 pm Thursday, December 25, 2008

Astoria’s most famous native son, Ranald MacDonald, first teacher of English in Japan, provides a window to the excitement of the Obama family in Nagasaki, Japan.

Pictured above, at right, is Dr. Masami Obama, a past president of the Nagasaki Rotary Club, posing with a relative at a family reunion, “Obama family’s Obama gathering,” on Aug. 15 in Kanoyashi Kagoshima, Japan. The photo was taken to celebrate Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy, even though the Japanese Obamas are not related to him.

In 1992, former Astoria Library director Bruce Berney and his son, Mark Berney, were guests of Dr. Obama and the Nagasaki Rotary Club, as Berney had been asked to speak at a Ranald MacDonald seminar there. The purpose of the seminar was to initiate a fundraising event to erect a MacDonald monument at the site where he taught English.

MacDonald’s story is well-known in Japan, as several school text books recount the story of his life, and he is the subject of numerous books and newspaper articles. His 1824 birth place monument is in Fort Astoria Park, located at 15th and Exchange streets, and his mother was a daughter of Chinook Indian Chief Concomly.