![Jujiro Wada](../assets/images/titles/wada-en.png)
Jujiro Wada was born in 1875 in Ehime Prefecture. In 1891 he left Japan, stowing away in a tea chest on a freighter to San Francisco. He found work on the Balaena, a whaling ship.
The ship overwintered at Pauline Cove, Herschel Island, and Wada learned how to travel and live off the land from the Inuvialuit people in the area. He returned north when his contract with the Balaena was complete. Wada explored, surveyed and promoted new ventures throughout the Mackenzie Delta, Alaska and the Yukon, making journeys of hundreds of miles and more by dogsled through a largely untracked landscape. He led a solitary and physically demanding life. He was well-respected for his hardiness and good character, even if, as a Japanese man, he was not entirely accepted.
Strong anti-Asian feeling was widespread at the time. In 1901 Wada applied for American citizenship but his application was rejected.
Although legislation and attitudes discriminated against Asians, Wada’s physical skills and stamina were recognized and appreciated in the North. He returned to Japan only once, in the late 1800s, although he continued to send letters and money to his mother throughout her life. He died in San Diego in 1937.
“He has no home but his tent.”
Winnipeg Evening Post, March 22, 1923
![H.H. Norwood](../assets/images/wada/thumb/2.jpg)
The other man in this photo, taken in about 1903, may be H.H. Norwood. Norwood was captain of the Balaena and taught Wada navigation skills and how to read and write in English.
YA, Yukon Asian History Coll., 2006/146 #2
![Claim](../assets/images/wada/thumb/188.jpg)
On March 1, 1908, Wada staked a placer claim on High Cache Creek, a tributary of the Firth River near Herschel Island. As a non-citizen, he was allowed to stake a claim in the Yukon, but not in Alaska.
YA, GOV 371 #188
![Jujiro Wada](../assets/images/wada/7.jpg)
Wada estimated that he had mushed 44,000 km (26,000 miles) in Alaska and the Yukon.
YA, Charles Tennant fonds, 95/33 #7