Monument to Hamada Yahyoe

This monument in Nagasaki honors a merchant captain who stood up to Dutch colonial authority in the 1620s. When the Dutch East India Company imposed tariffs on Japanese traders operating in Taiwan, Hamada Yahyoe refused to pay and had his cargo confiscated. In 1628, after a second confrontation, he took the Dutch governor hostage and demanded the return of his ships and property. The Dutch complied, and later sent the governor to Japan as a reconciliatory gesture. Hamada's assertiveness is credited with protecting Japan's trading interests at a time when Dutch commercial power was expanding rapidly across East Asia.