Hikozo Hamada, who would become Joseph Hico (Americans say Heco), was born in Harima town in 1837, a time when Japan closed itself to foreign influence. A few years after his father’s death, his mother remarried. His stepfather was a seaman and often away from home, but he loved and continued to care for the boy after his mother died when he was only 12 years old.

At thirteen, (1853) Hico’s stepfather took him on a sightseeing tour of Edo. On their way home, a severe storm in the Pacific wrecked the ship. Hico, and 16 other survivors, were rescued by an American ship. These seventeen were the first Japanese to reach California and they were taken to San Francisco.

In 1854, Hico went to Baltimore where he studied at a Catholic school and was baptized "Joseph." In 1858 he became a naturalized American citizen. He was the only Japanese to have shaken hands with Presidents Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan.

In 1859, Hico went to Japan as an interpreter for Townsend Harris, an American merchant and diplomat, and for E.M. Dorr, the first U.S. Consul at Kanagawa. These were his first steps on his native soil since the rescue nine years before. After the Civil War broke out in the United States, Hico returned briefly to America, becoming the only Japanese to shake the hand of President Abraham Lincoln. (1862)

In 1863, Hico established a trading firm in Japan and also began his publishing career. His knowledge of English and of foreign customs and his belief in the value of newspapers proved helpful in the growing diplomatic community. Today, Hico is regarded in Japan as the father of Japanese journalism.

Hico died in 1897.