Japan's origins: a 19th century theory linking them to lost Israeli tribes
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In the 19th century, pastor Nicholas McLeod proposed a theory that Japanese people descended from lost tribes of Israel, believing Shintoism was a distant form of Judaism.
McLeod, a former herring fisherman, built his ideas on a common human tendency to create heroic origins for their communities. Like other origin myths, such as the Swiss story of William Tell or the Spanish tale of El Cid. McLeod’s theory sought to connect a people to impressive ancestors.
Jean Lemaire de Belges advanced a similar claim in 1511, writing that the Gauls were both descendants of the patriarch Noah and founders of Troy. These accounts demonstrate how communities sometimes stretch the truth when constructing their histories. McLeod's theory, like Belges' claim, represents an attempt to build a narrative of heritage, even if based on speculation rather than evidence.
