A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln

Submission 31,872

Part of a series on Abraham Lincoln. [View Related Entries]

About

A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln refers to a speculative theory that during a 24-year window between the invention of the fax machine and the death of Abraham Lincoln a Japanese samurai could have potentially sent a fax to the American president. Spawned by a viral tweet, the theory became the subject of humorous references and memes in July 2021.

Origin

On August 19th, 2020, Twitter^[1] user @BitchWithA_W posted a tweet in which she highlighted a possibility that during a 24-year window between the invention of the fax machine in 1843 and the abolition of the samurai caste in Japan in 1867, a samurai could have used a fax machine. The tweet received over 18,500 retweets and 94,200 likes in one year (shown below).

Starting on July 16th, 2021, a screenshot of six text messages received viral spread. In the messages, a person suggests that during a 22-year gap between the invention of the fax machine and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 a samurai could have potentially sent a fax message to the U.S. president. The sender of the messages and where they were first posted is unknown.

On July 16th, Facebook^[2] page Blazin' Bev Crusher made the earliest found post of the screenshot, gaining 36 likes and 14 shares (shown below). In one hour, Facebook^[3] page The memes your parents warned you about posted the screenshot, with their post gaining over 4,900 reactions and 17,000 shares in one week.

Okay so
The samurai were officially abolished as a caste in Japanese society during the Meiji Restoration in 1867
The first ever fax machine, the "printing telegraph", was invented in 1843
And Abraham Lincoln was famously assassinated at Ford's Theater in 1865
Which means
There was a 22 year window in which a samurai could have sent a fax to Abraham Lincoln.

Spread

In the following days, the post received viral spread online through multiple reposts. On July 17th, 2021, Twitter^[4] user @lopsidedmammal reposted the screenshot, gaining over 10,700 retweets and 59,400 likes in one week. A same-day 9GAG^[5] post received over 11,000 upvotes in the same period. Also on the same day, Redditor^[6] badvibeskei posted the screenshot to the /r/BrandNewSentence subreddit, where it received over 45,700 likes in one week.

In the following days, the theory gained popularity as a subject of memes, primarily being referenced on Reddit and 9GAG. For example, on July 20th, a 9GAG^[7] user posted a Men With a Time Machine meme that received over 3,200 upvotes in four days (shown below, left). On July 22nd, Redditor^[8] magnurk posted a meme that received over 9,100 upvotes in the /r/196 subreddit in one day (shown below, right).

Fact Checks

On July 19th, 2021, Redditor^[9] LincolnMagnus made a post about the meme in /r/AskHistorians subreddit, where it received over 6,000 upvotes in five days. In the thread, Redditors^[10]^[11] demosthenes131 and ManInBlackHat posted detailed responses (shown below, left and right).

Historical evidence suggests that samurais Kimura Yoshitake, Katsu Rintarō and Fukuzawa Yukichi were part of the first Japanese mission to the US in 1860.^[10]^[12] In the United States, the delegation met with President James Buchanan in the District of Columbia.