JL;DR SUMMARY In 1998, Akira Kitade, a Japanese man, discovered a photo album belonging to his former boss, Tatsuo Osako, which contained pictures of passengers on the Amakusa-maru ship that Osako worked on in the 1940s. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.