Japanese envoys in Britain, 1862-1964

271 Pages·2007·35.827 MB·English

by  Nish, Ian

JAPANESE ENVOYSIN BRITAIN, 1862-1964
AmbussudorYoshiduShigeruand his wifeYukileavingfor
Buckingham Palace, 11March 1937.
Japanese Envoys in Britain,
1862-1964
A CENTURY OF DIPLOMATIC EXCHANGE
Compiled and Edited
by
IAN NISH
LONDONSCHOOLOFECONOMICSANDPOlITICALSCIENCE
GLOBAL
ORIENTAL
IJAPAN SOCIETY PAPERBACK EDITIONNOT FORRESALE I
JAPANESE ENVOYS INBRITAIN, 1862-1964
ACENTURYOFDIPLOMATICEXCHANGE
Compiled and Edited by Ian Nish
Firstpublished in 2007 by
GLOBALORIENTALLTD
PO Box219
Folkestone
Kent CT202WP
www.globaloriental.co.uk
© Global Oriental Ltd2007
ISBN 978-1-905246-32-8 [case]
Allrights reserved. No part of this publication
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The Publishers wish to express their thanks to the UK-JapanJoint
History Research Promotion Fund for their generous contribution to
the making of this book
British LibraryCataloguingin Publication Data
ACIPcatalogue entryfor this book isavailable
from the British Library
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Printed and bound inEngland byAthenaeumPress,Gateshead,Tyne& Wear
Contents
List ofContributors ix
~a x
Acknowledgements xv
Abbreviations/OrderofNames xvi
1 TheJapanese Embassyin London and its Buildings 1
Shozo Kadota
2. Japanese Envoys in Britain, 1862-72 8
SirHugh Cortazzi
3. TERASHIMAMUNENORI(1832-93). Master of EarlyMeiji Diplomacy
London, 1872-73 21
Andrew Cobbing
4. UENOKAGENORI (1845-1888). AMost Influental Diplomat
London,1874-9 35
Andrew Cobbing
5. MORI ARINORI (1847-89). From Diplomat to Statesman
London,1880-84 45
Andrew Cobbing
6. KAWASE MASATAKA (1840-1919). The Longest-serving Envoy
London,1884-93 55
Ayako Hotta-Lister
7. AOKI SHDzo (1844-1914). BriefEncounter
London,1894 69
Ian Nish
8. KATO TAKAAKI (1860-1926). ARemarkable DiplomatandStatesman
London,Minister1895-1900;Ambassador 1908-12 80
Ian Nish
9. HAYASHI TADASU, (1850-1913). Working for the Alliance
London,1900-06 92
Ian Nish
lO. INTERLUDE: Lifein the Legation/Embassy, 1884-1913 lO2
Ayako Hotta-Lister
11. KOMURAJUTARO (1855-1911). Great Statesman; Struggling
Diplomat
London,1906-08 lO9
Ian Nish
12. INOUYE KATSUNOSUKE (1861-1929).AHighly-respected Envoy
London, 1913-16 117
Ian Nish
13. CHINDASUTEMI (1857-1929). Ambassador in Peace and War
London, 1916-20 126
Ian Nish
14. HAYASHI GONSUKE (1860-1939). Leading the Way to the
Washington Conference
London, 1920-25 135
Harumi Gotii-Shibata
15. MATSUI KEISHIRO (1868-1946). An Efficient Public Servant
London, 1925-28 143
Tadashi Kuramatsu
16. MATSUDAIRATSUNEO(1877-1949). Diplomat and Courtier
London, 1929-35 153
Ian Nish
17. YOSHIDA SHIGERU(1878-1967).DifficultYears for Anglo-
japanese Relations
London, 1936-38 163
Ian Nish
18. SHIGEMITSUMAMORU(1887-1957). CriticalTimes in a Long,
Ambivalent Career
London, 1938-41 173
Antony Best
19. I11\TERLUDE:Snapshotsof the London Embassy in the 1930s 185
Yuki Yoshida [Extracts from WhisperingLeaves in GrosvenorSquare]
20. INTERLUDE: ADiplomat's Daughter in the 1930s 189
AyakoIshizaka
21. ASAKAI KOICHIRO (1906-1995). High-ranking Envoy Reconnects
with Britain
London, 1951-54 199
Tomoki Kuniyoshi
22. MATSUMOTO SHUNICHI (1897-1988). First Post-war Ambassador
London, 1952-55 207
Ian Nish
23. NISHI HARUHIKO (1893-1986). Conscientious and Patriotic
Bureaucrat
London, 1955-57 217
Ian Nish
24. OHNO KATSUMI (1905-2006). AMission to RenewAnglo-japanese
Relations
London, 1958-64 227
EijiSeki
APPENDIXES
Listof Ministers/Ambassadors with Dates 240
II AConcise History of thejapanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs 241
Index 253
In memoryof
Bonnie Williams Berry
(1955-2006)
Member of the Council of the Japan Society 1990-2006
and Vice Chairman
Born in Japan and long-term resident in the United Kingdom
and
Professor W.G. (Bill) Beasley
(1919-2006)
Professor Emeritus, SOAS, University of London
and doyen of British historians ofJapan
For theirgreat contributions to relations between Britain andJapan

List of Contributors
Best, Antony (Dr), Senior Lecturer in International History, London School of
EconomicsandPolitical Science. HislatestbookisBritishIntelligenceand theJapanese
ChallengeinAsia,1914-41, Palgrave, 2002
Cobbing, Andrew (Dr), University of Nottingham. His latest book with Masataro
Itami is Kawada Ryokichi - Jeanie Eadie's Samurai: The Life and Times ofa Meiji
Entrepreneurand AgriculturalPioneer, Folkestone: Global Oriental, 2006
Cortazzi,Hugh (Sir,GCMG),BritishAmbassadortoJapan, 1980-4; Chairmanofthe
Japan Society (London), 1985-95. His latest publication is his translation of the
Crown Prince of Japan's memoir, The Thames and I, Folkestone: Global Oriental,
2005
Goto-Shibata Harumi, (Dr), Asst. Professor of International History, Chiba
University
Hotta-Lister, Ayako (Dr), the author of The Japan-British Exhibition of 1910,
Folkestone: Japan Library, 1999
IshizakaAyako. Her latest book, published in her maiden name, AyakoTomii, isA
Japanese Diplomat's Daughter:An Outsider's Childhood in the 1930s and 1940s (New
York:iUniverse Inc., 2004)
KadotaShozo, former Ministerat the London Embassy
KuniyoshiTomoki, an expert on postwarAnglo-Japanese relations, London School
of Economics
KuramatsuTadashi, Asst.Prof of International History, Aoyama Gakuin University,
Tokyo
Nish, Ian, Emeritus Professor of International History, STICERD, LSE
Seki Eiji, Japanese diplomat (retired) and author. He served twice at the London
Embassy, initially as First Secretary (1965-7) and later as Minister Plenipotentiary
(1984-7). He was Ambassador to Zambia and surrounding countries (1981-3) and
later to Hungary (1989-92). He has published various historical works in Japanese
and, in English, MrsFerguson's Tea-set, Japanand the Second World War. The Global
consequencesfollowing Germany's sinking ofthe SSAutomedon in 1940 [Folkestone:
Global Oriental, 2006]
YoshidaYuki, wife ofAmbassador Yoshida Shigeru
Preface
I n 2004, theJapan Society published avolume entitledBritishEnvoysin Japan
with the object of showing the role of senior figures on the British side in
Anglo-Japanese relations over the period 1859 to 1972.1This isintended asthe
successor volume which will present some of the senior figures who served as
Japaneseenvoys in the UnitedKingdom. Butthere are three differences: wewill
nottake thestorybeyond1964;halfoftheauthorsareJapanesescholars; andwe
have included in addition to the biographies a few, regrettably few,sketches of
what lifewas like within the embassycommunityso asto illustrate not merely
policy-making but also some of the factors which affected the life-style of
Japanese residents in London.
Since this is partially intended as a work of reference, we have included
(chapter 1)an accountof the historyof the embassybuildings over the years as
given by Sh6z6 Kadota, a minister in theJapanese embassy, in a lecture to the
JapanSocietyin the 1970s. Hisessaydid notoriginallygobeyondtheyear 1941
andhas beenupdatedin ordertotake in post-war developmentsandthetransfer
to the new embassy building in Piccadilly in 1989. We have included a list of
heads of mission up to 2007 (Appendix I). Itseemedrelevantto add perspective
by giving an account of the Foreign Ministry itself indicating the major
developments in creating a professional service of diplomats (Appendix II).
In essence, the story of Japanese envoys in the United Kingdom is one of
steadygrowth from small beginnings at the time of the Meiji Restoration with
a briefinterlude from 1941 to 1952. The most convenient breaks in our story
come at 1905 and 1952. In December 1905, the Japanese and British
governments agreed to raise the status of their legations to that of embassies
andto exchangeambassadors.This wasan arrangementwhichJapan hadbeen
seeking for a long time. Since it was adopted in all the major capitals of the
world, it represented a major diplomatic triumph for Japan won by her
undoubtedeconomicachievementsand hervictoryin thewar against Russia."
In April 1952, after an interim regime which is described in Chapter 21, the
mission was technically reopened when the terms of the San Francisco Peace
Treaty came into force and was converted into an embassywith the arrival of
the first post-war ambassador. Since then there has grown up a large embassy
with a full complement of diplomats, specialist officials drawn from other
departments of governmentand consularstaff(who are notconsidered in this
volume).
Chapter 2 deals with Japanese envoys to Britain in the 1860s. This covers
missions of various sorts which had different sources of authorityand funding
andmetwithdifferentdegreesofcordialityfrom theBritishauthorities,whether
Sir Harry Parkes, the minister in Tokyo, or the London authorities. Personnel
who tookpartin these expeditionsgainedvaluable experience abroadandwere