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 may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publishers. 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 TypesetinStone9.5on 10.5point byBookman,Hayes,Middlesex 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