Townsend Harris in 1847. From a Bronze Tablet by Albert P. D'Andrea, of the Art Department of the Townsend Harris Hall High School - the Preparatory School of The College of the City of New York. It is a gift presented by the Class of January, 1924, of the High School, and was unveiled on Charter Day, may 20, 1925, by H.I.M.'s Ambassador, His Excellency Tsuneo Matsudaira. (The Complete Journal of Townsend Harris First American Consul and Minister to Japan.) 1959, revised edition.
Writing
from U.S. Embassy Tokyo in 1959, Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II wrote the
preface of the revised edition of The Complete Journal of Townsend Harris, the
first American Consul and Minister to Japan.
Originally published in 1930 for the
Japan Society of New York by Doubleday, the book was inspiration of a sort for
the 1958 Hollywood film "The Barbarian and the Geisha," starring John Wayne and Eiko Ando. The 1959 revised edition, which I first as an undergraduate, may have been to repudiate Wayne's action-packed. hard-drinking, dramatization of Harris.
Both volumes were dedicated “To the Peace of the Pacific.” Harris, with his precise and elegant writing and lifelong devotion to education, was a spiritual "mentor" and his journal was a professional style guide I worked to incorporate into my own diplomatic journal and State Department reports.
Green-Wood Cemetery resting place of Townsend Harris. (It was a brutally windy day and this was the best photo my colleague could capture.) Green-Wood is a 500-acre cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.
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Jim Patterson JEPDiplomat@gmail.com
Life Member American Foreign Service Association
Member Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations
Associate Member Korean War veterans Association
Life Member Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America
Member Sons of The American Legion
Member US Philippines Society
Friend of the Israeli Defense Forces
Member California State Society
Honorary Member Paralyzed Veterans of America
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