“I
shall be the first recognized agent from a civilized power to reside in Japan.
This forms an epoch in my life and may be the beginning of a new order of
things in Japan. I hope I may so conduct myself that I may have honorable
memories in the histories which will be written on Japan and its future
destiny.” Townsend Harris, Journal, August 19, 1856.
Townsend Harris
Writing
from U.S. Embassy Tokyo in 1959, Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II (b. 1909-
d.1997) wrote in his preface for the revised edition of “The Complete Journal
of Townsend Harris: First American Consul and Minister to Japan,” that the
history of international relations was inseparable from the history of
individuals. The revised edition was published shortly after the centenary of official
U.S.-Japan relations and the centenary of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce,
negotiated by Harris, between the two countries in 1858.
In
1958 Hollywood also got in on the centenary with release of the John Wayne
(b.1907-d.1979) film “The Barbarian and
the Geisha,” a box office underachiever that nonetheless for this student of cinema
diplomacy remains a largely fascinating, if flawed, account of Harris’s
grueling negotiations with Japan’s Imperial government.
John Wayne as Townsend Harris
"The Barbarian and the Geisha" 1958
Though
Harris was a dignified, cultured and educated man, Japan considered Americans
heathens at the time of his arrival. Thus, the title of the film. Wayne does
his best as the cultured and diplomatic Harris.
Harris
(b.1804- d.1878), a New York educator, politician and importer of Asian goods, accepted
an offer by U.S. President Franklin Pierce to become the first Consul General to
Japan. He opened the first U.S.
Consulate at the Gyokusen-ji Temple in Shimoda in 1856.
With
his precise and elegant writing, lifelong devotion to education, he founded the
City College of New York, Harris was a spiritual “mentor” to me and I endeavored
to incorporate his professional style into my own diplomatic journal and State
Department reports. I refer to the Harris journal often.
Harris
left Japan in 1861 after negotiating, over a grueling two-year period, the Treaty
of Amity and Commerce, which opened trade between the U.S. and Japan. The
treaty is popularly known as The Harris Treaty of 1858.
The
treaty, Harris stressed to the Japanese, would be of mutual interest for
commerce, education and culture. He further convinced Japan they had an
obligation to teach the U.S. about Japan and learn from U.S. diplomats,
business people and educators.
Several
journal entries illustrate what Harris saw as needing change in Japan. His
journal entry of January 21, 1857, mentioned he saw Japanese girls as young as 14,
nude and in baths with a nude Japanese “fellow of some twenty years of age.” Harris
objected to the Vice-Governor that “promiscuous bathing was ... injurious to
the chastity of ... females.” He learned the practice was common and he wanted change
to protect the “chastity” of young girls.
In
several journal entries, we learn what type of diplomat and American Harris
was. In December 1857, Harris wrote of the Japanese barbarity of slow, tortuous,
crucifixion for crimes of bringing embarrassment to the country. In another 1857 entry, when offered Saki
Harris “pled ill health and only drank tea.” This is an excuse I wish I had used
in many foreign countries.
In
another 1857 entry, Harris lost his temper with the Japanese. “The lubricity of
these people passes belief,” he wrote. “I was asked a hundred different
questions about American females … but I will not soil my paper with the
greater part of them, but I clearly perceive that there are particulars that enter
into Japanese marriage contracts that are disgusting beyond belief.” This was
another area where Harris felt America could help change Japanese culture.
Being
the first American Consul and Minister to Japan, Harris was in a unique
position to document his discussions, official and unofficial, with Japanese
counterparts. Nothing like the official diplomatic journal of Townsend Harris
had been published about Japan and it is easy to see why Hollywood sensationalized
some of his entries, albeit by 1958 standards in the John Wayne film.
In
the film, Wayne represented the conservative American morals expressed by Harris
in his journal. For example, in the film, Wayne as Harris, pleads for Japan to
end its custom of killing baby girls during crop failures. In a comic scene, a
Japanese official asks Wayne if American wives walk behind their husbands. Wayne
suggests, to the shock of his inquisitor, some husbands walk behind their
wives.
In
sum, Townsend Harris worked largely alone in Japan. In a time and male dominant
culture when he could have engaged in anything, Harris did the right and
professional thing. He kept his mind on his diplomatic objectives and helped
Japan realize the need to enter the global economy and change its customs. He
also “pled ill health” and abstained when offered Saki and sexual indulgences.
Harris
rests in the historic 500-acre Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. In 1986, the
government of Japan honored his resting place with the gift of trees and
Japanese sculpture for being a Friend of Japan. The Harris resting place is a
monument to a great and legendary American diplomat. A museum dedicated to Harris also exists
at the site of the first U.S. Consulate in Japan. For more information see: https://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/
-30-
Jim Patterson is an
economist, life member of the American Foreign Service Association and life
member of the Auburn University Alumni Association. JEPDiplomat@gmail.com 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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