A Diplomat in Japan

A Diplomat in Japan / The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time with an account of his personal experiences during that period by Ernest Mason SatowThe first portion of this book was written at intervals between 1885 and 1887 during my tenure of the post of Her Majesty''s minister at Bangkok. I had but recently left Japan after a residence extending with two seasons of home leave from September 1862 to the last days of December 1882 and my recollection of what had occurred during any part of those twenty years was still quite fresh. A diary kept almost uninterruptedly from the day I quitted home in November 1861 constituted the foundation while my memory enabled me to supply additional details. It had never been my purpose to relate my diplomatic experiences in different parts of the world which came finally to be spread over a period of altogether forty-five years and I therefore confined myself to one of the most interesting episodes in which I have been concerned. This comprised the series of events that culminated in the restoration of the direct rule of the ancient line of sovereigns of Japan which had remained in abeyance for over six hundred years. Such a change involved the substitution of the comparatively modern city of Yedo under the name of Tki for the more ancient Kito which had already become the capital long before Japan was heard of in the western world.When I departed from Siam in 1887 I laid the unfinished manuscript aside and did not look at it again until September 1919 when some of my younger relations to whom I had shown it suggested that it ought to be completed. This second portion is largely a transcript of my journals supplemented from papers drawn up by me which were included in the Confidential Print of the time and by letters to my chief Sir Harry Parkes which have been published elsewhere. Letters to my mother have furnished some particulars that were omitted from the diaries.Part of the volume may read like a repetition of a few pages from my friend the late Lord Redesdale''s Memories for when he was engaged on that work he borrowed some of my journals of the time we had spent together in Japan. But I have not referred to his volumes while writing my own.ERNEST SATOW.CONTENTSAppointment as Student Interpreter at YedoYokohama Society Official and UnofficialPolitical Conditions in JapanTreatiesAnti-Foreign SpiritMurder of ForeignersRichardson''s MurderJapanese StudiesOfficial Visit to YedoDemands for ReparationJapanese Proposals to Close the PortsPayment of the IndemnityBombardment of KagoshimaShimonoseki: Preliminary MeasuresShimonosekiNaval OperationsShimonosekiPeace concluded with ChshiThe Murder of Bird and BaldwinRatification of the Treaties by the MikadoGreat Fire at YokohamaVisit to Kagoshima and UwajimaFirst Visit to OzakaReception of Foreign Ministers by the TycoonOverland from Ozaka to YedoSocial Intercourse with Japanese OfficialsVisit to Niigata Sado Gold Mines and NanaoNanao to Ozaka OverlandOzaka and TokushimaTosa and NagasakiDownfall of the ShogunateOutbreak of Civil War (1868)Hostilities begun at Yedo and FushimiThe Bizen AffairFirst Visit to KiotoHarakiriNegotiations for Audience of the Mikado at KiotoMassacre of French Sailors at SakaiKiotoAudience of the MikadoReturn to Yedo and Presentation of the Minister''s New Credentials at OzakaMiscellaneous IncidentsMito PoliticsCapture of Wakamatsu and Entry of the Mikado into YedoEnomoto with the Runaway Tokugawa Ships Seizes Yezo1869Audience of the Mikado at YedoLast Days in Tokio and Departure for HomeLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSThe Last of the ShogunsSir Ernest Satow1869Sir Ernest Satow1903Payment of the Indemnity for the Murder of RichardsonKagoshima Harbour: BombardmentThe Straits of Shimonoseki