Komura Jutarō
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- In this Japanese name, the family name is Komura.
Marquis Komura Jutarō (小村 壽太郎 Komura Jutarō?) (26 October 1855 – 26 November 1911) was a statesman and diplomat in Meiji period Japan.
Komura was born to a humble family in the Obi clan at Nichinan, Hyuga province (present-day Miyazaki prefecture). He attended the Daigaku Nanko (predecessor of Tokyo Imperial University). In 1875, he was selected by the Ministry of Education as one of the first students to study abroad under a government scholarship, and later graduated with remarkable English ability from Harvard University's Law School in 1878.
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[edit] Career of government service
In 1880 he joined the Ministry of Justice and after serving as a judge of the Supreme Court, in 1884 transferred to the Translation Bureau in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 1893, Komura was First Secretary at the Japanese legation in Beijing. During the First Sino-Japanese War, he was the civilian administrator for territories Japan had captured in Manchuria. He was also a key figure in the negotiations to end the war, cumulating in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which he helped draft.
He negotiated the Komura-Waeber Memorandum in May 1896 with his Russian counterpart Karl Ivanovich Weber, allowing joint interference into Korean internal affairs by Japan and Russia, and was Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs until September 1898, when he was named ambassador to Washington, DC.[1]
In September 1901, Komura became Minister for Foreign Affairs under the first Katsura administration, and signed the Boxer Protocol on behalf of Japan. He then helped conclude the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902. He continued to serve as Foreign Minister through the course of Russo-Japanese War, and subsequently signing the highly unpopular Treaty of Portsmouth ending the war.[2]
Afterwards, he met with Chinese representatives in Beijing, signing the Peking Treaty of December 1905, which transferred former Russian rights in southern Manchuria to Japan.
For these services, he was elevated to the title of hakushaku (count) under the kazoku peerage system, and was appointed to become a member of the Privy Council.
From June 1906 to August 1908, he served as ambassador to Great Britain, during which time he was made a K.C.B. by King Edward VII. On his return to Tokyo he resumed the post of Foreign Minister in the 2nd Katsura administration, signing the Root-Takahira Agreement with the United States.
He also played a key role in the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty in 1910, and in concluding various international agreements in 1911 to restore Japan's tariff autonomy.
His grave is at Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo.
[edit] Honors
- Order of the Rising Sun, Grand Cordon.[2]
- Order of the Bath, Knight Commander (KCB)
[edit] References
- ^ Duus, Peter (1998). The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910. University of California Press, pp. 118-121. ISBN 0520213610.
- ^ a b "Japan's Present Crisis and Her Constitution; The Mikado's Ministers Will Be Held Responsible by the People for the Peace Treaty -- Marquis Ito May Be Able to Save Baron Komura," New York Times. September 3, 1905; "Text of Treaty; Signed by the Emperor of Japan and Czar of Russia<" New York Times. October 17, 1905.
- Beasley, W.G. Japanese Imperialism 1894-1945. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-822168-1
- Kanayama, Nobuo. Komura Jutaro to Potsumasu: Roshia ni "gaiko" de katta otoko. PHP Kenkyujo (1984). ISBN 4-569-21441-X (Japanese)
- Morris, Edmund. Theodore Rex. Modern Library; Reprint edition (2002). ISBN 0-8129-6600-7
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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