A Diplomat in Japan
Description:... 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.
My thoughts were first
drawn to Japan by a mere accident. In my eighteenth year an elder brother
brought home from Mudie's Library the interesting account of Lord Elgin's
Mission to China and Japan by Lawrence Oliphant, and the book having fallen to
me in turn, inflamed my imagination with pictures verbal and coloured of a
country where the sky was always blue, where the sun shone perpetually, and
where the whole duty of man seemed to consist in lying on a matted floor with
the windows open to the ground towards a miniature rockwork garden, in the
company of rosy-lipped black-eyed and attentive damsels—in short, a realised
fairyland. But that I should ever have a chance of seeing these Isles of the
Blest was beyond my wildest dreams. An account of Commodore Perry's expedition,
which had preceded Lord Elgin's Mission, came in my way shortly afterwards, and
though much more sober in its outward appearance and literary style, only
served to confirm the previous impression. I thought of nothing else from that
time onwards. One day, on entering the library of University College, London,
where I was then studying, I found lying on the table a notice that three
nominations to student-interpreterships in China and Japan had been placed at the
disposition of the Dean. Here was the chance for which I had been longing.
Permission to enter myself for the competition was obtained, not without
difficulty, from my parents, and having gained the first place in the public
examination, I chose Japan. To China I never wished or intended to go. My age
was sufficient by a few hours to enable me to compete. I was formally appointed
in August 1861, and quitted England full of joyful anticipation in November of
that year.
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