Anglo-Japanese Relations - An Introduction

Nakai Hiromu: Forgotten Meiji Statesman and Hero of Anglo-Japanese Relations

Panel Title: “Modernization and Internationalization in Bakumatsu/Meiji Japan: Literary and Historical Perspectives on the Individuals involved in the Transformation of a Nation”  Chairperson/Organizer: Eleanor Robinson, Kyoto University  Discussant: Mamiko Ito, Gakushuin University

This presentation looks at the life of Nakai Hiromu (1838~94), a Satsuma samurai who became a politician of the new Meiji government. He not only made efforts toward nation building with the modernisation of Japan, but also played an important role within the history of Anglo-Japanese relations.
In contemporary Japan he is virtually unknown, even in his hometown of Kagoshima, which usually hails its many Meiji heroes such as Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi etc., honouring them with statues around the city. Nakai worked closely with these as well as other noted Meiji statesmen, yet he himself goes mostly unnoticed. After studying in Britain he returned to Japan to join the Foreign Office. Later he became Prefectural governor of Shiga, and before his death, served as Prefectural governor of Kyoto.
His role in Anglo-Japanese relations too, is of vital importance. In an attack by rogue samurai in Kyoto in 1868, Nakai saved the lives of the British Ambassador Harry Parkes, the diplomat Ernest Satow, as well as other famous British representatives in Meiji Japan at the time, when they were scheduled to visit the Emperor. Should the British Ambassador have been murdered at this time, the fate of Anglo-Japanese relations would have become quite a different state of affairs. The murder of a British merchant brought about the Anglo-Satsuma War of 1863; what would the murder of an Ambassador have caused? For his heroics, Nakai received recognition from Queen Victoria; he should not now be forgotten.

Nakai Hiromu: Bakumatsu Hero of Anglo-Japanese Relations

This presentation will discuss the role of Nakai Hiromu (1838-1894), a little-known hero of Bakumatsu history and Anglo-Japanese relations. Nakai visited Britain in 1866 at a time when still very few Japanese had travelled abroad. Upon his return to Japan in 1867, Nakai entered the newly established Foreign Department and was given administrative duties in dealing with three major incidents in which attacks were made on foreigners; the Sakai Incident, the Kobe incident and the Nawate Incident. I will examine the important role he played in Meiji Japanese politics when Japan really began making its mark on the international stage.