, also known as Yoshimaro Satō and Henry Satoh, was the

Japanese Ambassador to the United States The ambassador of Japan to the United States has existed since 1860, interrupted by disagreements and wars during World War II. Koji Tomita is the current Japanese ambassador to the United States, having presented his credentials on March 28, 2018 ...

from 1916 to 1918.

Biography

He was born to a samurai family in

Hirosaki is a city located in western Aomori Prefecture, Japan. On 1 April 2020, the city had an estimated population of 168,739 in 71,716 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Hirosaki developed as a castle town for ...

, Japan 1857. He migrated to the United States and attended DePauw University, graduating in 1881. At DePauw he became a member of

Beta Theta Pi Beta Theta Pi (), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, as of 2022 it consists of 144 active chapters in the Unite ...

. In 1896 he published an English-language work, ''Agitated Japan: The life of Ii Kamon-no-kami Naosuke'', a biography of Ii Naosuke, under the name "Henry Satoh." Upon graduating from DePauw, he returned to Japan and became a telegraph officer in the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

. He then served in Japan's diplomatic missions to the United States, Great Britain, and France before becoming ambassador to Mexico in 1900. In 1905, Satō participated in the peace conference at Portsmouth, New Hampshire that ended the Russo-Japanese War. The following year, he was appointed Japanese Ambassador to the Netherlands. Satō later served as ambassador to Austria-Hungary during World War I, and barely escaped from the country alive after he was expelled following Japan's declaration of war on Germany (Austria-Hungary's ally). Satō was then appointed

from 1916 to 1918, replacing his brother-in-law and fellow DePauw alumnus Chinda Sutemi. Satō was recalled from his post when he proved unable to secure a deal for the export of steel plates to Japan. He then retired from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and took up a post in the Imperial Household Ministry, serving as a

privy councillor A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

attached to the household of Prince Fushimi. Satō died of arteriosclerosis on January 12, 1934, in Tokyo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sato, Aimaro Ambassadors of Japan to the United States Deaths from arteriosclerosis 1857 births 1934 deaths DePauw University alumni