![Townsend Harris](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Townsend_Harris.jpg)
Townsend Harris (October 4, 1804 – February 25, 1878) was an American merchant and politician who served as the first United States
Consul General
A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...
to Japan. He negotiated the "
Harris Treaty
Harris may refer to:
Places Canada
* Harris, Ontario
* Northland Pyrite Mine (also known as Harris Mine)
* Harris, Saskatchewan
* Rural Municipality of Harris No. 316, Saskatchewan
Scotland
* Harris, Outer Hebrides (sometimes called the Isle ...
" between the US and Japan and is credited as the diplomat who first opened Shogunate Japan to foreign trade and culture in the
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...
.
He was portrayed by
John Wayne in the 1958 historical adventure drama film ''
The Barbarian and the Geisha
''The Barbarian and the Geisha'' (working titles ''The Townsend Harris Story'' and ''The Barbarian'') is a 1958 American adventure drama film directed by John Huston and starring John Wayne. The film was shot primarily on location in Japan.
Town ...
.''
In New York
Harris was born in the village of Sandy Hill (now
Hudson Falls), in
Washington County in upstate New York. He moved early to New York City, where he became a successful merchant and importer from China.
In 1846 Harris joined the
New York City Board of Education, serving as its president until 1848. He was an avid and critical reader and also taught himself French,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
and Spanish.
He founded the Free Academy of the City of New York, which later became the
City College of New York, to provide education to the city's working people. A city high school bearing Harris's name,
Townsend Harris High School
Townsend Harris High School at Queens College (THHS) is a public magnet high school for the humanities in the borough of Queens in New York City. Students and alumni often refer to themselves as "Harrisites." Townsend Harris consistently ranks a ...
, soon emerged as a separate entity out of the Free Academy's secondary-level curriculum; the school survived until 1942 when
Fiorello La Guardia
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...
closed it because of budget constraints. Townsend Harris High School was re-created in 1984 as a public magnet school for the humanities.
Harris Treaty of 1856 with Siam
Harris, though anxious to get to his new post in Japan, went first to
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
, to update the 1833
Roberts Treaty. In his formal audience with the English-speaking and Western-oriented
Second King, Phra Pin Klao, Harris stated America's position:
The United States does not hold any possessions in the East, nor does it desire any. The form of government forbids the holding of colonies. The United States, therefore, cannot be an object of jealousy to any Eastern Power. Peaceful commercial relations, which give as well as receive benefits, is what the President wishes to establish with Siam, and such is the object of my mission.
Finalization of the
Bowring Treaty
The Bowring Treaty was a treaty signed between the British Empire and the Kingdom of Siam on 18 April 1855. The treaty had the primary effect of liberalizing foreign trade in Siam, and was signed by five Siamese plenipotentiaries (among them Wo ...
of 1855 delayed Harris for about a month, but he had only to negotiate minor points to transform it into the Harris Treaty of 1856.
Re-designated the ''Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation'', the amendments granted Americans
extraterritorial rights
Extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) is the legal ability of a government to exercise authority beyond its normal boundaries.
Any authority can claim ETJ over any external territory they wish. However, for the claim to be effective in the externa ...
in addition to those in the Roberts Treaty. American missionary
Stephen Mattoon
Stephen Mattoon (May 5, 1816 – 1889) was an American Presbyterian missionary who worked in Siam from 1847 to 1864. His works include the translation of the New Testament into the Thai language.
Career
Mattoon served as translator for Townsend H ...
, who had acted as translator, was appointed the first United States
consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...
to
Siam
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
.
[Dennett, Tyler (1922). ''Americans in Eastern Asia: a critical study of United States' policy in the Far East in the nineteenth century'', pp. 347–366.]
In Japan
![USLegationZenpukuJi1861](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/USLegationZenpukuJi1861.JPG)
President
Franklin Pierce named Harris the first
Consul General
A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...
to Tokugawa Japan in July 1856, where he opened the first US Consulate at the
Gyokusen-ji Temple
is a Buddhist temple located in the city of Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is noteworthy in that it served as the first American consulate in Japan. The temple and its grounds were designated as a National Historic Site of Japan in ...
in the city of
Shimoda,
Shizuoka Prefecture, soon after Commodore
Matthew Perry
Matthew Langford Perry (born August 19, 1969) is an American-Canadian actor. He is best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom ''Friends'' (1994–2004).
As well as starring in the short-lived television series '' St ...
had first opened trade between the US and Japan in 1854. At that time, Japan was not a nation united under one leader, but was politically made up of jealous feudal principalities; the Shogunate ended in 1868, in part in response to Harris as envoy from the US since 1854, as
William Elliot Griffis
William Elliot Griffis (September 17, 1843 – February 5, 1928) was an American orientalist, Congregational minister, lecturer, and prolific author.Brown, John Howard. (1904)."Griffis, William Elliot,"''The Twentieth Century Biographical Diction ...
described the changes inside Japan after it opened itself to trade with the US and European nations.
Harris demanded the courtesies due to an accredited envoy and refused to deliver his president's letter to anyone but the Shogun in Edo, and to him personally. After prolonged negotiations lasting 18 months, Harris finally received a personal audience with the Shogun in the palace. After another four months, he successfully negotiated the
Treaty of Amity and Commerce, or the "Harris Treaty of 1858," securing trade between the US and Japan and paving the way for greater Western influence in Japan's economy and politics.
[
Harris served during the first Japanese Embassy to the United States, during which a false report reached the US of his death.] Unfortunately Harris was addicted to alcohol and the complaints about his fuctioning led to his departure in 1861.
Upon his departure, senior Japanese diplomat Moriyama wrote to him "You have been more than a friend. You have been our benefactor and teacher. Your spirit and memory will live forever in the history of Japan."
Harris was favorably impressed by his experiences in Japan at the end of its self-imposed period of isolation. He wrote: "The people all appeared clean and well-fed... well clad and happy looking. It is more like the golden age of simplicity and honesty than I have ever seen in any other country".
According to a persistent legend, Harris adopted a 17-year-old geisha
{{Culture of Japan, Traditions, Geisha
{{nihongo, Geisha, 芸者 ({{IPAc-en, ˈ, ɡ, eɪ, ʃ, ə; {{IPA-ja, ɡeːɕa, lang), also known as {{nihongo, , 芸子, geiko (in Kyoto and Kanazawa) or {{nihongo, , 芸妓, geigi, are a class of female J ...
known as , whose real name was . The legend has it that she was heavily pressured into the relationship by Japanese authorities and then ostracized after Harris' departure, eventually committing suicide in 1892. However, it appears that Okichi was merely one of Harris' housekeepers, and the ''Kodansha Encyclopedia'' states that Harris fired her after just three days of work.
Return to US
Townsend returned to New York in 1861 after his eventful and successful period as envoy and ambassador to Japan. Author William Elliot Griffis
William Elliot Griffis (September 17, 1843 – February 5, 1928) was an American orientalist, Congregational minister, lecturer, and prolific author.Brown, John Howard. (1904)."Griffis, William Elliot,"''The Twentieth Century Biographical Diction ...
had been in Japan from 1871 to 1874, invited to help modernize education there. Griffis met with Harris in New York in 1874. Harris asked of Griffis, "What do the Japanese think of me?" Griffis asked Townsend why he had not published his journals from those years. Griffis felt that Harris had not appreciated the extent of his favorable effect in Japan from his work in the five years as envoy, as Griffis later wrote in a 1919 article in ''The New York Times''. Griffis obtained the journals from the niece of Harris in 1893, and had those journals published in 1895 by Houghton, Mifflin in New York, with additional biographical sketches and annotations. That book, ''Townsend Harris, First American Envoy in Japan'', and translated into Japanese, was the basis for a play about Harris, written by Kido Okimoto and staged in Japan in 1919. The play was successful in Japan, reflecting how positively Harris was viewed in Japan. The actor playing Harris was made up to look like Harris, based on a photograph held in Tokyo.
Masao Miyoshi
was a scholar of literature and culture and Hajime Mori Endowed Chair in Japanese Language and Literature at the University of California, San Diego.
Career
Born in Tokyo, he graduated from the University of Tokyo, majoring in English, and earne ...
, born and educated in Japan and later a teacher in US universities, asserts in his book ''As We Saw Them: The First Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860)'' that the restrictive lifestyle for Townsend Harris as ambassador in Japan "had forever molded the opener of Japan into a hermit" for the rest of his life while in New York City.
Death and legacy
Harris died in New York City on February 25, 1878, at age 73. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope/ Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington, and Sunset Park, and lies several blo ...
in Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, New York.
In 1986, the nation of Japan presented a gift of a refurbished gravesite including paving stones, a stone lantern, a cherry tree, a dogwood tree, and two commemorative stones, in commemoration of the continuing respect and affection of the Japanese people for Harris.
Portrayal in fiction
Harris was portrayed by John Wayne in the 1958 movie ''The Barbarian and the Geisha
''The Barbarian and the Geisha'' (working titles ''The Townsend Harris Story'' and ''The Barbarian'') is a 1958 American adventure drama film directed by John Huston and starring John Wayne. The film was shot primarily on location in Japan.
Town ...
'', directed by John Huston. Although the primary plot, dealing with Harris' attempt diplomatically to achieve détente between the U.S. and Japan, is essentially accurate, the subplot dealing with the love affair between Harris and Okichi is substantially fictional.[Falk, Ray (January 12, 1958)]
"Shooting a 'Barbarian'; Townsend Harris Biography Is Filmed At Authentic Japanese Locales"
''New York Times''.
See also
* Hotta Masayoshi
* List of Westerners who visited Japan before 1868
This list contains notable Europeans and Americans who visited Japan before the Meiji Restoration. The name of each individual is followed by the year of the first visit, the country of origin, and a brief explanation.
16th century
* Two Portugu ...
* Sakoku
References
Bibliography
*
*
* A full-text copy of this book.
*
External links
Selected comments
from Harris's conversation with Bakufu
, officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakura ...
Grand Councillor Hotta Masayoshi on December 12, 1857
"Adrift at Shimoda"
Letter from Harris to U.S. Secretary of State Lewis Cass, September 11, 1858.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Townsend
1804 births
1878 deaths
People from Hudson Falls, New York
Ambassadors of the United States to Japan
19th-century American diplomats
City College of New York people
Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery