Townsend Harris

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American merchant and diplomat Townsend Harris (1804-1878), the first U.S. envoy to reside in Japan, opened commercial relations between Japan and the United States.

Townsend Harris was born on Oct. 3, 1804, in Sandy Hill, N.Y., and educated at the local primary school. In 1817 he began work at a dry goods store and later joined his father and brother in importing china and earthenware. Harris read and studied widely and became proficient in French, Spanish, and Italian. Elected to the New York Board of Education in the 1840s, he served as its president. Harris was almost solely responsible for legislation creating the New York Free Academy, a public institution that provided free higher education for the poor and eventually became the College of the City of New York. After his mother died in 1847, Harris left for California. He purchased a ship and started trading with ports in China and the British and Dutch East Indies.

In 1853 Harris applied for a consular position in Hong Kong or Canton but was appointed instead to Ningpo (modern Ningbo) in eastern China. Rejecting this, he went to Washington to apply to Secretary of State William Marcy, an old friend, for a position as consul to Japan, which had just established treaty relations with the United States. Named consul general in 1855, Harris traveled by way of Siam (Thailand), where he negotiated a new commercial treaty, and arrived at his post, a small seaport near Yokohama, in August 1856.

After many difficulties, in 1857 and 1858 Harris finally persuaded Japanese officials to agree to commercial treaties which secured rights of American residence and trade at certain ports, regulated duties, provided for extra-territoriality and religious freedom for Americans, and established diplomatic representation at Edo (modern Tokyo). Named minister resident, Harris advised the Japanese in their conflicts with other countries. Opening a door to the West caused internal troubles in Japan resulting in violence that included assassination of the U.S. legation secretary and translator. Harris rejected military retaliation; his friendly but firm diplomacy won the admiration of the Japanese people.

Harris submitted his resignation to President Abraham Lincoln in 1861. He retired to New York City and continued his involvement in the temperance movement and church, civic, and foreign affairs. He died on Feb. 25, 1878.

Further Reading

The best source on Harris is his own work, The Complete Journal of Townsend Harris, First American Consul General and Minister to Japan, edited by Mario Emilio Cosenza (1930; rev. ed. 1959). The only good biography is Carl Crow, He Opened the Door of Japan: Townsend Harris and the Story of His Amazing Adventures in Establishing American Relations with the Far East (1939). Oliver Statler, The Shimoda Story (1969), is a nearly day-to-day coverage of Harris's stay in Shimoda. Harris is featured in Payson Jackson Treat, The Early Diplomatic Relations between the United States and Japan, 1853-1865 (1917), and Tyler Dennett, Americans in Eastern Asia (1922).

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: United States diplomat who was instrumental in opening Japan to foreign trade (1804-1878)
  Synonym: Harris

For the eponymous NYC high school, see Townsend Harris High School.

Townsend Harris
Townsend Harris in 1855 (painted by James Bogle)
Born	1804 Washington County, New York, US
Died	1878

Townsend Harris (October 3, 1804 – 1878) was a successful New York City merchant and minor politician, and the first United States Consul General to Japan. He negotiated the "Harris Treaty" between the US and Japan and is credited as the diplomat who first opened the Empire of Japan to foreign trade and culture in the Edo period. He gained the respect and affection of the Japanese people, and is honoured to this day in Japan.

Contents 1 In New York 2 In Japan 3 Returning to New York 4 In popular culture 5 Notes 6 References 6.1 See also 6.2 External links

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 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, soon emerged as a separate entity out of the Free Academy's secondary-level curriculum; the school survived until 1942 when Fiorello La Guardia closed it because of budget constraints. Townsend Harris High School was re-created in 1984 as a public magnet school for the humanities.

In Japan

Lithograph of "Shimoda as seen from the American Grave Yard" looking towards the harbor -- artist, Wilhelm Heine (1856).

President Franklin Pierce named Harris the first Consul General to the Empire of Japan ^[1] in July, 1856, where he opened the first US Consulate at the Gyokusen-ji Temple in the city of Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture ^[2], sometime after Commodore Perry had first opened trade between the US and Japan in 1853.

Townsend Harris had the US Legation relocate at the Zenpuku-ji Temple from 1859, following the Treaty of Amity and Commerce.

After two years of negotiation marked by deadlock and cultural clashes, he successfully negotiated the "Treaty of Peace and Commerce," or the Harris Treaty, in 1858, securing trade between the US and Japan and paving the way for greater Western influence in Japan's economy and politics. He returned to the US in 1861.

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".^[3]

Returning to New York

Townsend Harris in later life.

As reported in the New York Times, when he was interviewed in 1874 by someone recently returned from Japan, his first question was, "What do the Japanese think of me?"^[4]

Harris is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.^[4]

In popular culture

Harris was portrayed by John Wayne in the 1958 movie The Barbarian and the Geisha, directed by John Huston. Its plot, dealing with a love affair between Harris and a Japanese woman, is substantially fictional.^[5]

Harris also appears as the main character of several episodes of the satirical Japanese manga-based anime, Gag Manga Biyori as a desperate man with a thick accent attempting to outshine Commodore Perry's arrival in a black-hulled ship in 1853, while making preparations for finalizing the Treaty of Peace and Commerce.

Harris was mentioned by a visiting Japanese dignitary in The Rifleman, in the episode "The Sixteenth Cousin".

Harris is seen in the 47th NHK Taiga Drama Atsuhime. He is played by Blake Crawford.

Notes

1. ^ "Townsend Harris: America's First Consul to Japan" -- biography by the Consulate General of Japan in New York
2. ^ Japanese Delegation Visits CCNY July 24 2006 to honor founder Townsend Harris: Visit Coincides With 150th Anniversary of Harris' Appointment as First US Consul to Japan
3. ^ Quoted in Perrin, p.90
4. ^ ^{a b} Griffis, William. (1919) "Townsend Harris, Center of Japanese Drama; Adventures of First American Envoy to Mikado's Empire Furnish the Basis of a Play by a Native Writer, and Tokio Is Applauding the Stars and Stripes," New York Times Magazine. December 28, 1919.
5. ^ Falk, Ray (1958) "Shooting a 'Barbarian'; Townsend Harris Biography Is Filmed At Authentic Japanese Locales,"New York Times Magazine, January 12, 1958.

References

• Cosenza, Mario Emilio. (1930). The Complete Journal of Townsend Harris First American Consul General and Minister to Japan. New York: Doubleday. 10-ISBN B00085QAZQ [reprinted by Kessinger Publishing Company, Whitefish, Montana, 2007. 10-ISBN 1-432-57244-X; 13-ISBN 978-1-432-57244-0]
• Dulles, Foster Rhea, "Yankees and Samurai: America’s Role in the Emergence of Modern Japan, 1791-1900", Harper & Row, New York, 1965.
• Griffis, William Elliot. (1895) Townsend Harris, First American Envoy in Japan. New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. ...Click digitized, full-text copy of this book
• Perrin, Noel (1979). Giving up the gun. Boston: David R. Godine. ISBN 0879237732.

See also

• Hotta Masayoshi

External links

• Selected comments from Harris's conversation with Bakufu Grand Councillor Hotta Masayoshi on December 12, 1857
• The Japan Connection: The 150th Anniversary of Townsend Harris' Arrival in Japan, April 25 - August 18, 2006, exhibit at CCNY Library

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