Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

62 • CASTAWAY SAILORS, JAPANESE
CASTAWAY SAILORS, JAPANESE. With their small, coastal ships
blown by storms into the vast Pacific Ocean, only a few Japanese
castaway sailors were rescued and ultimately returned to Japan. According
to the “closed country” (sakoku) laws of the Tokugawa Era
(1600–1868), it was punishable by death for Japanese to return home
if they had been abroad—even by accident. Although this law was
rarely enforced, in the Morrison Incident of 1835, three Japanese
castaways were not allowed back on Japanese soil and were obliged
to return to Hong Kong. Japanese castaway sailors in the first half of
the 19th century who were allowed to return, such as Otokichi, Manjiro,
and Joseph Heco, were the first Japanese to observe American
social, political, and cultural customs and report their observations to
their fellow Japanese.
CASTLE, WILLIAM R., Jr. (1878–1963). William Castle was an influential
American diplomat who consistently saw Japan as a force
for stability in the Far Eastern region. His influence reached its peak
during the administration of President Herbert Hoover.
Born in Honolulu, William Castle graduated from Harvard University
in 1900. He held various administrative posts at Harvard until
he was appointed director of the Bureau of Communications of the
American Red Cross in World War I. At the end of the war, he was
appointed special assistant to the State Department, and served from
1921 to 1927 as chief of the Department’s Division of West European
Affairs. In 1927, he was promoted to assistant secretary of state.
Three years later, Castle’s close friend President Herbert Hoover
named him special ambassador to Japan. Possessed of the belief that
Japan represented a force for order in East Asia, Castle openly and
unashamedly labeled himself a “friend of Japan.” His ambassadorial
posting came at a crucial time, coinciding as it did with the First London
Naval Conference. Henry L. Stimson, chairman of the U.S.
delegation to that conference, later admitted that Castle’s actions as
ambassador helped secure Japan’s agreement to the London Naval
Treaty.
Castle returned to Washington in 1931 to succeed Joseph Cotton as
under secretary of state. Almost immediately, he was faced with the
unwelcome prospect of the Manchurian Incident. Entirely out of
step with his direct superior, Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson,