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

KOMURA, JU – TARO – • 157
to move back to the alliance. The Koizumi administration had to accommodate
an insistent U.S. request to strengthen the U.S.–Japan
military alliance by making appropriate legal arrangements. On 6
June 2003, three laws on war contingencies were enacted. On 26 July
2003, Special legislation Calling for Assistance in the Rebuilding
of Iraq was enacted. In January 2004, Tokyo dispatched the main
unit of the Air Self-Defense Force to Samawa, Iraq, known as the
Japanese Iraq Reconstruction and Support Group. On 14 June 2004,
seven laws on war contingencies were enacted. In the end, Prime
Minister Koizumi reinforced the U.S.–Japan alliance and expanded
Japan’s military role in the international community.
KOMURA, JŪTARŌ (1855–1911). A product of Harvard Law
School, Jūtarō Komura was a distinguished diplomat in the late Meiji
period. At ease in American circles, Komura has been given high
marks for his diplomacy as foreign minister.
Having joined the Foreign Ministry in 1884, Komura gained wide
experience in China and Korea before being appointed vice foreign
minister in 1896. In this post, he served beneath foreign ministers
Kimmochi Saionji, Shigenobu Ōkuma, and Tokujirō Nishi. In September
1998, he was appointed ambassador to the United States. It
was a difficult assignment. He sought, without success, to guarantee
the rights of Japanese nationals in Hawaii and California. He was
similarly unsuccessful in his attempts to protect Japanese trading
rights in Hawaii. In his communications with officials in Tokyo, Komura
advised a conciliatory stance toward America’s annexation of
the Philippines, sought to explain Secretary of State John Hay’s
enunciation of the Open Door, and spoke of the necessity of restricting
immigration to the American West Coast.
After an 18-month stint as ambassador to Russia, Komura in September
1901 was appointed foreign minister in the first cabinet of Prime
Minister Tarō Katsura. Along with the genrō, General Aritomo Yamagata,
and Prime Minister Katsura, Komura in 1902 led a divided government
to conclude the Anglo–Japanese alliance. Russia subsequently
revealed its imperialist ambitions not only in Manchuria but also in Korea.
Komura was prepared to concede Russia’s superior position in
Manchuria, but he would not assent to the continued stationing of Russian
troops there (Russian troops had remained in Manchuria since the