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

58 • BUCHANAN, JAMES
government remained committed to its traditional Open Door policy
toward China. At the same time, he acknowledged that “territorial
contiguity” created special relationships between Japan and China.
Then, in May 1915, Bryan notified both Tokyo and Peking that the
United States refused to recognize any agreement that threatened the
Open Door policy. In other words, the United States was not committed
to China per se; rather, it was committed to protecting its own
vital interests in that beleaguered country.
At the same time that Bryan was lodging formal protests with the
Japanese government over its infringements of the Open Door, he
was pleading with President Wilson to remain neutral in World War
I. Wilson disregarded Bryan’s advice, and adopted an ever harder line
toward Germany. In an apparent—and ultimately failed—effort to
mobilize domestic peace sentiment against the administration’s policies,
Bryan resigned on 9 June 1915.
BUCHANAN, JAMES (1791–1868). President of the United States
from 1857 to 1861, James Buchanan previously served as secretary
of state and minister to Great Britain. In 1857, he met the Japanese
castaway sailor Joseph Heco, also known as Hikozo Hamada. In
1860, President Buchanan met with Japanese officials from the
Shogun’s Embassy in Washington, D.C.
BUCK, ALFRED E. (1832–1902). An officer in the Union Army during
the American Civil War, Alfred Buck later served as U.S. Congressman
from Alabama even though he was a native of Maine.
He was appointed in 1897 as United States minister to Japan and died
at his post in Tokyo in 1902. During his service in Tokyo, the
Spanish–American War, the American annexation of Hawaii, the
Boxer Rebellion in China, and Secretary of State John Hay’s “Open
Door Notes” were issues of concern between the American and
Japanese governments.
BUDDHISM. Originating in India with Siddharta Gautama—the Buddha—around
500 BCE, Buddhism entered Japan by way of Korea and
China in the late 500s CE. Imperial family members and warrior clans
adopted various Buddhist beliefs associated with Mahayana Buddhism
over the next several centuries, which also spread to many of