Today's Hours
Seiji Takeuchi, Chair of the Shimoda City Assembly, joined the long list of Japanese pilgrims that have traveled to The City College of New York to pay homage to its founder Townsend Harris when he visited the institution for the second time on July 17. Since 1986, top civic officials from Shimoda have made annual pilgrimages to City College to honor Harris.
After establishing what was then known as The Free Academy in 1847, Harris, a prominent New York merchant, went on to forge U.S.-Japan relations. He arrived in Shimoda on August 21, 1856 to open the first American consulate in Japan. “As the first consul general there, he negotiated the treaty that is credited for opening the Japanese Empire to foreign trade and culture,” said CCNY archivist Sydney Van Nort. “Owing to his goodwill, openness and honesty, Harris quickly gained the respect and affection of the Japanese people, and is revered there to this day.”
Takeuchi's return following his first visit in 2016 reaffirms the close ties between City College and Shimoda City that were established thirty-two years ago, said Van Nort. The delegation, joined by representatives of the Consulate-General of Japan in New York, the Japan Foundation, and the great-great grandniece of Townsend Harris, attended a presentation by Van Nort on the life and career of Harris and viewed documents from the Townsend Harris Papers Collection in CCNY’s Morris Raphael Cohen Library.
One highlight from this year's meeting was an address from visiting scholar Mariko Fukuoka who is currently writing a book on Townsend Harris enriched by her research at the CCNY Archives & Special collections. Prof. Fukuoka's speech is reprinted here with permission:
The Treaty Townsend Harris made in 1858 was the diplomatic pact that laid the foundation for Japanese modern history in the latter half of the 19thcentury.
On the one hand, the treaty was much less harsh than its counterpart that Western powers compelled China to accept after the Opium Wars in the 1840s and 50s. For example, the American-Japanese treaty and the subsequent treaties that European powers modelled on it never demanded that Japan issue compensation or cede territory, nor did it grant foreigners the right to travel freely in the interior of Japan. There had been precedent for such concessions: they were forced by Western powers upon China, putting it on the path to semi-colonization.
On the other hand, the Harris treaty would also become a symbol of the Western Impact, which modern Japan was forced to confront. The American-Japanese treaty and the following Western treaties were later regarded in Japan as unfavorable. Consequently, it became the ultimate goal of the Japanese Meiji diplomacy, to renegotiate these agreements to be more equitable, an objective realized at the end of the 19thcentury.
Like the Japanese-Western treaty system that he founded, Townsend Harris appears to be a different man depending on how one views him. The Harris I was acquainted with while I wrote my dissertation and my first book was undoubtedly an indispensable adviser to the Japanese shogunate government and an important contributor to the prosperity of Japan—it was the Harris of the 1860s, after he had already negotiated his treaty. Yet, the Harris of the 1850s was a formidable diplomat who negotiated major compromises with the shogunate officials. And these are just two of the many narratives one can tell about Harris. His legacy is a complex one.
How to integrate the different facets of Townsend Harris into a consistent life history of a unique American diplomat, who had to face many adversities and changes during the turbulent 19thcentury? Finding a way to do so will be my mission for the coming years. I am looking forward to confronting this challenge by having an intensive dialogue with primary sources here at the City College of New York, founded by Harris as the Free Academy of the City of New York, and I am grateful to the kind staff of City College for hosting me and making its rich archives available to me as I go about this task.
タウンゼント・ハリスが1858年に締結した条約は、19世紀半ば以降の日本の「開国のかたち」を決定づけたものと言えます。
ハリスの条約は一方では、アヘン戦争後の1840～50年代に西洋列強が中国に受け入れさせた条約と比べて、はるかに寛大なものでした。例えばハリスの日米条約とそれに続く条約では、賠償金や領土の割譲といった要求はもちろん行われませんでしたし、外国人が国内を自由に旅行する権利も認められませんでした。これらはいずれも、同時代の中国では条約で強制され、その後の中国の半植民地化につながったものです。
他方では、ハリス条約は、開国期の日本が直面したいわゆる「西洋の衝撃」の象徴とも見なされるようになりました。日米条約とそれに続いた西洋との条約は、間もなく「不平等条約」と呼ばれるようになり、これを改正して西洋との関係を対等化するということが、明治期の外交の究極的な目標となるわけです。条約改正が実現するのは19世紀末のことです。
彼が形作った近代日本の条約体制と似て、タウンゼント・ハリスは、彼のどういった面に着目するかによって、違った表情を見せるように思われます。私が自分自身の最初の本となった博士論文を書いていた際に親しんだハリスは、疑いもなく、当時の幕府にとって欠かせない助言者であり、日本の繁栄のための貢献者でありました。それは1860年代前半、自らの条約を既に結んだ後のハリスです。他方、1850年代後半のハリスは、幕府の交渉相手らから数々の譲歩を勝ち取った恐るべき外交官でもありました。これらはいずれも、私たちがハリスに見出し得る多様な側面の一部です。彼の遺産は複雑なものと考えられます。
こういったハリスの多様な側面を、いかにして、ひとりの米国外交官の一貫した人生として描き出すのか。この課題と向き合うのが、私自身の今後数年間の挑戦となります。ハリスによって創設されたこのニューヨーク市立大学に所蔵されている一次史料と正面から対話しながら、この課題に向き合っていくのを楽しみにしています。それに当たり、私を親切に受け入れ、惜しみない協力を提供して下さっている大学のスタッフの皆さまに、心から感謝を申し上げたいと思います。
Photo taken in CCNY Archives Reading room: L to R: Toyohito Sasaki (Secretary, Shimoda City Mayor's Office), Prof. Yoko Inagi Ferguson, Dean Charles Stewart, Prof. Sydney Van Nort, Sallie Rush, President Vincent Boudreau, Seiji Takeuchi (Chair, Shimoda City Assembly and delegation leader). Photo credit: Philip J. Carvalho.
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