Kaneko Kentarō

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Count

Kaneko Kentarō
金子 堅太郎
LLB
)
Occupation(s)Diplomat, Cabinet Minister
In this Japanese name, the surname is Kaneko.

Meiji period Japan
.

A graduate of Harvard Law School, he drew on his connections in the American legal community over the course of his long career in Japanese government, particularly in his role helping to draft the new Meiji Constitution (Imperial Japanese Constitution).[1] During the Russo-Japanese War, he engaged in promotion activities in the United States and contributed to Japan's victory.

Kaneko was one of the most influential proponent of the

Imperial Japan. In his later years, he opposed and worked to avoid the Pacific War
, but his attempts failed.

He was the first person to translate Edmund Burke into Japanese and is considered the first Burkean conservative in Japan.

Early life

Kaneko as a teenager

Kaneko was born into a

Shuyukan Han school.[2] At 19, he was selected as a student member of the Iwakura Mission, and journeyed to the United States. He remained there while the rest of the mission continued on to Europe, with the instruction to obtain an education in any subject. At first, seeking a naval career, he planned to attend the United States Naval Academy in Maryland, but a doctor assessed his physical fortitude as insufficient and discouraged any military pursuit. Instead, Kaneko decided to seek a legal education, enrolling at Harvard University in 1876. He prepared for the challenging curriculum by seeking out the personal tutelage of future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.[1] At Harvard, Kaneko shared lodgings with fellow Japanese student and future fellow-diplomat Komura Jutarō
. He also developed a wide circle of contacts in America, including lawyers, scientists, journalists, and industrialists.

While at Harvard, Kaneko and Komura visited the home of Alexander Graham Bell and spoke on an experimental telephone with a fellow Japanese student, Izawa Shunji. According to Bell, this was the first instance of any language besides English being spoken into the new invention.[3][4]

After graduating from Harvard in 1878, Kaneko returned to Japan as a lecturer at the University of Tokyo.

Government career

Kaneko in his Harvard doctoral cap and gown

In 1880, Kaneko was appointed as a secretary in the

honorary doctorate (LL.D.) by Harvard in 1899 for his work on the Meiji Constitution
.

Perhaps influenced by his own experiences, Kaneko actively promoted the value and necessity of education. His childhood primary school, Shuyukan, having closed in 1871, Kaneko campaigned the Fukuoka regional government to reopen the school and raised funds in support. In 1885, it was reopened as an English vocational school, with all classes held in English.[2] In 1889, Kaneko became the first president of Nihon Law School (now Nihon University), a post he held until 1893.

In 1891, Kaneko was elected to the prestigious

Institute of International Law, traveling to its general meeting in Geneva the next year as part of his campaigning to revise the unequal treaties Japan had signed during its forced "opening" in the late 1850s.[1]

In 1900, Kaneko was appointed as Minister of Justice under the fourth Itō administration and was made baron (danshaku) in the kazoku peerage system in 1907.

Russo-Japanese War

In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, at the personal request of Itō Hirobumi, Kaneko returned to the United States as a special envoy from the Japanese government to enlist American diplomatic support in bringing the war to a speedy conclusion. Kaneko embarked on a public-relations blitz, publishing editorials in various periodicals and delivering speeches.[5] In April 1904, Kaneko addressed the Japan Club of Harvard University, delivering the tailored message that Japan was fighting to maintain the peace of Asia and to conserve the influence of Anglo-American civilization in the East.[6] While in the United States, Kaneko revived contacts with Theodore Roosevelt, with whom he had been contemporaneously at Harvard (though they did not meet until later, introduced by William Sturgis Bigelow in 1889), and requested that Roosevelt help Japan mediate a peace treaty. When Kaneko met Roosevelt, the president asked for a book that would help explain the character of the Japanese people—what motivates them, their culture and spiritual education in Japan. Kaneko gave Roosevelt a copy of 'Bushido', and several months later, Roosevelt thanked Kaneko, remarking that it enlightened within him a deeper understanding of the Japanese culture and character. Thereafter, Roosevelt eagerly took on the task and presided over the subsequent Treaty of Portsmouth negotiations.

Later career

Kaneko Kentarō, before 1942

From 1906, Kaneko served as a member of the

Privy Council, and was elevated in title to viscount
(shishaku) in 1907.

In his later years he was engaged in the compilation of a history of the

Imperial family and served as secretary general of the association for compiling historical materials about the Meiji Restoration. He completed an official biography of Emperor Meiji in 1915. He was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun
in 1928, and elevated to hakushaku (count) in 1930.

Kaneko was a strong proponent of good diplomatic relations with the United States all of his life. In 1900, he established the first American Friendship Society (米友協会, Beiyu Kyōkai).

According to the records of the America-Japan Society, Kentaro Kaneko founded that organization in Tokyo, in March 1917, and became its first president. In 1938, during a time of increasingly strident anti-American rhetoric from the Japanese government and press, he established the Japan-America Alliance Association (日米同志会, Nichibei Dōshikai), a political association calling for a "Japanese-American Alliance", together with future Prime Minister Takeo Miki. He was one of the few senior statesmen in Japan to speak out strongly against war with the United States as late as 1941.

On his death in 1942, Kaneko was posthumously awarded the Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum.

Honors

See also

Notes

  1. ^
    JSTOR 2384295
    .
  2. ^ a b Shuyukan Senior High School history
  3. doi:10.1109/TCOM.1972.1091216
  4. ^ Bell, Alexander Graham (1911-11-02). "Speech by Alexander Graham Bell, November 2". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  5. ^ Examples: "The Far East After the War" (The World's Work, Nov 1904), "The Yellow Peril Is the Golden Opportunity for Japan" (North American Review)
  6. ^ Isabel Anderson, "The Spell of Japan", Boston, 1914, p.14.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kaneko Kentarō.
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of Agriculture & Commerce
Apr 1898 – Jun 1898 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Justice
Oct 1900 – Jun 1901 		Succeeded by
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