Saitō Hiroshi (diplomat)

Saitō Hiroshi

Saitō Hiroshi ( Japanese 斎 藤 博 ; born December 24, 1886 in Niigata Prefecture ; died February 26, 1939 in Washington, DC ) was a Japanese diplomat .

life and work

Saitō Hiroshi graduated from Tōkyō University and began a career in the diplomatic service in 1910. From 1923 to 1928 he worked as Consul General in New York, then in 1929 he was spokesman for the State Department . In 1930 he took part in the negotiations on the London Naval Treaty and in 1933 he took a post at the embassy in The Hague .

Saitō was a staunch advocate of friendly cooperation between all democratic states at a time when right-wing circles were working for an alliance between fascist Germany and Italy and Japan. 1934 Saitō was as ambassador to the United States dispatched in an attempt to relations between Japan and the United States to improve, since the Japanese invasion of Manchuria had suffered in the 1931st

Saitō died in Washington in 1939. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered that his ashes be returned to Japan with full honors on the cruiser Astoria . His successor as ambassador was Horinouchi Kensuke .

Saitō was a great lover of literature. He translated English poems, the collection was published posthumously under the title “Ishokurin” (移植 林), for example “Transplanted Forest”.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Saitō Hiroshi . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1296.

Web links

Commons : Hiroshi Saitō (ambassador)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Saitō is the family name, Hiroshi the first name.