William J. Sebald
William Joseph Sebald (born November 5, 1901 in Baltimore , Maryland , † August 10, 1980 in Naples , Florida ) was an American naval officer and diplomat.
Life
After training at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute , Sebald entered the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1918 , from which he graduated four years later. In 1925 he volunteered as a language student in Japan , where he lived until 1928 and in 1927 married the daughter of a naturalized Englishman and a Japanese woman, Edith Frances de Becker. Due to the origin of his wife, he decided to give up his military career after his return to the USA. In 1933 he completed a law degree at the University of Maryland as a Bachelor of Laws and then went to the company of his late father-in-law Joseph de Becker in Kobe , where he practiced for the next six years. During this time he translated a number of Japanese law books into English. As tensions between the United States and Japan increased in the late 1930s, the Japanese brought charges of espionage against Sebald, who therefore left the country in 1939. For the next two years he worked as a lawyer in Washington.
After the outbreak of the Pacific War , Sebald reported back to the Navy and was reactivated in March 1942 with the rank of Lieutenant Commander . He served in the Office of Naval Intelligence and later headed the Pacific Intelligence Division at US Navy Headquarters under Ernest J. King . By the end of the war he achieved the rank of captain .
Because of his experience in Japanese law, after the war ended, Sebald was asked by friends in the State Department to join the Foreign Service to work for the Commander in Chief ( SCAP ) in the occupation of Japan , Douglas MacArthur . He accepted and reached Japan in January 1946, where he was assigned as a legal expert on MacArthur's Political Advisor (POLAD), George Atcheson . After John K. Emmerson was recalled , who was accused of pro-communist tendencies, he succeeded him as rapporteur on political issues in Japan. When POLAD was reorganized in April 1946 into the Diplomatic Division of the occupation authority GHQ , he became Atcheson's deputy. After Atcheson's death in a plane crash in August 1947, he replaced him as head of the Diplomatic Division and representative of MacArthur in the Allied Council for Japan . Sebald remained in this capacity under MacArthur's successor, Matthew B. Ridgway, until March 1952, shortly before the end of the occupation. He was involved in the negotiations on the San Francisco Peace Treaty and the Treaty on Mutual Security , which were led by John Foster Dulles .
From July 1952, Sebald served as the United States Ambassador to Burma for two years . Although the country did not join SEATO , he attended its founding conference in Manila in 1954. Upon his return to the United States, he was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs , as which he worked for the next three years under Dulles. In 1957 he was appointed ambassador to Australia , which he remained until 1961. After the end of his tenure, he resigned from government service and then worked in a Washington law firm. In the following years his books With MacArthur appeared in Japan: A Personal History of the Occupation (1965) and Japan: Prospects, Options, and Opportunities (1967).
Sebald was a member of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute . Through his wife's sister, he was related by marriage to Major General Charles A. Willoughby , the longtime head of MacArthur's G-2 Section .
literature
- Cathal J. Nolan: Notable US Ambassadors Since 1775: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Press, Westport 1997.
Web links
- Sebald, William J. at usni.org
- The Asiatic Society of Japan, Lecture November 21, 2006
- William J. Sebald Papers, 1887-1980: Finding Aid , United States Naval Academy. Special Collections & Archives.
- William J. Sebald and the Dokdo Territorial Dispute by Jung Byung Joon, Assistant Professor, Dep. of Culture and History, Mokpo National University
- William J. Sebald in the database of Find a Grave (English)
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| David McK. Key |
US Ambassador to Rangoon July 18, 1952–15. July 1954 |
Joseph C. Satterthwaite |
| Douglas M. Moffat |
US Ambassador to Canberra June 7, 1957–31. October 1961 |
William C. Battle |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sebald, William J. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sebald, William Joseph (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American naval officer and diplomat |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 5, 1901 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Baltimore , Maryland |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 10, 1980 |
| Place of death | Naples , Florida |