1 It is based on largely unused primary sources. 2 It is the compelling story of an extraordinary life. 3 It fills a major gap in the history of Japan’s opening to the West in the 1850s-1860s. The son of a village doctor, Rutherford Alcock trained in medicine and became a battlefield surgeon, working in Portugal and Spain during the civil wars there in the 1830s. In a major career shift, he entered the consular service, went to China, and ended up as British Minister (the equivalent of today’s ambassador) to Japan and then China. This progression was unique, indeed bizarre, especially as every senior position he got was one he specifically said he did not want. Nonetheless, he was the man who commenced Britain’s relations with Japan and introduced Japan’s arts and crafts to the UK, in addition to playing a central role in Britain’s relationship with China. He was no rampant imperialist and expressed ambivalence about Britain’s position in East Asia as he contended with intractable issues like the opium trade and how to punish attacks on British interests without starting a war. This book fills a major gap in the study of Japan’s opening to the West from a British perspective, as well as Britain’s relationship with East Asia as a whole, through the eyes of a brilliant, but complicated and contradictory figure.
Introduction
Chapter One - A Young Man in a Hurry, London Hexham Paris, 18091828
Chapter Two - Perseverance, courage and fortitude of conduct, Portugal
Spain, 18311838
Chapter Three - Highly qualified for any professional situation, London,
18381844
Chapter Four - The most able of our Consuls in China, Amoy Fuzhou,
18441846
Chapter Five - Acting with promptness and decision, Shanghai, 1846-1853
Chapter Six - Desolation around and about me, Shanghai England Guangzhou,
18531859
Chapter Seven - I can hardly say I am disappointed, Edo, 18591862
Chapter Eight - The scum of the earth, Yokohama, 18591862
Chapter Nine - A hundred petty acts of annoyance, Edo Yokohama, 18591862
Chapter Ten - Sir Rutherford, 18621864, London
Chapter Eleven - My service in the East thus terminates, Yokohama, 1864
Chapter Twelve - There is so much to fear and so little to hope, Beijing,
18651870
Chapter Thirteen - A Distinct and Disastrous Sacrifice of British Interests,
Beijing, 18651870
Chapter Fourteen - Savourer the dignity of his position, 18701897, London
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index
Dr Robert Morton is a professor at Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan. He is the author of the prize-winning A.B. Mitford and the Birth of Japan as a Modern State and A Life of Sir Harry Parkes.
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