Bancroft, Edgar Addison

Japanese: バンクロフト - Ｂａｎｃｒｏｆｔ，ＥｄｇａｒＡｄｄｉｓｏｎ

Year of death: July 28, 1925
Born: 1857.11.20
American lawyer and ambassador to Japan during the Taisho period. Born in Galesburg, Illinois. He received his law degree from Columbia University in 1880 and his J.D. from Knox College in 1912. He qualified as a lawyer in 1884 and opened a practice in Chicago in 1892, serving as the Illinois State Legal Advisor, among other positions. In 1919, he faced a race riot in Chicago and compiled a report as chairman of the investigation into black problems, becoming regarded as an authority on racial issues. In August 1924 (Taisho 13), he was appointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Japan, taking up his post on November 19th. There were high hopes for the improvement of Japan-U.S. relations after the implementation of the Japanese Exclusion Act (1924), but he died of illness in Karuizawa the following year. The first Kato Takaaki cabinet, at the initiative of Foreign Minister Shidehara Kijuro, took into account the example of the death of American Ambassador Guthrie while on the road (1917) and, "particularly in light of recent sentiment toward Japan in the United States," transported the body from Karuizawa on a special train and, after giving the utmost respects at a funeral in Tokyo on August 6, had the body escorted from Yokohama to San Francisco on the cruiser Tama.

(Yasuko Hirose)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：大正14.7.28(1925)
生年：1857.11.20
アメリカの法律家,大正期の駐日大使。イリノイ州ゲイルズバーグ生まれ。1880年コロンビア大学法学士,1912年ノックス大学法学博士。1884年弁護士の資格を取り,1892年シカゴで開業,イリノイ州法律顧問などを務める。1919年シカゴの人種暴動に直面し黒人問題調査委員長として報告書をまとめ上げ,人種問題の権威とみなされる。大正13(1924)年8月駐日特命全権大使に任じられ,11月19日着任。排日移民法実施(1924)後の日米関係改善への期待をかけられていたが,翌年軽井沢で病没。時の第1次加藤高明内閣は外務大臣幣原喜重郎の発意で,先のアメリカ大使ガスリ客死(1917)の事例を踏まえつつ,「殊ニ最近米国ニ於ケル対日感情ニ鑑ミ」遺体を軽井沢から特別列車で運び,8月6日東京での葬儀に最高の礼を尽くしたうえ,巡洋艦多摩で横浜からサンフランシスコまで護送した。

(廣瀬靖子)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

<<: Bancroft's threadworm - Wuchereria bancrofti

>>: Hangul - Hangul