Durham Stevens - Working For The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Working For The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs

In November 1883, Stevens entered the service of the Japanese Government as English Secretary to the Imperial Legation at Washington, a position which he obtained thanks to the influence his former superior Bingham had with the Japanese government. In 1884 he was ordered to Tokyo for service in the Foreign Office. In the winter of 1884–85 he accompanied Count Inoue Kaoru to Korea to assist in negotiations related to the murder of several Japanese citizens on Korean soil; for services rendered on that occasion, the Emperor Meiji awarded him with the Third Class of the Order of the Rising Sun. He was Bureau du Protocole of an 1885-87 Tokyo conference aimed at the renegotiation of unequal treaties imposed on Japan by Western countries; following the conference, he returned to Washington, D.C. with the rank of Honorary Counsellor of Legation. He served under Count Mutsu Munemitsu, then-Minister at Washington; during that time, he assisted in the negotiation of the treaty with Mexico, which was the first treaty made by Japan fully recognizing her right to exercise all the sovereign powers of an independent state.

Soon after the start of hostilities in the First Sino-Japanese War, Stevens published an article in the North American Review, in which he sought to justify the war by asserting that the "dry rot of Chinese conservatism" blocked Korea's development, and that a reduction of Chinese influence in Korea and a corresponding increase in Japanese power would result in social and commercial reform. For services rendered during the war, he received the Second Class of the Order of the Sacred Treasures. He travelled twice to Hawaii to represent Japanese interests there, once in 1901 and again in 1902. He was also decorated two more times by the Japanese government, the third time receiving the Second Class of the Order of the Rising Sun, and then in October 1904, the fourth time, being awarded the Grand Cross of the Sacred Treasure.