Francis Brinkley - Life in Japan

Life in Japan

In 1867 Captain Brinkley returned to Japan, never again to return home. Attached to the British-Japanese Legation, and still an officer in the Royal Artillery, he was assistant military attache to the Japanese Embassy. He resigned his commission in 1871 to take up the post of foreign advisor to the new Meiji government, and taught artillery techniques to the new Imperial Japanese Navy at the Naval Gunnery School. He mastered the Japanese language soon after his arrival, and both spoke and wrote it well.

In 1878 he was invited to teach mathematics at the Imperial College of Engineering, which later became part of Tokyo Imperial University, remaining in this post for two and a half years.

In the same year he married Yasuko Tanaka, a daughter of a former samurai from the Mito clan. Interracial marriages could be registered under Japanese law from 1873. Brinkley sought but was refused permission by the British Legation to register his marriage in order that his wife would have undisputed claim to British nationality (she forfeited her Japanese nationality by marrying him). He fought this refusal and eventually succeeded by appealing to the British judiciary, with the help of some influential friends. They were the parents of two daughters and a son, Jack Ronald Brinkley (1887–1964), who also contributed greatly to Japanese culture and education.

In 1881 until his death he owned and edited the Japan Mail newspaper (later merged with the Japan Times), receiving financial support from the Japanese government and consequently maintaining a pro-Japanese stance. The newspaper was perhaps the most influential and widely read English language newspaper in the far East.

After the First Sino-Japanese War Brinkley became the Tokyo-based correspondent for The Times of London, and gained fame for his dispatches during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. He was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by Emperor Meiji for his contributions to better Anglo-Japanese relations. He was also an adviser to the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, Japan's largest shipping line. F.A. MacKenzie, a prominent English journalist, wrote:

Captain Brinkley's great knowledge of Japanese life and language is admitted and admired by all. His independence of judgment is, however, weakened by his close official connection with the Japanese Government and by his personal interest in Japanese industry. His journal is regarded generally as a government mouth-piece, and he has succeeded in making himself a more vigorous advocate of the Japanese claims than even the Japanese themselves. It can safely be forecasted that whenever a dispute arises between Japanese and British interests, Captain Brinkley and his journal will play the part, through thick and thin, of defenders of the Japanese.

Brinkley's last dispatch to The Times was written from his deathbed in 1912, reporting on a seppuku: Emperor Meiji had recently died and to show fealty to the deceased emperor, General Nogi Maresuke together with his wife committed hara-kiri.