No. 360.
Mr. Bingham to Mr. Fish.
United
States Legation, Japan,
Tokei, September 26, 1874.
(Received October 29.)
No. 124.]
Sir: On the 12th ultimo, Mr. Hawes, our consul at
Hakodadi, by a dispatch of that date, notified me that Mr. L. Haber, late
acting German consul at that port, had been murdered on the previous evening
by a Japanese. The murderer was arrested, tried, convicted, and on the 10th
[Page 766] instant executed, and a
proclamation was issued by the government condemning all such assassinations
and manifesting a determination to visit such crimes with swift punishment.
A copy of the proclamation is herewith inclosed.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 124.]
Notification of the Daijo Kuan.
To all the Chi, Fu, and Ken:
Tasaki Hidechika, who killed the German consul at Hakodadi, has
undergone, on the 10th day of September, the punishment which his crime
deserved. Before the revision of the code he would have been crucified,
because he was a great criminal, who acted against the wish of the.
Mikado and contrary to the treaties with foreigners. The government has
caused him to be decapitated, and this punishment will serve as an
example to the people, and will show them that they ought to abstain
from all criminal acts.
Judgment.
You thought that the relations of the Japanese with the foreigners
compromised the dignity of the country, and you wished to avenge this
wounded dignity by striking an European. You went to Hakodadi and you
there killed, by blows of a sword, Mr. Haber, the German consul in that
town. You are very guilty, and so the government, in expiation of your
crime, degrades you from the rank of sanmrai, and condemns you to be
beheaded.
Ninth
month, seventh year of Meiji.
