File No. 894.001 M98/44A.

The Special Ambassador to the President.

[Extract.]

Mr. President: I have the honor to submit to you herewith my report as Special Ambassador to represent the President and people of the United States at the funeral ceremony of His Majesty Mutsuhito, the late Emperor of Japan.

The Special Embassy consisting, in addition to myself, of Mr. Hansford S. Miller, Secretary, and Rear Admiral Alfred Reynolds, Naval Attaché, representing the United States Navy, sailed from Seattle August 22 on the cruiser Maryland, Captain John M. Ellicott in command. Brigadier General John J. Pershing, Military Attaché, representing the United States Army, joined the Embassy at Yokohama. In compliance with your request Mrs. Knox also accompanied me.

The Maryland stopped at Honolulu for coal August 29 and * * * left for Yokohama the following day. * * * We [Page 639] arrived off the coast of Japan on Monday morning, September 9, a day in advance of the scheduled time of our arrival. In compliance with the request of the Japanese officials we anchored in Yokohama harbor at three o’clock that same afternoon, being the first of the special foreign embassies to arrive.

We were met aboard the Maryland by the full staff of the American Embassy at Tokio and by the special Japanese reception committee headed by his excellency Viscount Kurino, once representative of the Imperial Japanese Government in Washington, and escorted with the usual marks of honor to the landing where we were welcomed by the local Japanese officials and a company of American residents of Yokohama. Proceeding to Tokio by special train, we were greeted by a large concourse of Japanese officials, business men and American citizens, headed by his excellency Viscount Uchida, Minister for Foreign Affairs and late Japanese Ambassador to the United States. From the station we were formally escorted to the residence which had been assigned to us, the official residence of the Minister of the Imperial Household, adjoining the premises of the American Embassy in Tokio.

In view of the baseless reports current in many quarters that the Special Embassy might have also some ulterior political mission, I took occasion immediately upon my arrival in Tokio to set these reports at rest by making a public statement of its true object, which was to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of the late Emperor and to express the interest of the American people in the progress of Japan under His Majesty’s remarkable reign. A copy of this and of all other public or official statements made by me in connection with the Special Mission will be found annexed hereto. * * *

On Wednesday the 11th, accompanied by my staff and escorted by a guard of honor, I proceeded to the Palace to present my letter of credence to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan. In presenting my letter I took occasion to make a few remarks voicing the respect, sympathy and friendship of the American nation. The Embassy, accompanied by Mrs. Knox, was also received in audience by Her Majesty the Empress and later given an opportunity of paying its respects to the memory of the late Emperor, whose body was lying in state in the Throne Boom of the Palace. The formalities ended with a breakfast given by the Court to the members of the special embassies and resident diplomatic representatives.

The funeral services of the late Emperor, who will be known in history as Meiji Tenno, were held on Friday evening, September 13, in the Aoyama district of Tokio, where the special embassies, foreign representatives and a large concourse of Japanese and foreign officials and residents convened to await the arrival of the Imperial cortòge, which left the Palace at eight o’clock. The funeral services, conducted according to the Shinto ritual, were most impressive in their simplicity. At the conclusion of the ceremonies, after paying their last respects before the bier, the foreign representatives withdrew. * * *

The Special Embassy took its formal departure from Tokio on Saturday September 21, with the same marks of courteous attention that had characterized its arrival, and proceeded to Yokohama. That evening, at a quiet dinner given in our honor by the American [Page 640] Asiatic Association of Japan, I took occasion to make a few remarks to my fellow-countrymen, expressing my conception of the true relations that exist and should exist between Japan and the United States.

The Embassy sailed from Yokohama by the cruiser Maryland on Saturday, September 22.

In conclusion I wish to record my conviction, based upon my personal observations while in Japan as well as upon the unanimous expressions of the Jananese officials and press, that the sympathetic purpose of the Special Embassy was truly interpreted and deeply appreciated by the Japanese Court, Government and people alike and did much to emphasize and strengthen the ties of ancient friendship existing between the two nations.

Respectfully submitted.

P. C. Knox.
[Inclosure 1.]

Public announcement made by the Special Ambassador on arrival in Tokyo, September 9, 1912.

The President, as Chief Executive of the American Nation, has sent me as his special representative to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of your late Emperor; to manifest the appreciation of the American people of the wonderful achievements for Japan and humanity under His Majesty’s benign reign; and to express the sympathetic, continuing and unabated American interest in united Japan and in the new life of equality of right and opportunity of her people for which his late Majesty’s name will be forever revered. This is my mission and this my message to Japan, her Emperor, and her people. That I should have been selected as its bearer is an honor and privilege which I unfeignedly prize and appreciate.

[Inclosure 2.]

Remarks of the Special Ambassador on presenting Letter of Credence to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, September 11, 1912.

Your Majesty: I very keenly appreciate the honorable privilege that has been vouchsafed to me by the President in accrediting me, by the letter I bear, as his personal representative and ambassador charged with the special mission of bringing to Your Majesty and the Imperial family, the Government and people of Japan the sympathetic message of the American Commonwealth on this sad occasion. Not the least of the ties of true friendship that join the nations of the earth in the higher brotherhood of affectionate esteem is the bond of common sorrow. The people of the United States share in the grief which the people of the great Empire of the Orient feel in presence of the bereavement that has befallen them in the death of their beloved Ruler; and the President, in obedience to the sentiment of his countrymen no less than in response to his own personal feeling, has charged me to voice the condolence of his countrymen, and in so doing to express to Your Majesty his own sincere sympathy with you in the loss of your distinguished father.

It is right that I should accomplish this mission in a spirit befitting the intimacy that has so long existed between the Republic of the West and the Empire of the East. First among the nations to greet the entrance of your Island Commonwealth into the family of the modern nations, and constantly since that memorable epoch an interested and applauding spectator of the marvelous progress of your gifted people in every walk of material progress and national advancement, the United States owes it to itself as well as to Japan to demonstrate adequately on this mournful occasion the closeness of the association of the two Commonwealths by partaking of your sorrow as earnestly as we admire your prosperity, and by rendering heartfelt tribute, at the bier [Page 641] of your lamented Ruler, to the memory of one whose skill in statecraft and wisdom in governance were potent factors in setting Japan in the high place won by earnest effort and unwearying achievement.

[Inclosure 3.]

Remarks of the Special Ambassador made at a farewell dinner tendered by the American Asiatic Association Yokohama, September 21, 1912.

In taking leave of this beautiful land and of you, my countrymen, who have shared with me the responsibility of making due expression of the sincere sympathy entertained by the American people in the great sorrow of Japan, my mind instinctively turns to some of the most conspicuous accomplishments for the general good of the reign that has just closed.

The present solemn grief of Japan, so sympathetically shared by the other civilized powers and which to many of you must in a sense seem personal, may surely be assuaged by the proud contemplation of the inestimable blessings of the Meiji era. Whether measured by the peculiar inherent difficulties overcome, the radical nature of reforms accomplished, or their effect upon the progress, happiness, and prestige of the people, it seems not too much to assert that the record of real accomplishment during the beneficent reign of the late Emperor is not excelled by any other chapter in human history.

The character and tastes of the Japanese people and the nature of their institutions have been largely molded and virilized by contact with the natural forces of their environment and softened by contemplation of the beauties of the land in which they were developed and matured.

Unaffected by external forces and influences for so many generations, Japanese institutions became deep rooted and seemed unchangeably fixed and the characteristics and temperament of the people apparently reflected a permanent result of their long isolation and a self-reliance well adapted to meet the conditions of the national life.

The relations of the United States and other western powers to the marvelous changes that have taken place in Japan during the past sixty years have been intimate and direct. If the Japanese horizon has been expanded it is largely because we have urged her to open the door for the ingress of our civilization and the egress of her own. If the dual system of government that for hundreds of years seemed to meet the demands of Japanese conditions has now been permanently abolished and the Empire unified and strengthened, through self-sacrificing patriotism that has no historic precedent, it is because such changes were necessary to enable Japan to meet the responsibilities and protect herself against the danger of the new relations to the world’s progress to which the West invited her. We have applauded the zealous and intelligently directed efforts and the rapid success attained under the late Emperor in the adjustment of Japan to new responsibilities. When he insisted upon respect for and gave protection to productive labor, eliminated feudalism and its attendant special privileges, established and promulgated equal and humane laws for the government of his people, the West looked on with admiration and recognized a highly intelligent and assiduous preparation to faithfully perform an important part in the work of advancing a higher world civilization.

The renascence of Japan has occurred in the “Meiji Era” of international intercourse. There is to-day a decided impulse towards social coordination that must become a real cosmic force. Through the marvelous modern development in the means of communication each nation promptly feels the influence of the public opinion of all nations. As nations understand each other better and the world draws closer together in the recognition of a common humanity and conscience, of common needs and purposes, there is carried into the international field the insistent demand for greater unity in enforcing everywhere the principle of a high humanity and, by restraints mutually applied and observed, all the human ameliorations without which both national and international life would soon fall into anarchy and decadence.

At all times recalling with satisfaction the special and important part taken by America in urging Japan to take her proper place upon a broader stage of the world’s activities, we, logically, are prepared to rejoice with her in her progress towards the attainment of her maximum development and usefulness to the civilization of the future.

[Page 642]
[Inclosure 4.]

Statement to the Press on return of the Special Ambassador to the United States.

As publicly announced before I left Washington and repeated on my arrival in Japan, the purpose of my recent mission was, on behalf of the President and the people of the United States, to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of the late Emperor; to manifest the appreciation of the American people of the wonderful achievements under His Majesty’s benign reign; and to express the sympathetic American interest in the new Japan.

In fulfilling that high mission I was received on all sides by the Court, the officials, and the people of Japan in the spirit in which I came. I have the pleasantest recollections of the kindly reception that was everywhere accorded me in Japan, both personally and as representative of the American people, at a time of profound national mourning.