Cross-cultural communication （120）　

120) Revisiting “The Distant Cliff“「遠い崖」in Japanese　
The Distant Cliff is a historical non-fiction written by Hagiwara Nobuhisa that was serialized in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper from 1976 to 1990. I used to read it occasionally in the newspaper at the time, but I wasn't a particularly avid reader. After the serialization ended, a book was published in 1998, and a paperback version finally came out in 2008.

This is a powerful work (an average of 400 pages per volume, with a whopping 14 volumes!) written by historian Hagiwara Nobutoshi based on the diary (held in the British National Archives) of Ernest Satow, a young British Japanese interpreter, covering the turbulent history of Japan from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji Restoration. I started reading the first volume a few years after the Asahi Bunko was released, and I couldn't stop until I had read all 14 volumes over the course of a few months.

When you hear the name Satow, you might imagine a Japanese-British because of the association with the surname Satow. This is not the case, however. Satow was a rare surname of Slavic origin. In 1862, at the young age of 19, Satow arrived in Yokohama as an interpreter for the British legation. He had no Japanese language interpreter as a predecessor, so he studied Japanese on his own with a Japanese language teacher, and was able to handle interpreting duties after only one year. As well as his language skills, he was a bundle of curiosity, showing interest in all kinds of things, including Japanese customs, nature, and architecture. With this knowledge at his side, he later became friends with the leading figures of the Meiji Restoration, including Okubo Toshimichi, Saigo Takamori, Ito Hirobumi and Katsu Kaishu. The information he gained from them in both his official and private capacities made a significant contribution to the British government's policy towards Japan. In other words, he was not just an interpreter, but also a highly effective intelligence agent (spy) who played a major role in Japan's turbulent times. After watching the movie “The Sword of Fire” and reading the novel “La Mission” (#118 in Cross-Cultural Communication), I wanted to find out what kind of diplomacy the British conducted compared to the French, who provided military support to the shogunate until the end, so I re-read “The Distant Cliff”, which is a valuable primary source (almost). There was no doubt that the British were far more skilled at diplomacy in the unique country of Japan at the end of the Edo period than the French. First of all, the British had several excellent Japanese interpreters, including Satow. Not only was Satow skilled in Japanese, but his natural curiosity led him to form friendships not only with important figures in the shogunate, but also with young samurai from Satsuma and Choshu, and he was able to find out about various political movements through private information exchanges. In contrast, the French only had Mermet Chasson, their sole Japanese interpreter, who, driven by personal greed, returned to France during the turbulent end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, leaving them with no choice but to rely on a Japanese interpreter who was a senior figure in the Shogunate and spoke French. Therefore, the British were clearly superior when it came to gathering information. To make matters worse, the French Minister at the time, Leon Roches, was a rather over-confident man who tended to conduct personal diplomacy. From an objective point of view, or from the results of history, if we interpret the situation in a favorable light, we could say that the British were skilled diplomats who accurately grasped information as it happened, but if we interpret it in a negative light, we could say that they were opportunistic diplomats who took advantage of the situation to their advantage. France, on the other hand, was unable to acquire significant interests in Japan, as they were unable to obtain sufficient information and ended up fulfilling their obligations to the shogunate, which they had initially supported, to the very end.

If we look at the history of diplomacy in the world from the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, Britain was certainly skilled in diplomacy and carried out various British-led diplomatic activities. However, it is said that some of these were double-dealing diplomacy, making different promises to each of the countries involved at the time. In contrast, France, while it was inferior to Britain in both diplomatic and military power, at least did not engage in double-dealing diplomacy.

It could be said that this is a case of favoritism, but for Japanese people who like history (myself included), France, which continued to provide support to the Tokugawa shogunate out of a sense of duty, seems to be more popular than Britain. It is up to the individual to like or dislike the countries that have been involved with Japan, but I felt this time that it is also important to check the reasons for the involvement of the countries that have been closely involved with Japanese history using the available materials

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