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Setsuya Beppu

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Setsuya Beppu (Japanese: 別府 節弥 or Japanese: 別府 節彌, 4 March 1904 - 17 May 1992[1]), also known as Kiyoshi Beppu (Japanese: 別府清), is a Japanese Diplomat, serving as the first Japanese Consul in Dublin during the World War II. He also served as the first Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Laos and the Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Vatican City.

Early life

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Beppu was born on 4 March 1904 in Kōchi Prefecture in Japan as Kiyoshi Beppu.[1][2] He passed the higher civil service diplomatic examination (Japanese: 文官高等試験外交科) in October in 1924.[3] He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the Tokyo Imperial University in 1926.[2]

Career

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Early career

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Beppu started working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March 1926 as a British embassy clerk (Japanese: イギリス書記生).[4] He was appointed as the vice-consul in London in December 1927,[5] and the attaché at Belgium in April 1929.[6] His brother-in-law Shunsuke Naruse was also a diplomat, and he died in Iran in this year.[7][8]

Beppu was assigned to the First Asian Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from June 1931.[9] On 25 August 1932 he officially changed his name from Kiyoshi to Setsuya.[10] He became the official in the First Asian Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in May 1933.[11] In December 1933, he was appointed as the third secretary for the Shanghai legation in the Republic of China.[12] In May 1935 he was promoted to the third secretary for the Japanese Embassy to China.[13] From December 1935, he was assigned to the Second European and Asian Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,[14] and in March 1936 he became the diplomatic official at the First Division of the Cultural Affairs Department.[15]

Britain and Ireland during World War II

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Beppu became the Consul of Liverpool in January 1939 at the age of 35.[16][17] He became the second secretary for the legation of Switzerland (with Norway and Denmark) in January 1940.[18] In June 1940, he was appointed as the second secretary for the Embassy of Japan and Consul in Liverpool,[19] and in December the first secretary for the Embassy of Japan and Consul.[20]

In 1940, Beppu, as a Japanese Consul in Liverpool, rented a private house and opened a cosulate in Dublin in the Irish Free State.[17] While he was stationed in Dublin, the United Kingdom declared war on the Empire of Japan in December 1941, and since he could not go back to the United Kingdom, he continued his diplomatic work in Dublin.[21] He "maintained an extremely low profile during the war" in Dublin.[22] The Embassy of Japan in London was closed after the beginning of the war, and it is assumed that the Dublin conslate would have been responsible for helping and evacuating Japanese citizens in the United Kingdom to Ireland if the United Kingdom had broken off diplomatic relations with Japan and they had been subject to danger, which did not happen.[21] Due to the rise of the anti-British sentiment in Ireland during the World War II, Thomas Mullins, an IRA member and later the Leader of the Seanad, bought all the rice in Dublin to prepare for Japanese food and celebrated the fall of Singapore and Arthur Percival's surrender on 15 February 1942 with Beppu and other Japanese officials at the consulate of Japan.[21][23] In May 1943, Beppu was officially appointed as the Consul-General of Dublin.[24]

Beppu was involved in the diplomatic negotiation for the termination of the war between Japan and the allies of World War II. On 2 August 1945, he met Robert Brennan, the Irish Free State's first minister to the United States, and heard from him about the United States Under Secretary of State Joseph Grew's remark hinting that the war would end soon when the Japanese people wanted it.[25] On 8 August, he telegrammed this information to Japan.[21] On 10 August, he obtained more information about the intention of the United States Department of State from the Department of External Affairs of Ireland, and also telegrammed it to Japan.[25] These telegrams were intercepted and decoded by the Government Code and Cypher School in Bletchley Park and preserved in The National Archives of the United Kingdom.[26]

After the defeat of the war, Beppu had sabotaged the request from the allies to hand over the consulate's assets and documents to them for three years "with the tacit support of the government of Ireland".[27] In 1946, he was officially dismissed by the Allied Command because he did not follow its order.[28] He returned to Japan in 1948, and was tried by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP).[27] This is called "Beppu Case" (Japanese: 別府事件).[29]

After WWII

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On 10 April 1959, he was appointed as the first Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Laos: before him, the Japanese ambassadorship to Laos had been held by the ambassadors of Japan to Thailand.[30] He was appointed as the Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Vatican City in 1962.[31] He served as the president of the Japan Institute of International Affairs from May 1965 to April 1968.[32] He also worked as a translator around the 1960s: he translated Abe Fortas's Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience into Japanese in 1970.[33][34] He died of myocardial infarction on 17 May 1992.[1]

Legacy

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According to Richard B. Finn, while Beppu was penalised by the SCAP, his later diplomatic career was successful.[27] He was regarded as a prominent diplomat in the diplomatic community in Japan.[35] Ryōtarō Shiba referred to him as a "besieged soldier under the war" in On the Highways: Travel in Ireland II (Japanese: 街道をゆく　愛蘭土紀行II).[17]

Awards and Recognitions

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d 『現代物故者事典1991～1993』（日外アソシエーツ、1994年）p.527
  2. ^ a b "文官高等試験合格者一覧". kitabatake.world.coocan.jp. Retrieved 2024-09-14.
  3. ^ 『外務省報第六十九号』雑報, 1924年10月15日
  4. ^ 『外務省報第百四号』叙任及辞令, 1926年4月1日
  5. ^ 『外務省報第百四十五号』叙任及辞令, 1927年12月15日
  6. ^ 『外務省報第百七十八号』叙任及辞令, 1929年5月1日
  7. ^ "日本人墓地墓参". 在イラン日本国大使館.
  8. ^ 成瀬俊介氏記念追悼集, 菊池寛 編, 文芸春秋社, 1930年
  9. ^ 『外務省報第二百二十九号』雑報, 1931年6月15日
  10. ^ 『外務省報第二百六十号』叙任及辞令, 1932年10月1日
  11. ^ 『外務省報第二百七十六号』雑報, 1933年6月1日
  12. ^ 『外務省報第二百九十号』雑報, 1934年1月1日
  13. ^ a b 『外務省報第三百二十四号』叙任及辞令, 1935年6月1日
  14. ^ 『外務省報第三百三十六号』雑報, 1935年12月1日
  15. ^ a b 『外務省報第三百四十三号』叙任及辞令, 1936年3月15日
  16. ^ 『外務省報第四百十二号』叙任及辞令, 1939年2月1日
  17. ^ a b c 産経新聞 (2017-02-06). "日本びいきのアイリッシュ 大戦「シンガポール陥落」…首都では日本領事囲み祝賀会（2/2ページ）". 産経新聞：産経ニュース (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-09-14.
  18. ^ a b 『外務省報第四百三十六号』叙任及辞令, 1940年2月1日
  19. ^ 『外務省報第四百四十六号』叙任及辞令, 1940年7月1日
  20. ^ 『外務省報第四百五十八号』叙任及辞令, 1941年1月1日
  21. ^ a b c d "日愛外交関係樹立50周年記念 （潮田哲，淑子ご夫妻に聞く） 「聞き語り日愛半世紀」 第2回：「太平洋戦争と2人のアイリッシュ」". 在アイルランド日本国大使館 (Embassy of Japan, Dublin) (in Japanese). 2024-10-23.
  22. ^ Hull, Mark M. (2002). Irish secrets: German espionage in Ireland, 1939-1945. Dublin ; Portland, Ore: Irish Academic Press. p. 299. ISBN 978-0-7165-2756-5.
  23. ^ 『アイルランドの異色の外交官』産経新聞, 2017年2月6日, 8面
  24. ^ 『外務省報第五百十六号』叙任及辞令, 1943年6月1日
  25. ^ a b 産経新聞 (2014-08-12). "「皇室保持の要求、米英が受け入れる」 終戦直前にダブリン領事ら日本に打電（2/3ページ）". 産経新聞：産経ニュース (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-09-14.
  26. ^ 『「皇室保持の要求、米英が受け入れる」終戦直前にダブリン領事ら日本に打電』産経新聞, 2014年8月12日
  27. ^ a b c Finn, Richard B. (1995). Winners in Peace: Macarthur, Yoshida, and Postwar Japan (Reissue ed.). University of California Press. pp. 328n9. ISBN 9780520202139.
  28. ^ "Jap Consul Loses His Job". The Straits Chronicle. 11 May 1946. p. 1.
  29. ^ "平成30年7月31日外交記録公開概要" (PDF). 日本外務省 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)). 2018-07-31.
  30. ^ "歴代大使一覧". 在ラオス日本国大使館. 2024-08-30.
  31. ^ Daily Report, Foreign Radio Broadcasts 50. United States. Central Intelligence Agency. 1962.
  32. ^ "History". The Japan Institute of International Affairs. Retrieved 2024-09-14.
  33. ^ "法秩序と造反". CiNii (in Japanese).
  34. ^ 滝沢, 信彦 (1971). "良心的兵役拒否における抵抗の原理". 徳山大学論叢 (in Japanese). 1: 159–176, p. 164.
  35. ^ 邦紘, 原口; 内藤, 和寿 (March 2022). "座談会開館当時を振り返って". 外交史料館報 (in Japanese). 35: 2–19, p. 10.
  36. ^ 『外務省報第百四十六号』叙任及辞令, 1928年1月1日
  37. ^ 『外務省報第百九十号』叙任及辞令, 1929年11月1日
  38. ^ 『外務省報第二百二十三号』叙任及辞令, 1931年3月15日
  39. ^ 『賞勲局上申第三十七号』, 1931年2月28日
  40. ^ 『外務省報第三百八十九号』叙任及辞令, 1938年2月15日
  41. ^ 『外務省報第四百六十二号』叙任及辞令, 1941年3月1日
  42. ^ "叙位裁可書・昭和二十年・叙位巻三十五・定期叙位". www.digital.archives.go.jp. Retrieved 2024-09-14.
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