Brian Burke-Gaffney

The Nagasaki British Consulate Brian Burke-Gaffney

The Nagasaki British Consulate was established on June 13, 1859, the first official British representation in Japan since the closure of the English East India Company factory at Hirado in 1623. Over the following decades, the consulate served as a node on the vast commercial and cultural networks of the British Empire, watching the growth of Nagasaki as an international port and the rise of Japan as a world power. The author discusses the history of the consulate from the first years in a Buddhist temple to its final location on the Nagasaki waterfront and abandonment shortly after the outbreak of World War II. He sheds light on the life and times of successive consuls, including the first consul George S. Morrison and the last consul Ferdinand C. Greatrex, who was arrested and confined by Japanese military police and deported by exchange ship the following year. The author also describes the immediate postwar period when the people of Nagasaki picked up the broken pieces of their city after the atomic bombing and the British government revived diplomatic relations with Japan. Sold to Nagasaki City in 1955, the former Nagasaki British Consulate is a National Important Cultural Property and local heritage site. Until now, however, little attention has been paid to the colorful history of the consulate--the first opened in Japan and the last to close when World War II drove a wedge between Great Britain and Japan.