The son of a village doctor, Rutherford Alcock trained in medicine and became a battlefield surgeon, working in Portugal and Spain during the civil wars there in the 1830s. In a major career shift, he entered the consular service, went to China, and ended up as British Minister (the equivalent of today’s ambassador) to Japan and then China. This progression was unique, indeed bizarre, especially as every senior position he got was one he specifically said he did not want. Nonetheless, he was the man who commenced Britain’s relations with Japan and introduced Japan’s arts and crafts to the UK, in addition to playing a central role in Britain’s relationship with China. He was no rampant imperialist and expressed ambivalence about Britain’s position in East Asia as he contended with intractable issues like the opium trade and how to punish attacks on British interests without starting a war. This book fills a major gap in the study of Japan’s opening to the West from a British perspective, as well as Britain’s relationship with East Asia as a whole, through the eyes of a brilliant, but complicated and contradictory figure.

Dr Robert Morton is a professor at Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan. He is the author of the prize-winning A.B. Mitford and the Birth of Japan as a Modern State and A Life of Sir Harry Parkes.

Introduction

Chapter One - A Young Man in a Hurry, London – Hexham – Paris, 1809–1828

Chapter Two - Perseverance, courage and fortitude of conduct, Portugal – Spain, 1831–1838

Chapter Three - Highly qualified for any professional situation, London, 1838–1844

Chapter Four - The most able of our Consuls in China, Amoy – Fuzhou, 1844–1846

Chapter Five - Acting with promptness and decision, Shanghai, 1846-1853

Chapter Six - Desolation around and about me, Shanghai – England – Guangzhou, 1853–1859

Chapter Seven - I can hardly say I am disappointed, Edo, 1859–1862

Chapter Eight - The scum of the earth, Yokohama, 1859–1862

Chapter Nine - A hundred petty acts of annoyance, Edo – Yokohama, 1859–1862

Chapter Ten - Sir Rutherford, 1862–1864, London

Chapter Eleven - My service in the East thus terminates, Yokohama, 1864

Chapter Twelve - There is so much to fear and so little to hope, Beijing, 1865–1870

Chapter Thirteen - A Distinct and Disastrous Sacrifice of British Interests, Beijing, 1865–1870

Chapter Fourteen - Savourer the dignity of his position, 1870–1897, London

Afterword

Notes

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Index