JAPAN THROUGH WESTERN EYES
Manuscript Records of Traders, Travellers, Missionaries and Diplomats, 1853-1941

Part 6: Correspondence and Papers of Sir Ernest Satow (1843-1929) relating to Japan from Public Record Office Class PRO 30/33

This project makes available a wide range of English language sources by writers, diplomats, tourists, businessmen, missionaries and others documenting the political, cultural and social history of Japan from 1853 to the present. 

Part 6 offers the papers of British diplomat Ernest Satow, who arrived in Japan in 1862 and was made Secretary of the British Legation to Japan in 1868.  He became a close friend of Harry Parkes, the British Minister, and also of Marquess Ito, leader of the reform movement in Japan.   His papers include:

• Private correspondence and papers during his residence in Japan, 1867-83;
• Translations from the Japanese (of official notices and other artcles);
• Notes on the history, geography and industry of Japan;
• Papers relating to his Mission to Siam, 1884-89, and his time in Thailand and Burma;
• Notes on Straits settlements and India;
• Private correspondence and papers during his second residence in Japan, 1895-1900, when he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary at Tokyo;
• Papers on the Japanese occupation of Formosa (Taiwan) and Korea;
• Private and family correspondence, 1877-1927, much of which concerns Japan and China.

Please note that Satow's paper relating to China can be found in our companion project China Through Western Eyes, Part 6.