MANCHESTER NH - AMOSKEAG MILLS
The leading businessmen of Manchester, New Hampshire hosted two delegations of Japanese in Portsmouth for the peace conference.
The first, a group of five newspapermen, traveled to Manchester by train on August 21, 1905 as the guests of the Manchester Union’s chief reporter at Portsmouth, W.H. Topping.
Kiyoshi Kawakami reported on the visit in a letter published in that paper (which they visited as the guests of the owner, Woodbury.)
As John Clayton reported in the Union Leader in 2005, there was more to the story. After a three hour tour of Manchester in City Councillor Charles M. Floyd’s auto, the group enjoyed lunch with Manchester businessmen at the Topping home.
The first, a group of five newspapermen, traveled to Manchester by train on August 21, 1905 as the guests of the Manchester Union’s chief reporter at Portsmouth, W.H. Topping.
Kiyoshi Kawakami reported on the visit in a letter published in that paper (which they visited as the guests of the owner, Woodbury.)
As John Clayton reported in the Union Leader in 2005, there was more to the story. After a three hour tour of Manchester in City Councillor Charles M. Floyd’s auto, the group enjoyed lunch with Manchester businessmen at the Topping home.
After lunch, the journalists traveled to Auburn to “Stoneacres” the summer home of Walter Parker, president of the Manchester National Bank overlooking Lake Massabesic. The journalists, pictured above with Parker and his guests, his daughter (front row, right) and her friend, included:
Kaju Nakamura (front row, second from left) would later be recognized as the author of the definitive biography of Count Ito)
Jihei Hashiguchi (front row, third from left), Russo-Japanese War Bureau of Information in New York and correspondent for World’s Work. According to that publication, "Just as THE WORLD'S corps of veteran and skilled correspondents at the front kept its readers just a little in advance of other people in the news of what was transpiring between the opposing land and marine armies of the Russian and the Japanese while the fighting was in progress, so…THE WORLD was "first with the news" from Portsmouth. …Alongside the graphic portrayals of the carnage of battle afield and on the sea, THE WORLD presented splendidly instructive articles daily by Russian and Japanese men of letters throwing a flood of light on the warring peoples and the European and the Oriental view of the conflict as affecting the geography of the East and the politics of the earth. Among those who contributed to this symposium were Jihei Hashiguchi. who wrote of "The Yellow Peril" as seen by Japanese eyes.” His articles for The World included “Japan’s Terms of Peace and Her Negotiators.”
M. Fukutomi (center), correspondent of the Osaka Asahi Shimbun.
Shiro Fujioka, (front row, third from right), special correspondent of the Nippon of Tokyo.
Kiyoshi Kawakami, (front row, second from right) The Daily Yorozu, Tokyo and The Daily Asahi, Tokyo (8 August 1873 - 12 October 1949) whose biographical sketch says was a "Japanese Christian journalist" who published several books in the US and Great Britain. Educated in law in Japan, he travelled to the US in 1901 and studied at the Universities of Iowa and Wisconsin. In 1905, he traveled extensively in China, Siberia and Russia as a correspondent for leading newspapers in Tokyo and was a frequent contributor to American magazines and newspapers.
Another Japanese journalist of note who did not accompany the group was Yasuhiro Ishikawa, editor, Hochi Shimbun, Tokyo. After arriving in Portsmouth, he was part of the group of Japanese to attend services at Christ Church on Sunday, August 20th and also was reported to have visited Frank Jones Brewery. On September 10th, Ishikawa accompanied Rev. E.W. Clark to Green Acre, where he was the first Japanese to comment publicly on the Treaty.
Kaju Nakamura (front row, second from left) would later be recognized as the author of the definitive biography of Count Ito)
Jihei Hashiguchi (front row, third from left), Russo-Japanese War Bureau of Information in New York and correspondent for World’s Work. According to that publication, "Just as THE WORLD'S corps of veteran and skilled correspondents at the front kept its readers just a little in advance of other people in the news of what was transpiring between the opposing land and marine armies of the Russian and the Japanese while the fighting was in progress, so…THE WORLD was "first with the news" from Portsmouth. …Alongside the graphic portrayals of the carnage of battle afield and on the sea, THE WORLD presented splendidly instructive articles daily by Russian and Japanese men of letters throwing a flood of light on the warring peoples and the European and the Oriental view of the conflict as affecting the geography of the East and the politics of the earth. Among those who contributed to this symposium were Jihei Hashiguchi. who wrote of "The Yellow Peril" as seen by Japanese eyes.” His articles for The World included “Japan’s Terms of Peace and Her Negotiators.”
M. Fukutomi (center), correspondent of the Osaka Asahi Shimbun.
Shiro Fujioka, (front row, third from right), special correspondent of the Nippon of Tokyo.
Kiyoshi Kawakami, (front row, second from right) The Daily Yorozu, Tokyo and The Daily Asahi, Tokyo (8 August 1873 - 12 October 1949) whose biographical sketch says was a "Japanese Christian journalist" who published several books in the US and Great Britain. Educated in law in Japan, he travelled to the US in 1901 and studied at the Universities of Iowa and Wisconsin. In 1905, he traveled extensively in China, Siberia and Russia as a correspondent for leading newspapers in Tokyo and was a frequent contributor to American magazines and newspapers.
Another Japanese journalist of note who did not accompany the group was Yasuhiro Ishikawa, editor, Hochi Shimbun, Tokyo. After arriving in Portsmouth, he was part of the group of Japanese to attend services at Christ Church on Sunday, August 20th and also was reported to have visited Frank Jones Brewery. On September 10th, Ishikawa accompanied Rev. E.W. Clark to Green Acre, where he was the first Japanese to comment publicly on the Treaty.
Baron Komura Visits Amoskeag Mill
The second Manchester trip was an official visit by Baron Komura, who accepted NH Governor John McLane's invitation to both delegations to tour Amoskeag Mills, the largest textile mill in the world at the time.
According to the newspaper accounts, Baron Komura traveled to Manchester on August 25th, toured the mills and then was the guest of prominent New Hampshire businessmen and politicians at The Derryfield Club (below).
The second Manchester trip was an official visit by Baron Komura, who accepted NH Governor John McLane's invitation to both delegations to tour Amoskeag Mills, the largest textile mill in the world at the time.
According to the newspaper accounts, Baron Komura traveled to Manchester on August 25th, toured the mills and then was the guest of prominent New Hampshire businessmen and politicians at The Derryfield Club (below).
The "City of Manchester" Trolley
According to the newspaper account, when the Japanese diplomatic delegation visited Manchester, New Hampshire on August 25, 1905, they were given a tour of the city aboard the trolley, "City of Manchester." That trolley -- an 1898 Briggs Carriage Company private single truck parlor car -- still exists and is part of the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, according to a column by John Clayton in the Manchester Union Leader. The story of the "City of Manchester" (left) appears in the same column (August 22, 2005) as Clayton's report on the visit of Japanese newspapermen in 1905, prior to the Komura delegation.
According to the newspaper account, when the Japanese diplomatic delegation visited Manchester, New Hampshire on August 25, 1905, they were given a tour of the city aboard the trolley, "City of Manchester." That trolley -- an 1898 Briggs Carriage Company private single truck parlor car -- still exists and is part of the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, according to a column by John Clayton in the Manchester Union Leader. The story of the "City of Manchester" (left) appears in the same column (August 22, 2005) as Clayton's report on the visit of Japanese newspapermen in 1905, prior to the Komura delegation.