The Iwakura Mission and Its Stay in Salt Lake City

The Iwakura Mission and Its Stay in Salt Lake City

BY WENDY BUTLER

EARLY ON THE MORNING OF FEBRUARY 3, 1872, more than one hundred Japanese stepped off an eastbound train in Ogden, Utah Territory It was a cold and exceedingly windy day. Kume Kunitake, whose responsibility it was to keep the group's official journal, wrote that:

To the east there are mountains and to the west there are mountains. Ogden has three thousand people and the Weber River runs through it. Because of the great snowfall in the Rocky Mountains, the rail lines are buried in snow. The railroad company sent several thousand men to clear it, but it is still not clear. We took the Utah Central Railroad to Salt Lake City.1

This group represented the lion's share ofJapan's new Meiji government. Just four years earlier, in 1868, the country had experienced the Meiji Restoration. Its main objective was the overthrow of the military government, the Tokugawa Shogunate, that had ruled feudal Japan since 1600. The Meiji Restoration theoretically restored power to the emperor, but Meiji Japan was actually governed by an oligarchy of former samurai and a court noble. Half of this oligarchy, and twothirds of the government, left Japan in the winter of 1872 to tour the world for a year and a half while a caretaker government was left in charge. Historians call this group the Iwakura Mission because of its top ranking member, Iwakura Tomomi (1825-83), the only court noble in the oligarchy, Minister of the Right and second in rank behind the emperor. Other high-ranking officials included Iwakura's deputies, Kido Takayoshi and Okubo Toshimichi These two were former leading samurai from Choshu and Satsuma, domains that had been instrumental in the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate. They also played influential roles as leaders ofJapan's push for modernization after the Iwakura Mission. Other members, like ltd Hirobumi, were younger, unproven statesmen who would later affect Japanese politics for decades. The mission also included Japan's top bureaucrats and military leaders.

The prestigious make-up of the embassy was extraordinary. Most striking, it showed a high level of confidence—first, that the government would survive so soon after a major change and for an extended length of time without most of its leaders at home, and second, that the tour was necessary and important. Japan's early Meiji leaders had high expectations that they would gain useful facts and insights from the western world that would affect the future of Japan.

The Iwakura Mission was also the largest and most influential assembly ofJapanese statesmen ever to leave that country. There had been much smaller shogunate missions to the West in the 1860s, but none compared with the Iwakura Mission Even though it had only 49 official members, as many as 58 others traveled with the embassy. Interpreters, baggage handlers, students, and samurai retainers swelled the ranks to more than twice its official size.

No one discounts the Iwakura Mission's impact on the shaping of modern Japan, yet confusion exists concerning its purpose Historians today cite a combination of three reasons for the convening of the Iwakura Mission: to display the new Meiji government's control of power, to renegotiate unequal treaties with western powers, and to gather information about the West and its modernization. 2 Marlene J. Mayo, who has written extensively on the Iwakura Mission, emphasized treaty revision in "Rationality in the Meiji Restoration: The Iwakura Embassy." In a later article, "The Western Education of Kume Kunitake: 1871-6," her focus was solely on the information-gathering aspect of the mission. Furthermore, the latter article lacks a discussion of diplomacy, even in a section called "Military Matters and Diplomacy." Mayo acknowledged the multiplicity of opinions on the purpose of the mission, noting that "The confusion has been compounded by the failure of scholars to refer to one another's conclusions or to clarify the reasons for conflicts of opinion."3 Unfortunately, the confusion lingers.

1 suggest that the Iwakura Mission was formed for the sole purpose of observing the cultures and institutions of the West, but that its Salt Lake City stay caused the members to alter their original focus. In Salt Lake City, Iwakura and his associates decided to enter into treaty negotiations once they reached Washington, D.C., which was not part of their original plan. Even though Japan was unhappy with its current treaties with the West, its leaders perceived that their country was not strong enough, nor were they themselves experienced enough, to bargain with the western powers. 4 Additionally, one need only to look at the make-up of the Iwakura Mission to conclude that its objective was fact-gathering. If treaty revision had been the prominent motive, the mission would have looked strikingly different. It would have consisted of a much smaller group of men who were only concerned with foreign affairs and diplomacy. Instead, besides the leading politicians already mentioned, the mission included representatives of most of the bureaucratic agencies and departments of Meiji Japan. The Foreign Department was the most widely represented, with Vice Ambassador Yamaguchi Masouka, three first secretaries, three second secretaries, one third secretary, one fourth secretary, and one attache—ten officials in all. The Treasury Department sent one first secretary, one commissioner (who was also in charge of the Bureau of the Census), and six officers. The Education Department was well represented with a fourth secretary, a chief clerk, and five officers The War Department had a brigadier general of the Imperial Army, Yamada Akiyoshi, and an officer. An acting commissioner and four official attaches represented the Judicial Department Public Works sent two officers plus the commissioner of dockyards and public works. One prefectural governor and the secretary of another governor accompanied the mission. The Imperial Court sent five representatives, not counting Prince Iwakura Tomomi.

Not only would the make-up of a diplomatic mission have been different, but also its itinerary would have been organized differently. The tour would have been structured almost exclusively around world political centers rather than the inspection of trade, agricultural, and industrial centers.

The mission was created in order to find answers to profound questions that required much observation, debate, and consideration How was the Meiji government to organize its military, its political system, and the education of its youth? Did Japan need to alter its culture and its class system, or did these need to be discarded altogether in its quest for modernization? Japanese officials confidently set out to answer these questions, but they did so with caution Knowing that Japan was reluctant to reject its culture, largely based on Confucian thought, they carefully considered what they observed. While the mission was in England, for example, Iwakura stated that they intended to take with them only that which was good in the West and to "avoid the evils that seem everywhere to have followed the advance of civilization."5 The religious and philosophical background of the Japanese acted as a barrier to the wholesale acceptance of western secular and religious ideas.

Sailing from Yokohama harbor on December 23, 1871, the Iwakura Mission was to be gone for eighteen months touring the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Russia, Malaya, Indochina, and British Hong Kong. The first stop in the United States was San Francisco, where the company rested before continuing by train across the continent.

Stopping in Salt Lake City was not part of the itinerary. The embassy had been informed by the Union Pacific Railroad that the Rocky Mountain passes were open and that they could travel to the East Coast without delay However, the winter of 1872 was severe across much of the continent. Frequent heavy snowstorms plagued the Mountain West, blocking the passes and often stranding passengers traveling both east and west on the infant transcontinental railroad When the passes were cleared, more than two weeks after the arrival of the Japanese, the Salt Lake City papers reported that on several snowblocked trains passengers experienced severe cold temperatures, near starvation, and general sickness from exposure. On one stranded car there was a fatality.6 The huge delegation from Japan was fortunate to have been spared these calamities, but it became stranded in Salt Lake City for nineteen days—longer than it was to stay in any North American city other than Washington, D. C.

The Salt Lake City portion of the Iwakura Mission's world tour has been most often regarded in a negative manner. It was seen by many in 1872 as a humiliation and has likewise been discounted by historians today Non-Mormons of the day saw the stranding of this large and influential delegation in the heart of Mormondom as an embarrassment. They wondered what sort of image the Japanese would get of the United States by observing the polygamous Mormons in Utah Territory. Recently, one historian described the stay as a "setback,"7 while other writers have mentioned the stay only as an excuse to relate amusing anecdotes.8 Moreover, the Salt Lake City portion of the world tour has been overlooked primarily because it was unplanned It was, and still is, seen as an unfortunate delay Consequently, historians have neglected to search the sources available for this stay and have continued to rely on incorrect observations made in previous works. These errors range from general assumptions about the stay as unimportant to specific errors about events and controversial occurrences Not only will this paper attempt to correct these inaccuracies, but it will also show how the postponement in Salt Lake City shaped the attitudes of the Japanese and influenced the Iwakura Mission.

Of peripheral importance, studying the Salt Lake City stay also tells us much about the city and Utah Territory in 1872 and provides a remarkable opportunity to observe how Americans of European ancestry and Asians encountered each other on the western frontier. The perceptions of the two groups in this interplay of cultures—especially racial and social attitudes held by the people of Salt Lake City, the Japanese, and those of the rest of the country—are insightful and important.

An official welcoming committee from Salt Lake City met the members of the Iwakura Mission as they disembarked in Ogden and escorted them by rail to the capital city. They settled them into the city's best hotel, the Townsend House. The committee's responsibility also included organizing the official functions for the Japanese, such as tours, receptions, and banquets. Just as they would in nearly every city they visited on their world tour, the Japanese saw in Salt Lake City the usual military review, visited schools for children, and attended numerous receptions and banquets.

They also observed that which was unique to Utah. They saw the newly built Mormon Tabernacle and were impressed by its acoustics, size, and construction. Their diarist recorded a lengthy description of the dimensions of the building and its capacity and added, "we are told that when a sermon is delivered from the pulpit, even a person sitting in the last row can hear the speaker's voice without missing a word." 9 Even if this anecdote is lacking the famous "pin being dropped on the pulpit," we see that as early as 1872 an explanation of the excellent acoustics was part of the "set tour" of the Mormon Tabernacle. The group also visited a museum run by Brigham Young's son, John W. Young, near the Tabernacle and commented on the foundation that was being built for the Mormon Temple.10 They met with members of the Utah Territorial Legislature and Supreme Court and with city officials.

At all of these places, welcome speeches were pro forma. Almost all of the speeches centered on industrial progress in the western world. Many speakers complimented the United States on its rapid industrialization and on settling its western lands. Some speeches lauded the advances the Utahns had made in building a city in the midst of a "howling wilderness."11 At a banquet on February 12, T H Bates said,

And here in the heart of our continent, where we have seen lonely desolations changed to busy scenes of commerce and industry; where we have seen the haunts of savage aborigines transferred to happy homes, and evidences of peace and prosperity, and remember that nowhere is the indomitable energy, enterprise and intelligence of the Anglo-Saxon race more strikingly illustrated than here, by the lofty mountains of Utah...12

On the whole, the speeches that the Japanese heard each day promulgated the notion that advanced civilization rested then, and in the past, in the western tradition More than one speaker congratulated the Japanese on their farsightedness in starting their fact-gathering tour with the United States which was praised as "the most active and most powerful of all civilizations of the earth."13 Another speaker suggested that nations should be measured not by their length of existence but by how much they have accomplished. "From this standpoint," he stated, "the United States is the mightiest of all nations.14 These self-congratulatory statements could be viewed as inhospitable to the Japanese; however, they are consistent with nineteenth-century American pride in progress tied to expansionism and growth of the western frontier.15

It is only fair to note that a few speakers honored their guests by focusing on theJapanese nation, its history, and its aspirations for the future. For the most part, such thoughts were expressed by Americans who had lived in Japan and were traveling with the Iwakura Mission, including U.S Ambassador to Japan Charles E DeLong and the embassy's interpreter, N. E. Rice.

One other speech clearly stood out as an exception. It is unclear who wrote or delivered it, but the speech was signed by Lorenzo Snow, president of the Council of the Utah Territorial Legislature, and Orson Pratt, Speaker of the House of Representatives.16 The speech praised the Japanese nation for its long history of twenty-five centuries and enumerated the many world civilizations that had risen and fallen during that time. While some of these countries, the speaker stated, had "destroyed and desolated nations, to gratify their desires of conquest and their lust of gain, you have been contented with your own lot, and cultivated the arts of peace."17 This speech also stands apart from the others because it emphasized what Americans could learn from the Japanese instead of whatJapan could gain from the United States.

We feel honored by your visit, and bid you share with us all that is good, useful and interesting, and would ask at your hands some lessons in civil polity, in jurisprudence, in the art of science of government that we may be enabled to perpetuate principles conducive to the best interests of humanity on this vast continent.18 The largest public event for the Japanese during their nearly three-week stay was a grand banquet and ball held on February 12. Tickets were distributed to city, territorial, military, and religious dignitaries, and there was much politicking to secure a coveted ticket. For days after the occasion the newspapers billed it as the largest and most elaborate event ever held in Utah. All three Salt Lake City newspapers, the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Daily Herald, and the Salt Lake Tribune, ran long articles describing in detail the attire of the most notable ladies. In the center of attraction were five young, kimono-clad Japanese girls who accompanied the Embassy at the request of the Emperor These girls were headed to private schools in the East and were the first Japanese females to study in the United States. Even though official functions filled most of their days, the embassy members found time to explore the city individually and in small groups. They took walks around the city, marveling at the sights. Vice Ambassador Kido wrote in hisjournal that "the mountains on all four sides were covered with silvery snow; it was a superb scene." And, ".. . we took a stroll through the downtown area . . . the whole world was as glitteringjewels; the snow-covered landscape is superb." 19 Kume Kunitake, perhaps reflecting his responsibility as official journalist, wrote in less romantic terms about the city:

The roads are muddy after it rains or snows The sidewalks before the stores are of wood that have been laid down The streets are not lit by gas as in San Francisco, but the main intersections have large wick lanterns. People's houses are primarily made out of wood. As for Mormon men, after they marry each wife they add a window Though the city is very wide, there are only three or four main streets.20

In the evenings, members of the embassy enjoyed the cultural side of the city, seeing such plays as "Neck and Neck" and "Pizarro, or the Death of Rolla." Elizabeth A. Howard went to the theater on February 6 and noted in her diary that the Embassy occupied the first circle directly above the handsomely fitted box for the Mormon prophet and that Chinese lanterns decorated the theater in their honor.21 Some of the Japanese also attended a speech given by an itinerant lecturer whose topic was appropriately titled, "The World, Its Antiquity, Development, Progress in Civilization, and Man's Destiny."

What perceptions did the people of Salt Lake City gain of the Japanese? Surprisingly, with more than a hundred Japanese dignitaries in the city for more than two weeks, few people wrote of them in their diaries. Those who did write recorded primarily factual statements that were devoid of description or elaboration. For example, Samuel Parker Richards noted in hisjournal on February 6, 1872, "At eleven o'clock I went down to the city hall to see the Japanese embassy, as they were having a reception of the various officers of the city and county, and military, and the legislative members. . . ."22 Wilford Woodruff made this brisk record in his journal: "In the evening I had an interview with the President of the Board of Agriculture of Japan He was at the Townsend House."23 One diarist recorded, "Today I am 36 years old Today the Japanese Embassy arived [sic] in the City."24

If diaries were devoid of remarks about the Japanese, newspapers were not. Reporters, whose job it was to notice and write about such things, scrutinized the differences between the Japanese and Caucasians They educated their readers by writing extensively about the Japanese, not merely reporting their whereabouts and activities. One journalist enlightened and entertained his readers about this country newly opened to the world. He wrote of Japan's geographical size, comparing it four-fold to that of Utah Territory. He explained Japanese methods of farming and suggested that the farms were "models of order and neatness." He continued by saying that the Japanese were intelligent and progressive people. He told of their population, their agriculture, and their mining of gold, silver, iron, copper, and coal. He spoke in glowing terms of the wealth of Japan and said that its north had these minerals in abundance and "that there is also located there a continuous bed of gold, silver and copper."25 Later in the same article he inserted another sensational morsel of information that was surely a popular subject of conversation in many Utah homes the day it was printed.

The gentlemen of the embassy are "two sword" men, enjoying the peculiar privileges of their high nobility, among which is that of cutting off the heads of any of the lower classes who might offend them, without being held to answer for other than a limited offence which the payment of a fine would cover. 26

The reporters also wrote about the appearance of the Japanese. The day after the Embassy reached Salt Lake City, the Salt Lake Tribune carried an article headlined "Arrival of the Embassy" that described the Japanese as distinguished visitors who appeared to be "very intelligent" and "highly cultivated." The reporter also noted that "the men are dressed in full American costume and they wear the Yankee toggery with as much grace and dignity as Europeans."27 This statement must have gratified Iwakura and his associates. The Tokugawa Shogunate had sent a smaller embassy in 1860 that had been ridiculed in the American press for the way the off-the-rack suits did not fit the smaller stature of the Japanese officials. Because of this, Prince Iwakura had insisted that those who could afford the cost wait to have their western suits tailor-made in San Francisco. However, the Japanese could not entirely escape editorial comments about another aspect of their appearance—their size After a military inspection at Camp Douglas a reporter wrote,

Our Japanese friends must have observed, as did all present, the marked difference in stature between General Yamada, of the Imperial army of Japan, and General Morrow, in command of the United States forces here, as both gentlemen passed down the line at the review yesterday The former is, probably, not to exceed five feet in height, and weighs not over 100 pounds; the latter must be nearly a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier. We all know General Morrow is a handsome man, after the Anglo-Saxon order, and we are not surprised to learn that Yamada is looked upon as fine-looking by a nation whose peers and princes are almost invariably of small stature Small as Yamada is, he looked every inch a soldier in his uniform and his martial bearing was the subject of general remark.28

Another newspaper reporter tried to give his readers a sense of these foreigners by comparing them to the Chinese, a nationality that Americans generally held in low esteem.

There is little if any similarity between the Japanese and the Chinese. While the latter belong to a race that is marked with evidences of decay, and show but little if any disposition to adopt the progressive institutions of the age, the latter [the reporter obviously meant to write former] show the energy and spirit of a young and healthy race, destined to play an important part in the future civilization of the world Japan, with its 30,000,000 of population, crowding forward to take its place among the civilized and enlightened nations, has unquestionably a great future.29

It is not difficult to see from this statement that Americans viewed the Far East as declining or backward Accordingly, reporters in Salt Lake City struggled to categorize these distinguished Asians. Cautioning Salt Lake City residents to treat the Japanese with courtesy and respect, one reporter told his readers that these foreign visitors were "an extremely intelligent body of men . . .with an utter absence of Orientalism."30 In essence, he said that even though the Japanese were Asian, they should be treated as though they were not. To many Americans of the late nineteenth century, the term Oriental, or Asian, did not denote a race so much as it did a degenerate. 3 1 Residents of Salt Lake City were being asked to separate "good" Asians from "bad" Asians, most likely a difficult and confusing task.

The two cultures did not meet on an equal footing For most people living in Salt Lake City, this was the first time they had seen aJapanese.32 Many of these Japanese, on the other hand, had been acquainted with and worked with Americans and Europeans for years, if not decades Some had studied in the United States, and for a few this was a second excursion to the West. Accordingly, the perceptions of each group were different Citizens of Salt Lake City were curious about a country that was just beginning to gain world prominence and a people whose customs and appearance were alien to their own. In contrast, these Japanese had already formed general impressions of Americans. This visit was specifically to see their country and its institutions and to understand how these affected the lives of its people In many ways, then, the Japanese had the advantage in this meeting of cultures.

What impression did the Iwakura Mission gather of Salt Lake City and its inhabitants? Because its members were highly educated, cultured, and part of an aristocracy that valued reserve and delicacy in their dealings with others, they were extremely polite and formal in all of their conversations. Their answers to their hosts' inquiries were always solicitous and seldom revealed the intense scrutiny that they were giving to all aspects of society. To discover the impressions they gained of Salt Lake City and of its people, one must turn to their diaries and to memoirs written in later life.

A recurrent theme of the diaries was the natural scenery of the region, especially the snow-covered mountains. Kido spoke of the mountains as being "naturally different from anything we see in Japan."33 Even before they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, the visitors were struck by the beauty of the region's mountains As their train neared Utah and the inevitable closure of the rails at Ogden, they crowded around the windows to see "the moonlight shining on the cliff edges and mountains like the glint from the edge of a sword."34 The Japanese saw the mountains as holders of great strength and power and likened this to a symbol of Japanese power—the samurai sword.

They also observed the people of Salt Lake City. Their enforced stay allowed them to form attitudes of Americans based on numerous interactions over their nineteen-day visit. In no other city did the Japanese have time to turn acquaintances into friendships. They saw the city's leading citizens in formal and relaxed settings, and they had the time and leisure to discuss detailed issues with bureaucrats and politicians in their hotel rooms at night They also had many chances to observe the general populace that they did not have after they left the Rocky Mountains. From then on, the pace picked up as they quickly traveled from one city to the next, stopping long enough to take lodgings in a hotel or to visit industries, institutions, and natural scenic sights. Even in Chicago they stayed only one night and less than twenty-four hours.

An interesting part of this formation of opinions was that the Japanese saw the Mormons of Utah as Americans—something that the rest of the country generally denied and that many continued to deny even after the territory was granted statehood nearly a quarter of a century later. While other Americans used differences in religion to classify Mormons as unacceptable, the Japanese, as outsiders, were not inclined to view these differences as defining factors of American identity. The members of the Iwakura Mission did not make remarks about Utahns that showed that they perceived them as being anything but Americans. They did make general observations about polygamy, but their remarks carried no hint of judgment or opinion. In fact, when the Japanese made disparaging remarks about Utahns, they were similar to those they made about Americans in other cities. For instance, while they were in San Francisco the Japanese disapprovingly acknowledged that men and women openly displayed affection toward one another. In Salt Lake City they commented that some Utahns became too rowdy at a late-night social affair.

While the Japanese recognized that the Mormons had been driven to live in the wilderness by those who had objected to their religion, they were also willing to see the Mormons as an example of the religious zeal found in western civilization. After seeing Temple Square, Kume Kunitake wrote:

There are 200,000 believers and they are building such a large temple in the midst of the mountains in a desolate place. That Westerners believe in religion and do not begrudge paying considerable money for such a temple can be readily observed in this site.35

One Sunday many of the Japanese attended Mormon religious services in the Tabernacle because they were curious to see how this religion, seen by many Americans as so different from other American churches, conducted its services. In the official mission diary Kume Kunitake wrote:

We went to the Mormon Church to hear some doctrine Part of the sermon was taken from the New Testament concerning the doctrine that people from the corners of the four seas are all one people and are thus brothers. On the whole the service sounded much like other Protestant Churches.36

This excerpt shows that the Japanese did not view the Mormons as significantly different from other Americans but, in fact, as very much the same. Furthermore, the following quote shows that members of the Iwakura Mission understood the existence of enmity toward the Mormons but gives no indication that they had come to the same conclusions.

Mormonism is a branch of Christianity The westerners see it as being heretical One of the primary teachings is that if one man does not have seven wives or more, he will not get into Heaven . . .All Americans hate this religion The government has decided that proselytizing must stop and guards are placed around his [Brigham Young's] house.37

It is important not to misinterpret this nonjudgmental stance as a policy of Iwakura and his associates. The entire purpose of this world tour was to analyze western society, and to that end they liberally acknowledged and discussed cultural and social issues that they witnessed as they traveled the globe. Interestingly, polygamy was not an issue that disturbed them.

Members of the embassy also learned about the history of the Mormon church and Utah Territory. On his first night in Salt Lake City, Kido Takayoshi wrote in hisjournal that a former territorial governor, Frank Fuller, had taken him to his room and told him the history of the territory:

In 1847 the Mormons were driven out of the United States; and in their flight, Young led 144 people (including 3 women) to this place They carried their belongings on their backs for 1100 or 1200 miles from any human habitation. At that time this was Mexican territory; but the next year Mexicans fought and lost a war to the United States, and so ceded this land.38

The embassy also examined the politics of the region. They noted the differences between a state that enjoyed full privileges within a nation and a territory that did not Kume's diary indicates that they understood that a territory could not govern its own affairs, have a constitution, choose its own governor, or send a voting representative to Congress.39

While Salt Lake City wined and dined the one-hundred-plus Japanese for nineteen days in February 1872, the rest of the country looked on. Many wondered what image the Japanese were gathering of Americans while they were stranded in the Mormon city.

Admittedly, because of polygamy, the nation's eyes were already turned toward Utah. In addition, Utahns were making a serious bid at that time for statehood. While the Japanese were in Salt Lake City the territory held an election for delegate to Congress, voted to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and voted to petition Congress to accept Utah as a state. Because the elections went entirely to what many nonMormons called the "Mormon Ticket" and because the territory allowed female suffrage, the national press called the elections a fraud and a mockery. A California paper said that they "hoped the Japanese had access to a competent Philadelphia lawyer to explain to them the affairs in Mormondom."40

One event caused an embarrassing predicament for the embassy and their hosts. Two days after arriving in Salt Lake City, Ambassador DeLong and prominent members of the embassy called on Brigham Young at his residence The Mormon prophet was being held without bail on a murder charge, a prisoner in his home under guard of a U.S marshal.41 Visiting Young created a controversy that spread, via telegraph, from the local press to many newspapers across the country. Even though Brigham Young was the most important figure in the territory, many Americans thought that the embassy should not have visited a religious leader who held no political office and was under arrest.

The controversy centered on how the decision to see Young had been made. The Salt Lake Tribune told the story this way: Iwakura received a messenger at his hotel from Young the day before the visit, asking that the principal members of the embassy call on him. Iwakura reportedly replied that etiquette required the Mormon leader to call on him. The messenger then informed Iwakura that Young was anxious to meet the Japanese but that he could not make calls since he was confined to his room in charge of a federal officer. Iwakura supposedly "saw the point at once and with a frown, said: We came to the United States to see the President of this great nation; we do not know how he would like for us to call on a man who had broken the laws of his country and was under arrest."42

Historians of the Iwakura Mission have relied solely on the Tribune article when relating this colorful incident Thus, they deny that the visit to Brigham Young took place and emphasize that the Mormon prophet was rejected by aJapanese prince. A 1995 work, for example, stated that during the Salt Lake stay "the only event of note was that Iwakura refused an invitation to call on Brigham Young, on the grounds that it would be politically improper. . . ,"43 Not only have other sources been neglected, but the conflict commonly played out in the local press between the anti-Mormon Tribune and the Mormon Deseret News has not been considered as a source of the misinformation about the visit. The Deseret News's depiction of the event, published the same day, was markedly different from the Tribune's:

The Embassy, having expressed a great desire to see President Young took the earliest opportunity of visiting him at his mansion, he being the first of our citizens to whom they paid their respects. The interview was an exceedingly agreeable one, the members of the Embassy evincing great interest in learning that all the improvements in the Territory had been accomplished within 25 years. 44

Kido Takayoshi's diary entry for February 5 gives an account of the visit that has also been overlooked. He casually recorded that the visit to the Mormon Tabernacle was followed by a visit to Brigham Young, whose home was located in the next city block. This entry makes one realize how natural this sequence of events was. The Japanese had toured the Mormon Tabernacle and the temple construction site. Then they walked a short distance to the Mormon leader's home. Additionally, after seeing the prophet, they visited a museum run by his son. This was unquestionably the obligatory Mormon tour.

Besides the preponderance of sources that substantiate the occurrence of the visit, there is another reason to doubt the authenticity of the Tribune story. Iwakura, because of his high political and courtly rank, would not have received messengers such as the one supposedly sent by Brigham Young. Ambassador DeLong was responsible for arranging all of the embassy's official functions while they were in the United States. Indeed, Kido noted in his diary that DeLong had arranged for the visit "beforehand."45 The Tribune article gives the impression that Iwakura refused the offer In that case the visit would not have occurred, and we know from several sources that it did

Nevertheless, the visit outraged the non-Mormon population of Salt Lake City (another proof that the visit occurred). A number of non-Mormons who had received invitations to the grand banquet and ball to be given for the Japanese on February 12 returned their tickets in protest The incident was reported in the Salt Lake Tribune two days after it occurred and telegraphed to other papers around the country four to five days later. A number of papers reprinted versions of the Tribune story. The amusing twist to this affair is that the banquet was too tempting a prize to forego. Those who had given up their tickets asked for them back after it was reported in the eastern papers, again via telegraph from Salt Lake City, that DeLong, when questioned about taking the Japanese to see Brigham Young, had adroitly answered that he "did not know where the party was being taken."46 The excuse, though untrue, was adequate enough to allow the protestors to reclaim their tickets and attend the ball.

The visit to Brigham Young caused such a commotion that the local papers were still jousting over it a week later. The Deseret News updated its readers with "The Latest" on February 13:

The latest donkeyism of the sensation [al] telegraphic dispatches from this city to the west is that the heavens are likely to fall because the Japanese Embassy visited President B. Young. Well, let them fall, if that is all that holds them up. 47

Even ten days after the visit, the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune considered the issue current news:

a number of the Japan commissioners connected with the Embassy called on the prophet, who received them kindly and, after describing to them his journey across the plains in 47, presented them with a few copies of the Book of Mormon. The visitors were, no doubt, anxious to compare the prophet of the West with the Mikado, and we understand, that they prefer their own High Priest The difference between the two seems to be that the Mikado is pressing forward to grasp the civilization of modern times, while the prophet, with his Book of Mormon, is endeavoring to get back to the habits and customs of barbarous times.48

The Brigham Young affair may have generated more newspaper headlines in newspapers across the country, but the most significant embarrassment for the United States was the inability of the Union Pacific Railroad to move the stranded Iwakura Mission. Not only was the new and highly touted transcontinental railroad proving ineffective for winter travel, but those involved in trade worried that commerce with Asia would suffer because the Union Pacific could not keep the trains running. Ambassador DeLong was quoted in several eastern papers as stating that millions of dollars would be lost to the transcontinental route because the Japanese would report unfavorably on shipping anything across the United States in winter.49 Many wondered if the Japanese would opt to ship their goods across Panama rather than risk costly delays in the Rocky Mountains. The New York Times thought that this was highly likely given the ineptitude of the Union Pacific in handling the snow blockade.50 Indeed, on February 14, several Americans stranded in Utah returned to San Francisco hoping to get to New York faster via the Panama Railroad.51 The Chicago Tribune took UP officials to task:

The experiences of the passengers differ, but the majority denounce the management of the Union Pacific without stint, saying there is no excuse for such long delay and hardships; that with reasonable energy and determination of officials who understood their business the blockade could have been raised or passed two weeks ago. 52

Several passengers who had been stranded in the mountains in snowblocked passenger cars threatened to sue the company; a few threatened to lynch the superintendent of the railroad.53

Outsiders were desperate to get the Japanese out of Utah. The governor of Illinois offered to pay for a special train that would take the entire embassy back to San Francisco where they could take a ship to Panama and travel across the Isthmus.54 Even Ambassador DeLong grew impatient. After eleven days in the city, he questioned a stagecoach entrepreneur about moving the entire delegation over the passes, some two hundred miles, in sleighs. The businessman estimated that it would take sixty days at one thousand dollars per day.55

As Americans fretted about the delay in the Rocky Mountains, the Japanese started to brood over what they would face once they reached Washington ltd Hirobumi spent several evenings writing three memoranda on the upcoming meetings with Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. The first memorandum acknowledged that the present group was not authorized to conclude new treaties but was expected to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the present treaty which Japan saw as unfair to its rights as a sovereign nation The successive memoranda went further toward suggesting that the embassy might try to draft a new treaty and hold binding discussions with the secretary of state.56

Ito Hirobumi must have been persuasive in convincing his colleagues. Iwakura and the other ranking officials accepted the proposals when he presented them in an evening meeting on February 20 in one of their hotel rooms at the Townsend House. They decided to press for treaty revision while in Washington. Thus, in Salt Lake City the embassy moved from expecting to meet and hold informal discussions with diplomatic officials to pressing for treaty revision as full diplomatic ambassadors.

This final impact of the Salt Lake City stay on the Iwakura Mission changed its defining purpose even if in the end the efforts at treaty revision proved to be a dismal failure. As they began their meetings in Washington, Hamilton Fish determined that, even though the embassy was made up of the highest ranking government officials, it still lacked the papers necessary to enter into diplomatic negotiations. After Fish informed Iwakura of this, Iwakura sent Okubo and Ito back to Japan to get the emperor to issue the appropriate documents. By the time these two men returned from Japan, Iwakura had become so frustrated with Fish and the laborious negotiation process that he decided, even though they now had the appropriate papers, to depart immediately for Europe

This unfavorable experience arose from the fact that the embassy members had extra time on their hands in Salt Lake City There they had had the leisure to think, meet, fret, and discuss with each other their concerns about what they were to face on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. What made them make such a momentous decision? Why did they decide to enter into treaty negotiations when they had previously said that they were not yet ready to do so? Perhaps it was because of their experiences in the American West. They embarked on this world tour with definite images of countries and their people The United States, though young, was seen as a powerful, unified nation with national goals and ideals. Its institutions were well respected, and it had made great advances in industrialization One can speculate that what they saw made them realize that the United States was not as exemplary as they had supposed. In Salt Lake City they saw that the people were anything but unified They quarreled over religious differences and used them to influence politics and judicial matters. The country's technology was shown as flawed when the famed transcontinental railroad could not keep its trains moving through the mountain passes. Extended contact in both Salt Lake City and San Francisco with western Americans, who were not as socially reserved as easterners, likely caused the Japanese to conclude that they could succeed at treaty negotiations. The delegates had been extremely well accepted, their experiences in communicating at official functions were highly positive, and, other than the transportation delay, the trip was going very smoothly. America welcomed them and accepted them as they were—the dignified ambassadors of the emperor of Japan. They did not know that they were to meet their match with Hamilton Fish.

Ito Hirobumi presented his proposalsjust two days before the mission departed Salt Lake City. After several false reports that the passes were open, a specially outfitted train arrived in Ogden from the East on February 21. The embassy left Salt Lake City early the next morning and continued on its world tour.

The Iwakura Mission's stay in Salt Lake City is an important part of Utah territorial history and the history of the mission itself. The young city, isolated in the heart of the American West, hosted a large delegation of high-ranking statesmen and diplomats for over two weeks. The Japanese participated in numerous social events, met a core group of influential citizens on several occasions, formed opinions of Americans and their social customs, and made lasting memories. They did not complain or see their prolonged stay as onerous but seemed to enjoy their time in the city.

In addition, their stay highlighted the tensions and conflicts Utah faced in the early 1870s. The controversy that arose because of the visit to Brigham Young shows how the media of the day—newspapers and the telegraph—were used as weapons by both Mormons and anti-Mormons Polygamy, religious politics, and the newly completed transcontinental railroad were all sources of contention that the nation and Salt Lake citizens focused on when more than one hundred influential Japanese visited Salt Lake City in 1872.

Moreover, as has been shown, the Salt Lake City stay did, indeed, shape the Iwakura Mission Without this lengthy stay, Iwakura, Okubo, and Kido might not have been swayed by Ito Hirobumi's arguments in favor of treaty negotiations.57 In Washington, Kido wrote in his diary that Ito had been rash in his arguments that swayed the oligarchs. Early in the negotiation process he noted that there was "very little advantage to us" in the treaty.58 Kido concluded that it had been a mistake to listen to Ito in Salt Lake City He saw his group of negotiators giving up everything to the Americans and gaining nothing for Japan He sadly concluded that Japan could not yet compete with the western powers in the art of diplomacy. But for a time, and in a place, it looked as if they could.

NOTES

Wendy Butler lives in Provo and is a history major at Brigham Young University

1 Kume Kunitake, Tokumei zenken taishi: Bejo kairanjikki ["A True Account of the Tour in America and Europe of the Special Embassy"], 5 vols (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1977), pp 137-38.

2 See W G Beasley, Japan Encounters the Barbarian: Japanese Travelers in America and Europe (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), p 157; Kodansha Encyclopedia ofJapan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1983), s.v "Iwakura Mission," by Marlene J Mayo, p 358; and Eugene Soviak, "On the Nature of Western Progress: Th e Journa l of the Iwakura Embassy," in Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture, ed Donald H Shively (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press 1971), p 7.

3 Marlene J Mayo, "Rationality in the Meiji Restoration: The Iwakura Embassy," in Modern Japanese Leadership, ed Bernard S Silberman and Harry D Harootunian (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1966), p. 324. Mayo's "The Western Education of Kume Kunitake," was published in Monumenta Nipponica 27 (1973): 3-67.

4 Japan had signed several unequal treaties with western powers in 1858, beginning with the Harris Treaty with the United States in July These highly unfavorable (for Japan) treaties opened several key Japanese cities to foreign trade, setJapanese tariffs and import duties at low levels that could only be regulated unde r international control, and allowed extraterritoriality for foreign residents in Japan.

5 W. G. Beasley, "The Iwakura Mission in Britain, 1872," History Today 31 (October 1981): 33.

6 Salt Lake Tribune, February 17, 1872.

7 Beasley, Japan Encounters the Barbarian, p 163.

8 Marlene J Mayo, "The Western Education of Kume Kunitake: 1871-6," Monumenta Nipponica 27.1 (1973): 54.

9 Kido Takayoshi, The Diary ofKido Takayoshi, Vol 11:1871-1874, trans. Sidney Devere Brown and Akiko Hirota (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1985), p. 123.

10 Kume, Tokumei zenken taishi, pp. 140-41.

11 Governor George L. Woods's speech at a special session of the Utah Territorial Legislature as reported in Deseret News, February 9, 1872.

12 Salt Lake Daily Herald, February 13, 1872.

13 General Henry A Morrow's speech at Camp Douglas as reported in Deseret News, February 8, 1872.

14 Speech by the Honorable Thomas Fitch to the Japanese Embassy before the Utah Bar as reported in Salt Lake Daily Herald, February 11, 1872.

15 For an excellent discussion of this theme see the chapter, 'The Pleasing Awfulness," in Sandra L Myres, Westering Women and the Frontier Experience, 1800-1915 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982).

16 Both Lorenzo Snow and Orson Pratt were also at this time members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS church. Snow was later president of the church from 1898 until his death in 1901.

17 Utah Territorial Legislature, Address of the Legislative Assembly to the Japanese Embassy, February, 16, 1872, Journal History, microfilm, February 16, 1872, Lee Library, Brigham Young University.

18 Ibid.

19 Kido, The Diary of Kido Takayoshi, p 127.

20 When Kume wrote his memoirs at an advanced age, he clarified this statement by saying that when one walked down a street in Salt Lake City, one could see the number of wives a man had by how many windows he had in his home It is unclear how Kume received this impression Kume, Tokumei zenken taishi, p 139.

21 Elizabeth A Howard, "Diary," Special Collections, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

22 Samuel Parker Richards, 'Journal," February 6, 1872, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City.

23 Wilford Woodruff, Wilford Woodruff's Journal, ed Scott G Kenney (Midvale, Utah: Signature Books, 1985), vol 7, p 61.

24 Brigham Young Hampton, "Journal," February 4, 1872, LDS Church Archives.

25 Salt Lake Daily Herald, February 5, 1872.

26 Ibid.

27 Salt Lake Tribune, February 5, 1872.

28 Salt Lake Daily Herald, February 7, 1872.

29 Ibid.

30 Salt Lake Tribune, February 5, 1872.

31 Roger Daniels, a leading immigration historian, has said that the Japanese "automatically inherited the prejudices already established against (the) Chinese " See his "Majority Images-Minority Realities: A Perspective on Anti-Orientalism in the United States," in Nativism, Discrimination, and Images of Immigrants, vol 15, ed George E Pozzetta (New York: Garland, 1991), pp 107-8.

32 A Japanese acrobatic troop had performed in Salt Lake City in the spring of 1870 See Deseret News, April27,1870.

33 Kido, The Diary of Kido Takayoshi, p 127.

34 As quoted in Mayo, 'Th e Western Education of Kume Kunitake," p 59.

35 Kume, Tokumei zenhin taishi, pp. 140—41.

36 Ibid., p. 146.

37 Ibid., pp 141-44

38 Kido, The Diary of Kido Takayoshi, p. 123.

39 Kume, Tokumei zenken taishi, p 140

40 As quoted in Deseret News, February 14, 1872

41 See Leonard J Arlington, Brigham Young, American Moses (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1985), pp 372-73, and Thomas G. Alexander, Utah: The Bight Place (Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 1995), pp. 175-76.

42 Salt Lake Tribune, February 7, 1872.

43 Beasley, Japan Encounters the Barbarian, p. 163.

44 Deseret News, February 7, 1872.

45 Kido, The Diary of Kido Takayoshi, p 124.

46 Salt Lake Daily Herald, February 16, 1872.

47 Deseret News, February 13, 1872.

48 Salt Lake Tribune, February 15, 1872.

49 Chicago Tribune, February 5, 1872.

50 New York Times, February 5, 1872.

51 Chicago Tribune, February 14, 1872.

52 Ibid., February 19, 1872.

53 Ibid.

54 Ibid., February 15, 1872.

55 Salt Lake Tribune, February 14, 1872

56 Marlene J Mayo, "A Catechism of Western Diplomacy: The Japanese and Hamilton Fish, 1872," Journal of Asian Studies 26 (1967): 391

57 Kido, The Diary of Kido Takayoshi, p 180

58 Ibid., p 142