Kyo Kumasaki

Not being convinced of the unavoidableness of war between Japan and the United States which may break out next spring but may be delayed for a generation or so, the Century has cordially admitted to its membership in the past certain eminent Japanese residents of New York City. One of these fellow-members was Kyo Kumasaki, who came to this city as consul-general of Japan in the autumn of 1919 and became a member of the Century in 1922. Kumasaki had been a diplomat of distinction, and he had the remarkable experience of acting as Consul General for Japan at Moscow during the Bolshevik Revolution; when his dignity and reserve may perhaps have reminded the Lenins and Trotskys that even to an oriental civilization there were some European governmental ideas which were the conceptions of barbarians. That winter in Moscow was very severe; neither coal nor wood could be obtained. Food of all kinds was scarce and of poor quality. Kumasaki and his associates had under their care the safety and interests of the English and the Koreans. This would have been a trying enough responsibility under normal circumstances, but the Japanese staff had to work without fires day or night, wrapped up in heavy coats while at their desks, with fingers numbed and minds disturbed by incessant demands for advice or assistance. Two died of overwork and exposure and Kumasaki himself was almost broken in health; but this caused no relaxation in his stern insistence on the rights of his position—as for example, his demand that certain Englishmen under arrest and in fear of death be liberated, which was done; also that the two thousand Koreans who had served in the Russian army be sent home at the Soviet’s expense.

Kumasaki was in many ways a remarkable son of the Island Empire. He spoke fluently Russian, German, French and English, not to mention classical and vernacular Chinese; he could exchange ideas on Kipling or Anatole France, on Goethe or Turguenieff, his own tastes were altogether catholic and cosmopolitan.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1924 Century Association Yearbook