John M. Allison
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John Moore Allison (April 7, 1905 – October 28, 1978) was an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Japan from 1953 to 1957. From 1957 to 1958, he was Ambassador to Indonesia and from 1958 to 1960 to Czechoslovakia. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was a professor at the University of Hawaii.
Early life
Allison was born in Holton, Kansas and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska. He graduated from Lincoln High School and earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Nebraska in 1927.[1][2][3]
Declining a scholarship to pursue graduate work at Nebraska, and refusing to go to work for his father, Allison accepted a post as an English teacher Japan in 1927.Template:Sfn He worked for two years as an English teacher, first in a middle school in Odawara, and later at the Imperial Japanese Naval Engineer Officers Academy at Atsugi.Template:Sfn In 1929 Allison moved to Shanghai, where he worked as a branch advertising manager for General Motors.Template:Sfn
Career in the Foreign Service
In 1931, Allison took and passed the U.S. Foreign Service exam, and was inducted into the Foreign Service in 1932.Template:Sfn He quickly rose through the ranks, serving as consul in Dalian (1935–36), Jinan (1936–37), Nanjing (1937–38), Shanghai (1938), and Osaka (1939–41). Allison was in Osaka during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor.[3]
On January 26, 1938, during the period of the Nanking Massacre, Allison, at the time consul at the American embassy in Nanjing, was struck in the face by a Japanese soldier.[4][5] This incident is commonly known as the "Allison Incident." Japanese Consul-General Katsuo Okazaki apologized formally on January 30 (after the Americans demanded they do so).[6] This incident, together with the looting of American property in Nanking that took place at the same time, further strained relations between Japan and the United States, which had already been damaged by the USS Panay incident less than two months earlier.[7]
Allison served as a consul in London during World War II. After Japan's surrender, he served in various State Department leadership positions covering Japan and the Far East from 1946 to 1952. Allison participated in the drafting of the Treaty of San Francisco that formally ended the war, serving as John Foster Dulles's aide during the latter's negotiation of the treaty.[8]
Allison was named United States Ambassador to Japan in 1953. As Ambassador, Allison took a hard line in pressuring Japan to remilitarize. In Allison's view, Japan had no choice but to bow to U.S. demands, arguing "they need us at least as much if not more than we need them."[9] In March 1954, 16 years after the "Allison Incident," Allison and the man who had apologized to him in Nanjing, Japanese Foreign Minister Okazaki, signed the U.S. and Japan Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement on behalf of their respective countries.[10] The agreement secured U.S. military and economic aid to Japan in exchange for a vague promise from the Japanese government to remilitarize.[10]
In 1956, Allison accepted a new post as Ambassador to Indonesia.Template:Sfn In 1957, he recommended that the U.S. government support Indonesian claims regarding Western New Guinea.[11][12]Template:Sfn
In 1958, Allison was transferred to Czechoslovakia, a posting he found unexciting.Template:Sfn After his mentor John Foster Dulles died in 1959, Allison decided to retire from the Foreign Service, rather than work under a new boss.Template:Sfn In addition, his wife was battling illness and needed better access to medical care.Template:Sfn
Later life
In 1960, Allison retired and secured a teaching job at the University of Hawaii. He also wrote a weekly foreign affairs column for the [[Honolulu Star-Bulletin|Honolulu StarTemplate:En dashBulletin]].[3] Allison served as president of Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, a nonprofit promoting international relations and Hawaii's role on the AsianTemplate:En dashPacific stage.[3][13] In 1973, Allison published his memoir, Ambassador from the Prairie; or, Allison in Wonderland.[14] Allison died on October 28, 1978, in Honolulu, Hawaii.Template:Sfn
References
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Full-length article here. Archived 2009-10-31.
- ↑ They Were in Nanjing: The Nanjing Massacre Witnessed by American and British, p216
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Template:US Ambassadors to Japan Template:US Ambassadors to Indonesia Template:US Ambassadors to Czech Republic Template:Authority control
- Pages with script errors
- 1905 births
- 1978 deaths
- Ambassadors of the United States to Indonesia
- Ambassadors of the United States to Japan
- United States assistant secretaries of state
- Ambassadors of the United States to Czechoslovakia
- United States Foreign Service personnel
- University of Nebraska alumni
- 20th-century American diplomats
- Acacia members