Paper short abstract:

As Japan's first resident diplomat in Paris from 1871, Sameshima Naonobu (1845-80) found himself at the heart of a Franco-Japanese military network already emerging since the last years of Tokugawa rule, and played a formative role in planning the second French military mission to Japan (1872-80).

Paper long abstract:

As Japan's first resident minister in Europe, Sameshima Naonobu played a pivotal role in fostering relations with France. The son of a doctor and a talented linguist, he was not from a military background himself, but his work as a diplomat in Paris helped the Meiji regime develop the military links with France that had first emerged in the last years of Tokugawa rule. Sameshima had been away from Japan at this time, first in England and then America, as a young member of the student party sent abroad by the Satsuma domain in 1865. He thus had no previous contact with the first French military mission invited by the Tokugawa regime, which reached Japan in 1867. On taking up his post in Paris in 1871, however, he was soon in touch with former members of this mission, among them Charles Chanoine and Jules Brunet, who had since returned to France. Another, Charles Du Bousquet, had stayed on in the service of the Meiji government, so when he was awarded the légion d'honneur in 1872, it fell to Sameshima to send this medal to him from Paris.

In 1871 Sameshima was also charged with developing plans for a second French military mission on behalf of the Meiji government. There would be four such missions in all, three in the Meiji period and another in the early twentieth century. This paper focuses on Sameshima's contribution to planning the second mission in the 1870s, which had a considerable impact on the Imperial Japanese Army and Franco-Japanese relations more broadly. It traces the diplomatic support he gave to Japanese students in helping them enrol at Saint Cyr and other prestigious military academies in France. Finally, it assesses the plans he made to allow visiting Japanese army officers and dignitaries, among them members of the Iwakura Embassy, to inspect military establishments at Saint Cyr, Vincennes and Fontainebleau during their tours of France. From his position at the Japanese legation in Paris, Sameshima's diplomatic activities were thus at the heart of coordinating the new military networks developed between France and Meiji Japan.