Setsuya Beppu ( or , 4 March 1904 - 17 May 1992『現代物故者事典1991～1993』（日外アソシエーツ、1994年）p.527), also known as Kiyoshi Beppu (), was a Japanese diplomat who served as the first Japanese Consul in Dublin during the World War II. He also served as the first Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to both Laos and Vatican City.
Early life Beppu was born on 4 March 1904 in Kōchi Prefecture in Japan as Kiyoshi Beppu. He passed the higher civil service diplomatic examination () in October 1924.『外務省報第六十九号』雑報, 1924年10月15日 He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Tokyo Imperial University in 1926.
Career
Early career Beppu started working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March 1926 as a British embassy clerk ().『外務省報第百四号』叙任及辞令, 1926年4月1日 He was appointed as the vice-consul in London in December 1927,『外務省報第百四十五号』叙任及辞令, 1927年12月15日 and the attaché to Belgium in April 1929.『外務省報第百七十八号』叙任及辞令, 1929年5月1日 His brother-in-law Shunsuke Naruse was also a diplomat, and he died in Iran in 1929.成瀬俊介氏記念追悼集, 菊池寛 編, 文芸春秋社, 1930年
Beppu was assigned to the First Asian Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from June 1931.『外務省報第二百二十九号』雑報, 1931年6月15日 On 25 August 1932 he officially changed his name from Kiyoshi to Setsuya.『外務省報第二百六十号』叙任及辞令, 1932年10月1日 He became the official in the First Asian Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in May 1933.『外務省報第二百七十六号』雑報, 1933年6月1日 In December 1933, he was appointed as the third secretary for the Shanghai legation in the Republic of China.『外務省報第二百九十号』雑報, 1934年1月1日 In May 1935 he was promoted to the third secretary for the Japanese Embassy to China.『外務省報第三百二十四号』叙任及辞令, 1935年6月1日 From December 1935, he was assigned to the Second European and Asian Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,『外務省報第三百三十六号』雑報, 1935年12月1日 and in March 1936 he became the diplomatic official at the First Division of the Cultural Affairs Department.『外務省報第三百四十三号』叙任及辞令, 1936年3月15日
Britain and Ireland during World War II Beppu became the Consul of Liverpool in January 1939 at the age of 35.『外務省報第四百十二号』叙任及辞令, 1939年2月1日 He became the second secretary for the legation of Switzerland (with Norway and Denmark) in January 1940.『外務省報第四百三十六号』叙任及辞令, 1940年2月1日 In June 1940, he was appointed as the second secretary for the Embassy of Japan and Consul in Liverpool,『外務省報第四百四十六号』叙任及辞令, 1940年7月1日 and in December the first secretary for the Embassy of Japan and Consul.『外務省報第四百五十八号』叙任及辞令, 1941年1月1日
In 1940, Beppu, as a Japanese Consul in Liverpool, rented a private house and opened a consulate in Dublin in the Irish Free State. While he was stationed in Dublin, the United Kingdom declared war on the Empire of Japan in December 1941, and since he could not go back to the United Kingdom, he continued his diplomatic work in Dublin. He "maintained an extremely low profile during the war" in Dublin. The Embassy of Japan in London was closed after the beginning of the war, and it is assumed that the Dublin consulate would have been responsible for helping and evacuating Japanese citizens in the United Kingdom to Ireland if the United Kingdom had broken off diplomatic relations with Japan and they had been subject to danger, which did not happen. Due to the rise of the anti-British sentiment in Ireland during the World War II, Thomas Mullins, an IRA member and later the Leader of the Seanad, bought all the rice in Dublin to prepare for Japanese food and celebrated the fall of Singapore and Arthur Percival's surrender on 15 February 1942 with Beppu and other Japanese officials at the consulate of Japan.『アイルランドの異色の外交官』産経新聞, 2017年2月6日, 8面 In May 1943, Beppu was officially appointed as the Consul-General of Dublin.『外務省報第五百十六号』叙任及辞令, 1943年6月1日
Beppu was involved in the diplomatic negotiation for the termination of the war between Japan and the allies of World War II. On 2 August 1945, he met Robert Brennan, the Irish Free State's first minister to the United States, and heard from him about the United States Under Secretary of State Joseph Grew's remark hinting that the war would end soon when the Japanese people wanted it. On 8 August, he telegrammed this information to Japan. On 10 August, he obtained more information about the intention of the United States Department of State from the Department of External Affairs of Ireland, and also telegrammed it to Japan. These telegrams were intercepted and decoded by the Government Code and Cypher School in Bletchley Park and preserved in The National Archives of the United Kingdom.『「皇室保持の要求、米英が受け入れる」終戦直前にダブリン領事ら日本に打電』産経新聞, 2014年8月12日
After the defeat of the war, Beppu had sabotaged the request from the allies to hand over the consulate's assets and documents to them for three years "with the tacit support of the government of Ireland". In 1946, he was officially dismissed by the Allied Command because he did not follow its order. He returned to Japan in 1948, and was tried by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP). This is called "Beppu Case" ().
After WWII On 10 April 1959, he was appointed as the first Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Laos: before him, the Japanese ambassadorship to Laos had been held by the ambassadors of Japan to Thailand. He was appointed as the Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Vatican City in 1962. He served as the president of the Japan Institute of International Affairs from May 1965 to April 1968. He also worked as a translator around the 1960s: he translated Abe Fortas's Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience into Japanese in 1970. He died of myocardial infarction on 17 May 1992.
Legacy According to Richard B. Finn, while Beppu was penalised by the SCAP, his later diplomatic career was successful. He was regarded as a prominent diplomat in the diplomatic community in Japan. Ryōtarō Shiba referred to him as a "besieged soldier under the war" in On the Highways: Travel in Ireland II ().
Awards and Recognitions
December 1927 - Junior Seventh Rank『外務省報第百四十六号』叙任及辞令, 1928年1月1日 October 1929 - Senior Seventh Rank『外務省報第百九十号』叙任及辞令, 1929年11月1日 June 1930 - Order of the Crown, Chevalier (Belgium)『外務省報第二百二十三号』叙任及辞令, 1931年3月15日『賞勲局上申第三十七号』, 1931年2月28日 June 1935 - Junior Sixth Rank March 1936 - Sixth Class February 1938 - Senior Sixth Rank『外務省報第三百八十九号』叙任及辞令, 1938年2月15日 February 1940 - Fifth Class February 1941 - Junior Fifth Rank『外務省報第四百六十二号』叙任及辞令, 1941年3月1日 January 1945 - Senior Fifth Rank 1974 - The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star (2nd class)
References