Parkes to vote an appeal to mercy should be made in favor of the offender in the Bizen outrage, March 3, 1868

Memorandum by Sir Harry Parkes on the considerations which prompted him to vote an appeal to mercy should be made in favor of the offender in the Bizen outrage,

The offender in this case, an officer of rank in the service of the Prince of Bizen, was condemned to death for having ordered an attack to be made upon foreigners generally, as he passed through Kobé at the head of a train of armed men on the 4th ultimo.

The immediate cause of this violence appears to have been that a foreigner crossed the procession through an opening between the bodies of men. The men before whom the foreigner passed used their spears, not only against the latter, whom they stabbed, but also against all the foreigners standing by, whom they pursued into their houses. Not satisfied with this retaliation, the above mentioned officer ordered the leading company of his men, who were armed with revolving rifles, to open fire upon all foreigners then in sight, and who were much exposed to such, an attack by being scattered about on the open ground of the foreign concession. As an instance of the unmerciful character of the attack, it may be mentioned, that when two or three of the foreigners, who were flying from the bullets, stopped for a moment to aid an American sailor as he fell, the Japanese riflemen directed their fire upon the party, while engaged in carrying off the wounded man.

In atonement for this outrage the life of the officer who gave the order to fire was demanded by the foreign representatives. With marked promptitude the Mikado’s government admitted that the demand was perfectly reasonable, and at once engaged to inflict the punishment named. The officer was arrested, process against him was completed by the 24th February, and on the 29th he arrived at Hiogo in order that the sentence of death might be carried out at the place where the outrage had been committed. The details as to the place and time of execution were communicated to the foreign representatives, who were satisfied of the good faith and the equitable spirit which had animated the action of the Mikado’s government in this matter.

At this stage of the proceedings the foreign representatives, influenced chiefly by an intimation that an appeal to the mercy of the Mikado in favor of the prisoner would be gratefully viewed by the Mikado’s government, and also in some degree by the views of two of their number, met on the 2d instant to consider whether the case was one in which clemency might advisedly be invoked. After discussion and consideration of the case, which gave all the representatives an opportunity of exchanging opinions and comparing their respective impressions, the question of whether an appeal to mercy should be made was put to the vote, and Sir Harry Parkes gave his voice for the appeal on the following grounds:

“The good faith of the proceedings of the Mikado’s government had been established to the satisfaction of the foreign representatives. The offender had been sentenced to death, not upon the demand of the foreign representatives, but because, as stated by the Japanese authorities in communication with the representatives, he had incurredthat penalty according to Japanese law. His offense was probably more attributable to the system of hostility towards foreigners still existing in Japan, than to particular malice on his own part. The manner in which the case had been dealt with by the authorities gave the representatives reason to hope that the efforts of the new government, would be directed towards the eradication of this system, which is known to have been fostered by political animosity. To effect this, the unlawfulness of violence towards foreigners, and the certainty of punishment attaching to it, must be made patent to the mind of the two-sworded class throughout Japan. Was the death of this officer, however, indispensable for this purpose, or might not the same effect be produced by some commutation of his punishment and by the publication throughout the country in a durable and conspicuous form of the original sentence, which clearly describes the capital nature of the offense, and its important bearing upon foreign relations, supplemented by the declaration, that in this particular instance life had been granted on an appeal for mercy in favor of the offender being made by the foreign representatives?”

Such a measure, Sir Harry Parkes believed, could be as widely promulgated as the man’s death. And in the present state of affairs, at the commencement of a new administration, and of new relations with a party who had hitherto been debarred from communication with foreigners, was calculated, he thought, to have as good an effect in the promotion of the object which all the representatives had in view, as the sterner execution of the law. That object was the security of their countrymen in Japan; but this was to be obtained not only by the terror of punishment, unless the moral sensibilities of the Japanese were placed at a very low ebb, but also by judicious appeal to the friendly sympathies of the people. The present case appeared to be one in which the good effects of clemency might be gained in addition to those that would be secured by the vindication of the law.

In determining whether an appeal in favor of the condemned officer should be made by the foreign representatives, having been put to the vote, two of the foreign representatives expressed themselves for and four against the appeal.

In deference to the views of the majority, and in order to preserve unity in the action of the foreign representatives throughout this case, Sir Harry Parkes acquiesced in the decision which was then taken, to abstain from making any appeal in favor of the condemned, and it was agreed that the representatives should exchange statements of the grounds upon which their respective votes had been formed.