Koto Matsudaira

Koto Matsudaira (松平 康東, Matsudaira Kōtō, 5 February 1903 – 2 May 1994) was a Japanese diplomat who served as an ambassador to the United Nations from 1957 to 1961.

Biography

Matsudaira was born in Tokyo on 5 February 1903, the son of a shipowner. He attended high school in Tokyo and then studied law at Tokyo Imperial University. Although he entered foreign service in 1926, he attained an academic degree in 1927. He then went to Paris where he received a Juris Doctor in 1931. That same year, he also obtained a diploma from the École Libre des Sciences Politiques.

Matsudaira first joined the League of Nations as a Japanese delegate to Geneva in 1932. Two years later, he was sent to the contract department of the Japanese Foreign Office until early 1941. Matsudaira then served as the first secretary at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C. where his uncle Saburō Kurusu also worked. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was interned there along with Kurusu until being repatriated to Japan. In 1944, he went to the Embassy of Japan in Moscow to serve as the first secretary.^[2] He helped negotiate a draft of the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951.

He was appointed as the ambassador to Canada in March 1954, serving in that capacity until May 1957.^[3] He was then appointed as a Permanent Representative to the United Nations in May 1957 until May 1961.^[4]

When asked about the offensiveness of the term "Jap" on a television program by John Wingate on 7 June 1957, Matsudaira reportedly replied, "Oh, I don't care. It's a English word. It's maybe American slang. I don't know. If you care, you are free to use it."^[5] Upon receiving a letter from Shosuke Sasaki about the topic on 5 July, Matsudaira asked one of his secretaries to write a reply.^[6] He apologized for his earlier remarks upon being interviewed by reporters from Honolulu and San Francisco on 5 August.^[7] He then pledged cooperation with the Japanese American Citizens League to help eliminate the term "Jap" from daily use.^[8]

In 1958, when the United States sent its forces to Lebanon during the 1958 Lebanon crisis, Matsudaira considered the move debatable. Although he was prepared to support the resolution, Gunnar Jarring, upon being instructed by Östen Undén, declared that the move by the United States changed the fulfillment conditions for the resolution. Following Jarring's calls for suspending the activities of the UN in Lebanon, the Security Council held the debate until adjourning upon Matsudaira's suggestion.^[9] Later that year, Matsudaira served as President of the United Nations Security Council in October.^[10]

In 1960, Matsudaira attended a pioneer banquet hosted by the JACL, where he gave an address to several JACL members and Issei urging cooperation between nations for world peace.^[11]

In early 1961, in reference to Japan refusing a request by Dag Hammarskjöld to send Japan Self-Defense Forces officers to Lebanon in 1958, Matsudaira reportedly stated, "it is not consistent for Japan to preach UN cooperation on the one hand and to refuse all participation in UN forces." He later withdrew that statement after calls for resignation from opposition parties.^[12] Later that same year, he began serving as an ambassador to India.^[13]

Personal life

In 1951, Matsudaira sent his daughter, Tokiko, to live with the family of Murray Sprung in New York City while attending school. Sprung met Matsudaira while helping prosecute Japanese war criminals.^[14]

Selected bibliography

• A Diplomat's Life

References