William Castle, Jr.

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William Richard Castle, Jr. (June 19, 1879 - October 14, 1963) was an Undersecretary of State in the Hoover administration and the United States Ambassador to Japan in 1930.

Castle was born in Honolulu under the old Hawaiian monarchy. His father had been the kingdom's Attorney General^[1] and King Kalakala's Minister in Washington.^[2] He graduated from Harvard in 1900; and he became an instructor and was Assistant Dean from 1904 through 1913. From 1915 through 1917, he was editor of the Harvard Graduates Magazine. In later years, he would return to Cambridge as an Overseer of Harvard College from 1935 through 1941.^[3]

When the U.S. entered World War I, he became Communications Director for the American Red Cross.^[3]

1 US Department of State
- 1.1 Ambassador to Japan
2 Post-government private life
3 Honors
4 Notes
5 References

[edit] US Department of State

At the conclusion of World War I, he entered the State Department as a special assistant. From 1921 through 1927, he was Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs. In 1931, he was promoted to Assistant Secretary of State and then Undersecretary of State to fill the void when Joseph P. Cotton died unexpectedly.^[4] His skills and self-confidence were honed representing the United States in war debt and reparations negotiations payments resulting from the Great War. In 1932, when Secretary of State Hugh Stimson went to Europe for talks with foreign leaders and his diplomatic counterparts, Castle was elevated to serve as Acting Secretary of State.^[3]

[edit] Ambassador to Japan

He presented credentials to the Japanese Foreign Ministry on January 24, 1930; and he left Japan on May 27, 1930. Ambassador Castle was sent to Japan as a special envoy during the London Naval Conference of 1930.^[5]

Ambassador Castle's last public act before leaving Japan was perhaps the only thing which might have been likely to develop consequence. He presided at the laying of the cornerstone for the American Embassy in Tokyo, which was to replace the structure destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Japanese notables attending the ceremonies were Prince Tokugawa, President of the America-Japan Society; Baron Shidehara, Foreign Minister; and Viscount Shibusawa. Construction was not anticipated to be completed until 1931.^[5]

Regardless of support for the results of the London Naval Conference from Prime Minister Yuko Hamaguchi, Castle's sojourn in Tokyo was plainly a failure in that he did not succeed in his attempt to convince the Japanese military that the imposed imbalance resulting from the London Naval Conference had any advantageous benefits for for Japan. As an illustration of the depth of opposition, Naval Chief of Staff Admiral Kanji Kato refused to attend a farewell dinner for the American ambassador. When Naval Minister Takeshi Takarabe repeated the invitation, the Admiral reigned rather than attend.^[6]

[edit] Post-government private life

He left government when the Roosevelt administration took office. He became an outspoken critic of the New Deal; and he devoted a considerable amount of time to writing about foreign policy and expressing serial critical analyses of Roosevelt administration programs and policies.^[3]

As a close personal friend of President Hoover and members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he had proved useful and effective in behind-the-scenes negotiating during the years of the Hoover administration; but his ability to influence events was sharply modified when the Republicans were no longer in government.^[4]