Talk Video - ‘Singleness of Purpose’: Sir Harry Parkes, British Minister to Japan, Korea and China

In this lecture talk on Saturday 14 November 2020, Robert Morton discussed the life and career of Sir Harry Parkes, a controversial figure who played a central role in the relations between east Asia and the West from the 1850s until the 1880s. Robert Morton is a professor at Chuo University in Tokyo. He is the author of A.B. Mitford and the Birth of Japan as a Modern State (Renaissance, 2017) which won the 5th Annual Kokkiken Study Award and the forthcoming A Life of Sir Harry Parkes.

The video of this talk is now available on the Japan Society YouTube channel.

Top images: Bust of Sir Harry Parkes in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London © Robert Morton (left); Attack on the delegation of Sir Harry Smith Parkes to the Meiji Emperor, February 1868, from a drawing by Jules Brunet, Artillery Captain of the French Military Mission in Japan, "Le Monde Illustre", 13 June 1868 (right).