From enemy to friend: Ian McGibbon recalls the early days of the now 70-year-old diplomatic relationship between Japan and New Zealand.

• Author: McGibbon, Ian
• Position: ANNIVERSARY

The 70th anniversary of the coming into effect of the Japanese Peace Treaty on 28 April also marked another significant milestone--the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and New Zealand.

Signed at the peace conference in San Francisco the previous September, the treaty's implementation depended on ratification by not only Japan but also a majority of the eleven signatories, including the United States. New Zealand, as a co-belligerent, had been one of the participants in this process, with Sir Carl Berendsen, New Zealand's ambassador to the United States, signing on its behalf.

On 12 April 1952 Foreign Minister Clifton Webb announced that New Zealand had ratified the treaty. Its coming into effect just sixteen days later ended the technical state of war that had existed with Japan for the previous six and a half years.

New Zealand had had a trade and reparations office in Tokyo since May 1947 headed by Department of Industries and Commerce official Bill Challis. Initially confined to trade matters, it was expanded to cover political liaison in January 1952 and was accredited to the supreme commander for the Allied powers, General Douglas McArthur, as the paramount authority in Japan. On 28 April 1952 the mission became a legation with Challis as consul-general and charge d'affaires, and dealt directly with the now independent Japanese government. It was New Zealand's first diplomatic post in Asia.

Challis soon received some diplomatic support. One of the Department of External Affairs' two Japanese speakers, Rod Miller, was appointed as second secretary in the legation. It was not his first engagement with Japan. In 1947-48 he had been there as an interpreter with J Force, New Zealand's contribution to the Allied occupation force. 'I am afraid that his spoken Japanese has become very rusty,' Secretary of External Affairs Alister McIntosh warned Challis, 'but I hope it will be possible for him to devote a large part of his energies to learning the language.' Challis assured McIntosh that his work would involve 'almost exclusively informing himself on the background to political affairs and reporting on them, studying the language, and looking after consular details'. There would be 'plenty for Miller to get his teeth into right from the jump. The growth of ultra-nationalistic organisations, the story behind the elections, the Japanese attitude regarding GATT and ANZUS, developments on rearmament, feelers towards Peking...