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Published on November 18, 2007

Siam and Japan have been trading informally for the best part of four centuries - records show that the first junk from Ayutthaya sailed into the seaport of Nangasaki in 1612. Diplomatic relations took much longer to cement, however, with King Chulalongkorn's younger brother, Kromlaung Thewawong Waropakarn, in his capacity as Siam's foreign minister, signing the Declaration on Amity and Commerce on September 26, 1887.

It took another nine years for the Japanese to dispatch their envoy Inagaki Manjiro to Bangkok and for Air Marshal Phraya Ritthirong-ronachet to assume his position as Siamese minister to Japan.

And even then, the first treaty the two countries signed in 1898, which covered trade and shipping, was weighted heavily in favour of Japan, according to historian Charnvit Kasetsiri of the Social Sciences and Humanities Textbooks Foundation.

It followed the same broad lines as the Bowring Treaty, which Siam had signed with Great Britain in 1855, and gave Japan extraterritorial rights under which foreigners would not be subject to the Thai courts.

Japan at that time classified itself on the same level as the western powers trading in Siam, Charnvit explains. Siam, he adds, was regarded as a second-rank country by the Pacific nation.

According to Japanese scholar Yeneo Ishii, Thais felt uneasy about dealing with the Japanese in Siam even before the treaty was signed because these expatriates were under the protection of French Consulate, which also had extraterritorial rights.

In his book "600 Years of Thai-Japanese Relations", the Thai translation of which has been published by the Textbooks Foundation, Yeono quotes from a Japanese Foreign Ministry document: "Most Japanese [who came to Siam at the time] were poor or fortune seekers."

According to Japanese trader Agawa Taro, who arrived in Siam in 1894, 51 Japanese were living in Bangkok in 1897. Among the 27 Japanese women, two were wives of brothel owners, 15 were prostitutes, four were the wives of foreigners and the other five, the spouses of "ordinary" men.

Diplomat Yamaguchi Takeshi, assigned to the Japanese Consulate in Bangkok late in the reign of King Rama V, wrote in his book "Siam" that there were 307 Japanese in Siam at the end of 1919.

These nationals held a variety of jobs both in Bangkok and upcountry. Among them was Miyakawa Iwaji, who launched the Thai-language daily Yamato Newspaper in 1921 during the reign of King Vajiravudh (Rama VI). The paper had a high circulation but a short life, being shut down in 1924 for its strong criticisms of the Thai bureaucratic system.

The unequal trade treaty was cancelled in 1924, although Charnvit is quick to point out that it never affected the friendship between the monarchs of the two countries, which continued to blossom.

In December 1902, HRH Crown Prince Vajiravudh (later King Rama VI) visited Japan on his way back to Siam after spending nine years studying in England. The Crown Prince spent more than a month in Japan and was seen to be enjoying the culture.

A photograph showing a mysterious woman in his bedroom led to rumours in the Siam royal court of a love affair with a Japanese princess.

Phraya Padipatphubal, who was assigned by King Chulalongkorn to accompany the Crown Prince in Japan, apparently reported that Japan's palace affairs minister had told him the emperor would like the Crown Prince to marry one of his three daughters.

The three princesses were scheduled to visit a royal park and the emperor invited the Siamese prince to choose one to be his wife.

Phraya Padipat-phubal also wrote that the Crown Prince had refused to see the Japanese princesses, adding that the Prince was afraid that if he were to marry a princess and a family conflict were to later arise, her father would send warships to attack Siam.

Charnvit is not convinced by this story, explaining that the Japanese emperor would not have wanted his daughter to marry the prince.

"At the time, the Japanese regarded Siam as a second-class country," he insists.

It later transpired that the mystery woman in the photograph was the Crown Prince himself clad in a kimono, the traditional costume worn by Japanese women of the day.

Other monarchs of Siam also pictured attired in Japanese traditional costume were King Prajadhipok and his queen Rambhai Barni during their royal visit in April 1931.

Also in 1902, Prince Vajiravudh's mother, Queen Sripacharintra Baromraj-ininart, arranged for eight Thai students to study in Japan. Two years later, Japan's education minister sent three female Japanese teachers to the Queen's School in Siam. One of them, Yausui Tetsu, became the school's first headmistress and went on to found the Women's University of Tokyo.

Tetsu kept a diary of her experiences. "During the three years I lived in Thailand, I observed many things, including the noblemen's way of life. They have many wives, and that affects their children. I also witnessed the education and development of the nation as well as its relations with foreign powers. This was all interesting information to be pondered over. At the same time, my experiences with students made me feel that friendship had no borders."

Nevertheless, Yasui and other Japanese living in Siam were sufficiently concerned about the integration of Japanese children born in Siam to establish a primary school especially for them. The facility, which opened in 1926, was initially under Japan's education ministry and in 1974 changed its name to the Thai-Japanese Association School.

The Japanese Association in Siam was set up in 1913 to handle trade relations and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Siam was founded in 1933.

Subhatra Bhumiprabhas

The Nation