INTRODUCTION

MICHAEL WILFORD was British Ambassador to Japan from 1975 to 1980. He was, at least to date, the last diplomatic generalist to serve in this post. Some of his predecessors as ambassador, most notably Sir John Pilcher from 1968 to 1972, had served in the Japanese consular service and had acquired deep knowledge of the Japanese language and culture. But there was no consistent policy of appointing Japanese or Asian specialists as ambassadors at Tokyo until the late 1970s, by which time the post-war Foreign Office had trained a sizeable cadre of Japanese linguists from whom suitable candidates could be found. Since 1980, with one exception (Sir John Boyd, a distinguished Sinologist with extensive service in Beijing and Hong Kong, who was ambassador from 1992 to 1996), all British ambassadors have been Japanese speakers and have been appointed after at least one, and in most cases two or more, previous postings in Tokyo.

CAREER

Michael Wilford was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1922. As a child, he lived with his parents in Shanghai, and then after their separation with his maternal grandmother in Dublin. His paternal grandfather served as New Zealand high commissioner in London from 1929 to 1933. He was educated at the Wrekin College, and then at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read mechanical sciences, and played golf and cricket for the university.

During the war, he served with the Royal Engineers. As a captain in the 82nd Assault Squadron, part of the Guards’ 79th Armoured Division, he took part in the D-Day landings on Gold Beach, and was wounded in the early hours of 6 June, when the bridge of his landing craft took a direct hit from a mortar bomb. Having recovered from his wounds, he returned to active service two months later, but was wounded for a second time, more seriously and again at the outset of the action, during the Allied landings on the heavily mined beach of the Dutch island of Walcheren on 1 November. This time, his recovery took longer. He was mentioned in dispatches for his actions in this engagement. Regarded as unfit for further military service after the war, he considered an industrial career with Cadbury’s or ICI, but eventually joined the Foreign Office in 1947.