by Charles B. Doleac, Esq.

 
“Diplomats love Portsmouth because in Portsmouth diplomacy actually worked,” said Ambassador Kato at the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Centennial dinner in Portsmouth, New Hampshire last September 5th.

It's an idea that resonates in Japan's magnanimity in victory, and in the valor displayed in 1905 by Japanese plenipotentiary Jutaro Komura and his Russian counterpart Sergius Witte in negotiating a treaty that honored both sides and prevented further bloodshed in the Russo-Japanese War (called “World War Zero” now because of its geopolitical implications).  

It's an idea reflected in President Theodore Roosevelt's bold decision to trust the United States Navy and New Hampshire to host the delicate negotiations, and in the Nobel Peace Prize he received for bringing both sides together on neutral US ground and employing back-channel diplomacy when negotiations stumbled.  

It's an idea rooted in the formal protocol observed by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and the efforts made by the Governor and citizens of New Hampshire as the official hosts for the negotiations.  

And it's a concept many of local people who took part in the Centennial in Portsmouth in 2005 honored by immersing themselves in a moment in their hometown history when ordinary citizens made a difference in world affairs by creating the atmosphere that supported the formal diplomacy. 

Ultimately, the meaning lies in understanding the interplay of human dynamics operating in Portsmouth in 1905: formal, informal and back-channel diplomacy, plus the supportive web of social, fraternal, religious, political and economic forces -- “community diplomacy” -- that local people spun in 1905 and again in the 2005 celebrations.  

The Portsmouth Peace Treaty symbol, created by Richard Haynes, captures that interplay. It unites the Russian and Japanese flags, the steeple from Portsmouth's North Church and its grey bell that relayed the Navy's Treaty-signing salute throughout the surrounding community, behind the dove of peace. That dove is the color of Roosevelt's “battleship-grey” Navy and instead of ”the big stick” many associate with Roosevelt, it carries his olive branch of peace, instead.  

The Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership supported the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Anniversary Committee's commemorations (through the Japan-America Society of New Hampshire), enabling the creation of the PortsmouthPeaceTreaty.com website, “An Uncommon Commitment to Peace” exhibit and the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Trail. The US Library of Congress and others have deemed the website the authoritative resource on the subject because the Committee told the story as it has never been told before. Based on extensive original research, the website and exhibit reveal for the first time the interplay between the formal and informal diplomacy of the negotiations, Roosevelt’s back channel diplomacy and the role the local people played in supporting the peace process. The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Trail pinpoints the Treaty's iconic sites: the formal and informal negotiating rooms and local places where social interactions primed the negotiating process to ensure the delegates would achieve the Peace they sought.  

By delving into archives of photographs, diaries, recordings and local newspaper accounts, the Committee discovered that the blend of Roosevelt's statecraft and the local people's ardent efforts to foster the success of the process created an atmosphere that encouraged the delegates to persevere. The evidence shows that without Roosevelt's back channel diplomacy and the influence of the community on the diplomats who were also worried about world opinion (informed by the assembled throng of international press), the negotiations may have collapsed. Tracing the day-by-day timeline of formal, informal, back-channel and community diplomacy, the Committee found more than fifty occasions where local people marshaled social, religious, commercial and fraternal resources to host lawn parties, dinners, concerts, church services and other social outings to encourage the negotiators to stay at the table when negotiations appeared doomed.  

Today that process of blending formal, informal, back channel and community diplomacy to prime positive outcomes to international disputes is known as “multi-track diplomacy.” The process worked well in 1905.  

In 2005, local community groups brought the events and lessons of 1905 back to life. Dozens of organizations and hundreds of their volunteers celebrated the theme of a peace treaty reached with ordinary citizens providing a crucial, neutral, supporting atmosphere, not for one or the other of the protagonists, but for peace.  

The Centennial was more than a hometown celebration of an important historical event. The idea that ordinary people could influence world events by fostering a positive environment for peace captured people's imaginations and played out in imaginative ways. As the grassroots efforts brought more varied interests into the planning, the central idea generated investigations along multiple parallel tracks: What social and religious events supported the diplomats' search for compromise? What music was played?  How did the Jewish émigré shopkeepers greet the Russian delegates? What did the ladies do? Ideas led to local newspaper files, private collections and individual memoirs -- an effort praised by the Librarian of Congress for demonstrating the invaluable role local people play in finding and preserving the elusive records of the past.  

Contemporary counterparts took their own paths: creating artworks for “The Art of Peace” exhibit co-chaired by Yoko Ono; crafting African tribal symbols into colorful messages of peace and reconciliation for the Seacoast African-American Cultural Center; presenting concert programs dedicated to the theme of “peace for modern times.” School children folded paper peace cranes (displayed at the Children's Museum of Portsmouth) and adapted the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Curriculum Guide (which also received Center for Global Partnership support) to their classrooms.  

In all, the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Committee's community groups produced 45 events, including six exhibits, several lecture series, an international scholarly symposium at Dartmouth College and another at the Green Acre Baha'i School, a 15-week concert series, three original plays, three original musical compositions, fifteen art works, two formal dinners (both hosted by the New Hampshire Governor), a Mayor's Centennial tea, two re-enactments at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, a formal port visit by the Navy's USS Ross and a National Guard parade that drew thousands of people into the streets, replicating the Guard's 1905 parade that welcomed the two delegations.  

On the 100th anniversary of the Treaty signing, the Shipyard welcomed Ambassador Ryozo Kato as their special guest in commemorative ceremonies. Both Ambassador Kato and Mitsuru Kitano, Minister of Public Affairs, who took part in a Peace flag-raising ceremony at nearby Green Acre Baha'i School (where founder Sarah Farmer convened her first peace conference in 1894) emphasized the role Japan wishes to play in modern diplomacy. In 1905, a newspaper reporter who was both an observer to the informal negotiations and on-site informant to President Teddy Roosevelt wrote, ” Japan has certainly shown a magnanimity for which the world did not give her credit.” It is a message that some of those in Japan who celebrate the victories of 1904 and 1905 as Japan's “great war” don't reflect. But the message now resonates in Japan's foreign policy for peace.  

After planting a cherry tree on Shipyard grounds, Ambassador Kato spoke to a large gathering of guests, saying, “Let me send my voice back 100 years and thank President Theodore Roosevelt for his critical contribution to ending the war and sparing lives. And let my voice carry back to thank the citizens of turn-of-the-century Portsmouth who were so receptive and encouraging to the cause of peace...Today, Baron Komura is one of the most respected Japanese diplomats of all time. One hundred years after the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth, Japan stands ready with the United States once again to contribute to the peace and security of this new century.”  

The Japan-America Society of New Hampshire is preparing a book detailing the events and legacy of the Centennial and a campaign to raise funds for a memorial to the Treaty of Portsmouth. Currently, the “Uncommon Commitment to Peace” exhibit and Portsmouth Peace Treaty Trail remain as permanent symbols in Portsmouth of what happened. But the bigger idea of how local people interacted with the delegates to influence international events is still being explored. Community groups, schools and individuals continue to uncover new stories about the Treaty and its place in history. The website is an ongoing resource of Treaty information and welcomes contributions from anyone with new details to share (go to http://www.portsmouthpeacetreaty.org/contactUs.cfm).  

Many historians ask the traditional Western question of who won the Portsmouth Peace Treaty negotiations. One class of students using the Curriculum Guide hosted a member of the Committee for a classroom talk. When they asked him who won the war, he replied, ”Who do you think won?” The students offered some of the Russian and Japanese historical perspectives noting the disapproval and riots that greeted both Witte and Komura when they returned home. But then one student raised his hand and said, ”The world won the peace.”  

Those who reflect on what really happened in Portsmouth embrace the idea that in Portsmouth in 1905 an ”uncommon commitment to peace became a common virtue.” They understand the Treaty as a lesson demonstrating that those who are magnanimous, as Japan was, are the true winners in war; and that a foreign policy of peace, such as Japan has now, emphasizing the process of every kind of diplomacy -- formal, informal, back-channel and community -- is what works, as it did in Portsmouth. When everyone, including ordinary people, can support the peace process, the true winner is the world.

The world needs these lessons from the Portsmouth Treaty. Everyone can make a difference. Peace happens when an uncommon commitment to peace becomes a common virtue.