Quick Facts
Biography
See also the Scottish judge of the same name.
Sir Robert Leslie Craigie, GCMG, CB, PC (1883–1959) was the British ambassador in Japan from 1937 through 1941.
Career as Ambassador
In July 1939 took part in negotiations with Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Hachiro Arita, leading to the acceptance of the Craigie–Arita formula, by which the British government agreed not to resist Japanese actions in China, while not recognizing their legality. In July 1940, following the arrest of several British nationals in Japan, suggested to the British government to arrest some Japanese nationals in British territory, against whom a case could be made in court as a move to prove Japanese subversive intentions against the UK. On the morning of 8 December 1941, he received from Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Shigenori Togo an official document, stating that negotiations with the US government had failed, but without mentioning any war between the Japanese and the British governments. On 30 July 1942, left Japan on board the Tatsuta Maru, returning to Britain via Lourenço Marques in East Africa (today Maputo, Mozambique).
After returning to Britain in 1942, claimed that a more conciliatory policy towards the Japanese government would have postponed the outbreak of war in the Far East, and would have allowed the British government more time to prepare for such a war.
In 1945 served briefly as the chairman of the United Nations War Crimes Commission.
Selected works
In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Robert Craigie, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 8 works in 10+ publications in 1 language and 200+ library holdings.
- Behind the Japanese mask (1945)
- Ten years in Japan: a contemporary record drawn from the diaries and private and official papers of Joseph C. Grew, United States ambassador to Japan, 1932-1942 by Joseph Grew; foreword by Robert Craigie (1945)