A12 The SpokeSman • TueSday, november 22, 2022
OFFBEAT OREGON
The opium smuggler’s foster son
Editor’s note: This is the first in
a multi-part series about Yosuke
“Frank” Matsuoka.
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
I
t may be true that the
movement of a butterfly’s
wings on one side of the
world can seed a tornado on
the other.
But whether that’s literally
true or not, it certainly is figura-
tively true. And nowhere is it bet-
ter demonstrated than in the case
of 1890s businessman and opium
smuggler William Dunbar of
Portland.
If we could take Dunbar out of
the stream of history before about
1890, we would derail events that
led directly to Imperial Japan’s
alliance with Nazi Germany in
1940; to Japan’s attack on Pearl
Harbor the following year; to
the nuclear bombings of Hiro-
shima and Nagasaki in 1945; and
(maybe) to the fact that the world
did not end in a multi-gigaton
thermonuclear fireball in late Oc-
tober 1962.
All this because, decades ear-
lier, an incompetent but politi-
cally well-connected drug smug-
gler in tiny, faraway Portland had
taken a young Japanese boy into
his household as a companion for
his 14-year-old son.
That little boy’s name was
Yosuke “Frank” Matsuoka, and
he would grow up to be foreign
minister of Imperial Japan and
the chief architect of the Tripar-
tite Pact with Germany and Italy.
Yosuke Matsuoka was born in
1880 in the village of Morozumi
in Yamaguchi Prefecture. He was
a son of a local shipping com-
pany owner. When he was very
young, his father’s business col-
lapsed into bankruptcy after one
of his ships sank, and his father
died a broken man within a few
years. Matsuoka spent most of his
preteen years with his widowed
mother in proud poverty.
In 1891, Matsuoka’s mother
reluctantly agreed to let him ven-
ture overseas to do what he could
to restore the family’s fortunes. So
on Feb. 23, 1893, following some
crash course English instruction,
Matsuoka boarded the steamship
Tacoma in Kobe, bound for Vic-
toria, British Columbia.
And about a month after he
arrived, Matsuoka joined the
Dunbar household.
William Dunbar was a wealthy
widower, owner of Dunbar Pro-
duce and Grocery and Turner
Flouring Mills, and co-owner of
the Merchants Steamship Com-
pany. He had, by the way, been
the first wheat merchant to open
the trade in Oregon-grown soft
white winter wheat with noodle
manufacturers in China.
He was also a drug smuggler.
Under the cover of his politi-
cal connections with the Port of
Portland’s chief customs inspec-
tor, James Lotan, he ran an indus-
trial-scale operation smuggling
opium and illegal immigrants
(mostly Chinese laborers) into
British Columbia and then into
Portland. He owned two full-size
steamships, the Wilmington and
the Haytian Republic, operating
out of the Dunbar Produce and
Grocery wharf just north of the
Burnside Bridge in Portland’s old
North End.
The steamships brought in
groceries and produce from Van-
couver for sale through Dunbar’s
wholesale grocery business. Of
course, they also carried ship-
ments of Turner Mills wheat to
customers in China. But after
those ships had unloaded their
cargo in Shanghai or Hong Kong,
it must have seemed a real shame
to just have them steam on back
home empty. So on the return
trips, Dunbar’s steamers took on
passengers. Lots of passengers,
most of them Chinese workers
who each paid $125 to be smug-
gled into the United State.
And, of course, the ships also
brought back opium by the ton.
At one point they were supply-
ing the entire West Coast with
the stuff.
The Wilmington and the Hay-
tian Republic kept this trade up
for several years, starting in 1890
or so. By 1893, when Matsuoka
came on the scene, their oper-
ations were an open secret on
the waterfront. Everyone pretty
German Federal archive
Yosuke Matsuoka turns on the charm with Nazi officials Hans Lammers,
Wilhelm Keitel, and Georg von Stahmer at the Japanese embassy in Ber-
lin on March 28, 1941. This was one of several trips Matsuoka made to
Berlin as foreign minister to meet with Hitler and other Nazis.
uo Libraries
Courtesy uo Libraries
A newspaper drawing from the Portland Morning Oregonian published
during the December 1893 trial of William Dunbar and his associates on
opium smuggling charges. Coblenz was one of the customs inspectors
working under James Lotan.
Sources
agony of Choice: matsuoka
yosuke and the rise and
Fall of the Japanese empire,
1880-1946, a book by david
J. Lu published in 2002 by
Lexington books; “yosuke
matsuoka: The Far-Western
roots of a World-political
vision,” an article by masa-
haru ano published in the
Summer 1997 issue of or-
egon historical Quarterly;
“americans rate Canada,
britain, France, Japan most
Favorably,” an article by me-
gan brenan published on
news.gallup.com on march
14, 2022
Image: TIme
Yosuke Matsuoka was on the
cover of Time Magazine for the
July 7, 1941, issue.
much knew what they were do-
ing. They had started unloading
the passengers at sea onto small
boats, and rolling the barrels full
of opium overboard in a secluded
stretch of the river before coming
into port, to avoid being caught
by the immigration and customs
inspectors, who were among
their first visitors when they ar-
rived.
This, then, was the “family
business” that Matsuoka joined
as a 12-year-old boy.
A gregarious and outgoing lad
with a rapidly increasing fluency
in English, he must have gotten
to know many of Old Man Dun-
bar’s sketchy business associates,
including notorious shanghaier
Joseph “Bunco” Kelley and flam-
boyant Merchants Steamship co-
owner Nat Blum. He also proba-
bly learned a great deal about the
opium trade. Opium, at the time,
was legal, but taxed very heavily.
It was an idyllic life for Mat-
suoka, but it couldn’t last. Dun-
bar’s smuggling operations were
too flagrant, and the underworld
characters he had working for
him were too unreliable. In De-
cember 1893, the boom came
down.
Fifteen people were arrested
on smuggling and human-traf-
ficking charges, including Dun-
bar and chief Port of Portland
customs inspector James Lotan.
Lotan, in addition to being cus-
toms inspector, was a very prom-
inent member of Portland’s busi-
ness elite and was the president of
the Oregon Republican Party. His
presence in the trial guaranteed a
lot of media coverage.
In 1898, Matsuoka enrolled in
the University of Oregon, pursu-
ing an undergraduate degree in
law. After graduation, he spent
some time trying to get admitted
to an Ivy League graduate law
school back east. If he’d been left
to his own devices, he probably
would have succeeded. But back
in Japan his mother’s health was
declining fast. So in 1902, he de-
cided it was time to return to his
native land.
We’ll talk about Matsuoka’s
early career in Japan in the next
of this three-part series.
█
Finn J.D. John teaches at Oregon State
University and writes about odd tidbits
of Oregon history. His book, Heroes and
Rascals of Old Oregon, was recently
published by Ouragan House Publishers.
To contact him or suggest a topic: finn@
offbeatoregon.com or 541-357-2222.
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An illustration of a group of smugglers bringing opium and illegal Chinese immigrants into Oregon, from a
1889 issue of Portland-based magazine The West Shore.
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100 NOTICES
102 Public Notices
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF
THE STATE OF OREGON
FOR THE COUNTY OF
DESCHUTES
Probate Department
In the Matter of the Estate of
THOMAS S. PARKS,
Deceased
Case No. 21PB10813
NOTICE TO INTERESTED
PERSONS
Notice is hereby given that
Melissa Ward has been ap-
pointed as the personal represen-
tative of said estate. All persons
having claims against the estate
are required to present them to
the undersigned attorney for the
personal representative at 530
Center St NE, Suite 730, Salem,
OR 97301, within four months
f
h d
f fi
bli i
f
102 Public Notices
after the date of first publication of
this notice, or the claims may be
barred.
All persons whose rights may be
affected by the proceedings may
obtain information from the
records of the Court, the personal
representative, or the attorney for
the personal representative.
Dated and first published on
November 12, 2022.
Melissa Ward
Personal Representative
ATTORNEY FOR PERSONAL
REPRESENTATIVE
Maria Schmidlkofer, OSB No.
075169
Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt
530 Center St NE, Suite 730
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Telephone 503-540-4265
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