Background
Takashi Komatsu was born in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan in 1886.
小松 隆
Takashi Komatsu was born in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan in 1886.
Takashi Komatsu entered Monmouth College, where he became a champion debater. Graduating from the college in 1910, he studied international law at Harvard (1912).
After graduating from Harvard University was appointed secretary to the President of Toyo K.K. (1913) and later was sent to San Francisco as their branch manager. Director of Asano Shipyard (1926). In between lie attended the Washington Conference as a secretary to Tomosaburo Kato, the Ambassador Plenipotentiary. Attended Naval Disarmament Conference in Geneva as a member of the suite of chief delegate Makoto Saito (1927). Later was vice-president of Japan Steel Tube Company.
In 1940, with relations between Japan and the United States rapidly deteriorating, Komatsu again visited the United States as a special commissioner representing Japanese exhibitors at the New York World’s Fair. Invited by Monmouth College president James Harper Grier to address the alumni banquet at that summer’s commencement, he expressed hope that Japan and the U.S. could reconcile their differences. The United States, he said, had played a significant role in bringing Japan into the world picture and for this reason should look with kindness upon Japan. The following day, Komatsu was presented with an honorary degree by his alma mater, as was the commencement speaker, Charles Sprague, who had been Komatsu’s classmate and was then governor of Washington State. They spent that night at the home of President Grier discussing the worsening conditions between the two countries.
After the war served on the committee fornied for the demobilization of Japan, and was president of Japan-America Society.