Charles Wolcott Brooks

• Born: 1833
• Died: 1885

Charles Wolcott Brooks was Japan’s consul general and commercial agent in the United States from 1858 until 1873.

In that position, he coordinated various commercial arrangements for the Japanese government, as well as for the itineraries of the Embassy of 1860, and the Iwakura Mission of 1871-1873. He concurrently owned and operated a trading company based in San Francisco, conducting dealings with China, Japan, and the Kingdom of Hawaii. Brooks wrote a volume on Japanese castaways entitled Japanese Wrecks Stranded and Picked Up Adrift in the North Pacific Ocean, published in 1876.

References

• John Van Sant, et al, ”Brooks, Charles Wolcott,” Historical Dictionary of United States – Japan Relations, The Scarecrow Press (2007), 56.