Hiroshi Saitō was the son (as described by historian
Walter A. McDougall) of a humble school teacher in a provincial Japanese town in 1886. His father taught English, which Saito learned. Saito, because of his proficiency in English, became a translator in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan), and met Foreign Minister
Komura Jutaro, who promoted his career. (Komura was once attached to the Translation Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.) He attended
Peers College and
Tokyo University and then officially joined the foreign service, serving as a junior attaché in Washington and London. He was also an observer of the
Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920). Saito also served as the Japanese Consul General in New York from 1923 to 1929. At age 32 he returned to Japan from the U.S. to marry Miyoko Nagayo, daughter of
Baron Sensai Nagayo, a diplomat in the
Iwakura Mission. They had two daughters, Sakiko Saitō born in 1927 and Makako Saitō, born in 1930. == References ==