The name
of Diana Apcar is mostly known in her role as diplomatic representative of the
first Republic of Armenia in Japan. However, it is noteworthy that she was
probably the first woman to have been appointed to any diplomatic post ever.
Diana
Agabeg (Aghabegian) was born on October 12, 1859 in Rangoon, Burma (today
Yangon, Myanmar), which was then a British colony. The roots of her paternal
family were in the Armenian community of New Julfa, then a suburb of Ispahan,
in Persia (Iran). Her mother came from the Avetum family in Shiraz (Persia).
Diana
(she spelled her name Դիանա, according to Eastern Armenian
pronunciation) was the youngest of seven children in the family, and was raised
in Calcutta (today Kolkata), where she attended a local convent school. She
became fluent in English, Armenian, and Hindi, and she would later learn
Japanese and Chinese. In 1890 she married Apcar Michael Apcar, who also came
from a well-known family from New Julfa, with a successful network of
commercial activities all around Southeast Asia. The newlywed couple married in
Hong-Kong and moved to Japan in 1891 to expand the family business. They
settled in Kobe, where Michael worked in the silk trade and the import-export
business from and to India. He founded a corporation and opened the Great
Eastern Hotel. They eventually had five children, of which only three survived:
Rose (1891), Michael Jr. (1892), and Ruth (1896).
After the sudden death of her
husband in 1906, Diana Apcar continued the family business until her son reached
adult age. They moved to Yokohama, one of the busiest ports of Japan, situated
at 30 kilometers from Tokyo. She opened a great store, which did business in
China, the United States, and Europe.
By then, Apcar had already
published two books, Susan (1892) and
Home Stories of the War (1905); the
latter was about the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905. After her son took over
the family business in 1910, she had more time to focus on her literary and
then humanitarian and diplomatic career. The Armenian plight in the Ottoman
Empire became her central topic. She also wrote many articles on international
relations and the impact of imperialism on world affairs and global peace. She
started contributing to many Japanese journals and newspapers, such as The Japan Advertiser, The Far East, The Japan Gazette, and also the U.S.-based Armenia (later to be known as New
Armenia). Between 1910 and 1918 she published seven more books, some of
them about Armenia and Armenians: The
Truth about the Armenian Massacres, Betrayed
Armenia, In His Name... (1911), The Peace Problem (1912), Peace and No Peace (1912), The Great Evil (1914), and On the Cross of Europe’s Imperialism:
Armenia Crucified (1918). She also wrote for European newspapers on Far
Eastern affairs.
During World War I and in the postwar era, Diana Apcar was particularly involved with the resettlement of Armenian refugees, either former war prisoners or genocide survivors, who braved the long and perilous journey across Siberia and were transited through Japan. Although considered stateless for diplomatic purposes, her efforts through contacts with the Japanese authorities made them possible to obtain the necessary documents to continue their journey, mostly to the United States.
Her indefatigable work continued
after the independence of Armenia. Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign
Affairs Hamo Ohanjanian acknowledged that “nobody has worked in the Far East
like you to defend the interests of our newly born homeland and to ease the
difficult situation of our compatriots” in his letter of July 22, 1920, which
designated Diana Apcar with the rank of Honorary Consul to the Empire of Japan.
With her designation, Japan recognized de facto the independence of Armenia.
Her position was, indeed, terminated, after Armenia became a Soviet republic.
Interestingly, a Soviet revolutionary, Alexandra Kollontai, would become the
next woman to hold a position, after her designation as ambassador of the
Soviet Union to Norway in 1923.
Nevertheless, Apcar did not stop
working for Armenian causes and writing. Catholicos of All Armenians Gevorg V
(1911-1930) recognized her dedication with an encyclical in 1926.
Diana Apcar passed away at the age
of seventy-seven, on July 8, 1937, in Yokohama. She was buried in the cemetery
for foreigners, beside her husband. The Tokyo-based Society of
Armenian-Japanese Friendship cares for her grave-site. Her daughters had moved
to the United States in the 1920s, and her son did the same in 1945. Lucille
Apcar, Diana Apcar’s granddaughter, published her unpublished book of short
stories, From the Book of One Thousand
Tales: Stories of Armenia and Its People, in 2004, based on accounts from Armenian refugees in Japan.
