{{Short description|British-American journalist (1893–1957)}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Compton Packenham |office = Founding member of American Council on Japan |term_start = |term_end = |predecessor = |successor = |birth_date = 11 May 1893 |birth_place = Kobe, Japan |death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|17 August 1957|11 May 1893}} |death_place = |party = }} '''Thomas Compton Packenham''', {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|MC}} (11 May 1893 – 17 August 1957) was a British-American journalist. He served as a British Army officer in the First World War, and worked at the American Council on Japan.
==Early life== Packenham was born 11 May 1893 in Kobe, Japan.<ref name="Person Page">{{Cite web|url=http://www.thepeerage.com/p46196.htm#i461956|title = Person Page}}</ref> His father was British and managed a shipyard. He spoke fluent Japanese.<ref name="tbv">{{cite book|last1=Schonberger|first1=Howard B.|title=Aftermath of War: Americans and the Remaking of Japan, 1945-1952|publisher=Kent State University Press|isbn=9780873383820|pages=136|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0O7nID3qgaEC&q=Compton+Packenham&pg=PA136|accessdate=30 January 2017|language=en|year=1989}}</ref> He had spent his early childhood in Japan.<ref name="rff">{{cite book|last1=Schaller|first1=Michael|title=Altered States: The United States and Japan Since the Occupation|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195069167|pages=30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p3TmCwAAQBAJ&q=Compton+Packenham&pg=PA30|accessdate=30 January 2017|language=en|year=1997}}</ref> He served in the Coldstream Guards as a lieutenant colonel, was awarded the Military Cross (MC) and mentioned in despatches.<ref name="Person Page"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Finn|first1=Richard B.|title=Winners in Peace: MacArthur, Yoshida, and Postwar Japan|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520069091|pages=256|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TZHK6GU_LmgC&q=Compton+Packenham&pg=PA256|accessdate=30 January 2017|language=en|year=1992}}</ref>
==Career== Packenham worked in the New York Times in the 1920s.<ref name="tbv" /> He was the author of The Rearguard (1930.) <ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/Rearguard-Thomas-Compton-Pakenham/dp/B00086PC72|title = Rearguard|date = January 1930| publisher=A.A. Knopf }}</ref> He was the Tokyo Correspondent of Newsweek after World War II.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schaller|first1=Michael|title=The American Occupation of Japan: The Origins of the Cold War in Asia|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199878840|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zgElh08a9IYC&q=Compton+Packenham&pg=PT162|accessdate=30 January 2017|language=en|date=1987-10-22}}</ref> In 1946 he was appointed the bureau chief of Newsweek in Japan.<ref name="tbv" /> He was part of the American Council on Japan.<ref name="rff" /> He helped found the council in late June 1948 in Harvard Club in New York City.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Takemae|first1=Eiji|title=Allied Occupation of Japan|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9780826415219|pages=459|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ba5hXsfeyhMC&q=Compton+Packenham&pg=PA459|accessdate=30 January 2017|language=en|year=2003}}</ref> Upon the recommendation the Emperor of Japan, Packenham helped John Foster Dulles meet Japanese politicians and businessmen.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Stueck|first1=William|title=The Korean War in World History|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0813136950|pages=162|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JsY0zzmdVEoC&q=Compton+Packenham&pg=PA162|language=en|date=2010-09-29}}</ref> In 1947 he engaged in bitter criticism of Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kataoka|first1=Tetsuya|title=The Price of a Constitution: The Origin of Japan's Postwar Politics|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780844817149|pages=71|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iuUynl48h4EC&q=Compton+Packenham&pg=PA71|accessdate=30 January 2017|language=en|year=1991}}</ref>
He along with others of the American Council on Japan taught Nobusuke Kishi English and helped him improve his image. They helped him become Prime Minister of Japan.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Seagrave|first1=Sterling|last2=Seagrave|first2=Peggy|title=Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold|publisher=Verso|isbn=9781859845424|pages=122|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n3c_gKdOXAcC&q=Compton+Packenham&pg=PA122|accessdate=30 January 2017|language=en|year=2003}}</ref> In Japan during the post-World War II occupation period, he helped Japanese government officials communicate with senior US politicians and officials. The Japanese government was able to circumvent MacArthur's communication blockade.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Davis|first1=Glenn|last2=Roberts|first2=John G.|title=An Occupation without Troops: Wall Street's Half-Century Domination of Japanese Politics|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|isbn=9781462903702|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gfvPAgAAQBAJ&q=Compton+Packenham&pg=PT35|accessdate=30 January 2017|language=en|date=2012-07-09}}</ref> Compton Packenham died 17 August 1957.<ref name="Person Page"/>
==Personal life== In 1915, Packenham married Phyllis Price. Their daughter, Simona, was born in 1916; she never met her father. They soon separated as "he had taken no time at all to reveal himself as a most unsatisfactory choice".<ref name="Passion">{{cite book |last1=O'Connor |first1=Sean |title=The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury |date=2019 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=London}}</ref>
In January 1918, Packenham was on leave from the Army in London, and he met and began a relationship with Alma Dolling, a war widow. In October 1918, Packenham wrote a letter to his first wife informing her their marriage was over.<ref name="Passion" /> Alma was cited in the Packenham's divorce in 1920, and she married him in 1921.<ref name="Alma ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|first=Elizabeth |last=Murray|title=Rattenbury [née Wolfe], Alma Victoria (1897/8–1935)|id=58841}}</ref> However, once again, his marriage failed and Alma left him to return to her native Canada: their marriage formally ended in divorce in 1925.<ref name="Alma ODNB" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Packenham, Compton}} Category:Coldstream Guards officers Category:1893 births Category:1957 deaths Category:British writers Category:British expatriates in Japan Category:British emigrants to the United States Category:20th-century American male journalists