Nelson Trusler Johnson (April 3, 1887 – December 3, 1954) was an American diplomat who served as the US Minister to China from 1929 to mid-September 1935. Then, until 1941, he was US Ambassador to the Republic of China and then to Australia from 1941 to 1945. Early life and career Johnson was born in the family row house located at 1st and East Capitol Streets (now a part of the location of the United States Supreme Court) in Washington, DC. He spent part of his early life in Newkirk, Oklahoma and then Kildare, Oklahoma. He then returned to Washington, DC, and graduated from Sidwell Friends School, near 8th Street and I Street NW, in 1906. He then went to George Washington University and pledged to the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. Near the end of his freshman year, he decided to take the Foreign Service Examination, claiming his residency as Oklahoma. During the summer of 1907 while working at the Library of Congress he prepared for the general exam and studied German to meet the language requirements. Shortly thereafter, at the age of twenty he received an appointment to the Foreign Service and departed for China. He spent his entire adult life in the service of his government. Johnson specialized in China and the rest of the Far East, He spent his first two years as a student interpreter during which time he engaged in an unorthodox language program in Peking where he learned to speak Chinese well. Beginning in 1909 at Mukden, he served in numerous posts as a consular officer. In 1925 he was appointed Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, next as Assistant Secretary of State (1927- end of 1929), then as Minister to China (the end of 1929 - Mid-September 1935), and Ambassador to China Mid-September 1935 - May 1941). Wishing to be united with his family he accepted a lesser post as minister to Australia during World War II (1941-1945). Influence on Far Eastern policy Johnson first became intimately involved in shaping American policy toward China in 1925 when he assumed the office of Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs in the State Department. In 1929 he came to China as the U.S. Minister to China. His title was Minister, rather than Ambassador, because the U.S. Legation in China had not been raised to the status of an embassy. When in