He was U.S. Ambassador to Japan for five months during 1930 to negotiate the changes in warship limits that Japan requested from the five-power London Naval Conference . He was named to this position on December 11 , 1929 , in large part because he had a private income sufficient to defray the costs of an ambassadorship while the State Department salaries and funds provided for entertainment were so low . Tokyo , with the highest cost of living of any post , had been vacant since Charles MacVeagh ( 1860 – 1931 ) resigned on December 6 , 1928 . Castle 's appointment to Japan was only for the duration of the conference . The press called him a " pinch hitter " . He presented credentials on January 24 , 1930 , and left on May 27 , 1930 , but in that short time had developed a sympathetic view of Japan 's foreign policy . The day before departing he laid the cornerstone of a new American Embassy in Tokyo to replace the structure destroyed in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake . Japanese dignitaries attending the ceremonies included Prince Tokugawa Iesato ( President of the America-Japan Society ) , Kijūrō Shidehara ( Japanese Foreign Minister ) , and industrialist Shibusawa Eiichi
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
William Richards Castle Jr.