allison first visited japan in 1927, following his graduation from the university of nebraska. he worked for two years as an english teacher in odawara and atsugi before joining the state department in 1930. he studied japanese in tokyo and then worked in the foreign service in japan and china, serving as consul in dalian (1935–36), jinan (1936–37), nanjing (1937–38), shanghai (1938), and osaka (1939–41).