United States Ambassador to Japan
Upon graduation, he entered the United States Foreign Service, and served from 1932 to 1936 as private secretary to Joseph Grew, United States Ambassador to Japan. In 1934, he was on a train in the far north of China in which he survived a shootout between guards and bandits. He left Japan in 1936, upon being promoted to vice consul, holding that position first in Cuba, then in Manchuria, then in Canada. Parsons spent 1943-47 at the United States Department of State in Washington, D.C. as part of the British Commonwealth Affairs Section.