l/C \ \j « ° ' v : ^ Centennial Celebration “■->i ^3“ ie O f“ n ft' <» if C -J- #!>IU 1 & z &h fsj ^ -t" |s) *fc? ;.) O © m mm m fl A^l 1 .43 (1 Q m \ 1 1 M A iiEfm -Si 4.;^ Aim CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE r -< L L OPENING OF JAPAN u n u u f - ^ ?4 M' -flL THIS STAMP, ISSUED JULY 14, 1953, COMMEMORATES THE LAND- ING OF PERRY AT KURIHAMA. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Publication 5093 Far Eastern Series 59 Released July 1953 Division of Publications For sale by the Superintendent of Documents U. S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D. C. Price 20 cents On this memorable Centennial of Commodore Perry’s opening of Japan to commercial and cultural relations with the Western world , we look hopefully to the next century. Japan, in the century since Perry’s landing, by adopting modern techniques, has become one of the world’s great industrial and mercantile nations. At the same time it has preserved and enriched its cultural heritage. Our own relations with Japan augur well for the future. There have been a deepening of mutual understanding, a broadening of our appreciation of each other, and a strengthening of the ties of friendship between us. As the first hundred years of our relations comes to a close, we can look forward to continued cordial relations of mutual advantage. John Foster Dulles Washington, D. C. June 22, 1953 Members of Perry’s expedition at Nase in the Ryukyus en route to Japan, June 1853. ON A JULY DAY IN 1853, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry of the United States Navy arrived at Yedo, now Tokyo, Bay. He carried with him a letter from the President of the L T nited States to the Emperor of Japan. His was an extremely sensitive mission. He was sent to arouse Japan from what older Japanese historians have termed The Great Peace, but modern ones, The Long Sleep, to end more than two centuries of Japanese isolation. Several other Americans as well as representatives of various European nations had attempted to do as much and failed. Because he was the man he was and because the timing of his expedition was better than he knew, Perry suc- ceeded. In opening Japan to commercial and cultural relations with the Western world, Perry loosed economic, political, and social forces which were to have a momentous influence not only on Japan but on the Western world as well. Because modern Japan regards Perry as the man who opened the way for its remarkably swift development, it has for some years honored him annually with the Kurobune Sai, or Black Ship Festival. This year our country is joining Japan in a centenary celebration of Perry’s landing at Kurihama and the birth of American- Japanese relations. 1 Perry seen through the eyes of a contemporary Japanese artist. BEHIND THE BLACK SHIPS Bv the middle of the 19th century, the American democracy was a vigorous nation, growing rapidly and interested in commerce with all parts of the world. Young America was at once spiritual and material, innocent and knowing, generous and shrewd. Since the War of 1812, Americans had been crossing the Pacific to the ancient world of the Orient. And, except for Japan, wherever they had gone they had gained admission. The American frontier had pushed to the Western rim of the continent. California's gold and rapidly growing population called for increased commerce with the Orient. American whalers searching the Pacific needed a provisioning port in Japan. Mer- chant steamers plying the China trade needed a coaling station between Honolulu and Shanghai. Japan was the answer. A succession of Americans had attempted to trade with Japan. C. W. King, businessman in Canton, was first. In 1837 he organ- ized a good-will expedition which would return Japanese castaways to their native land. To emphasize the peaceful nature of his mission, he stripped his ship, the Morrison, of all guns and arma- ments. He managed to land two of his castaways at Nagasaki before shore batteries opened fire. The Morrison departed at full speed, escaping serious damage. In 1845 Captain Mercator Cooper of the Manhattan was al- lowed to land some Japanese castaways he had picked up in mid- ocean but was warned against returning. In the same year the Administration in Washington sent Commodore James Biddle to attempt negotiations with Japan. Biddle’s instructions cautioned him to do nothing that could antagonize the Japanese or make them distrust the United States. The Commodore followed in- structions, but his mission came to nothing. In 1849 Commander James Glynn was dispatched with the Preble to rescue 15 American seamen, reported by Dutch traders to be imprisoned in Japan. Glynn collected the prisoners, who had been confined for 17 months because Japanese authorities suspected all foreigners of being spies. 3 From that time on, Washington was bombarded with demands to send an expedition to Japan to get guaranties of humane treat- ment for American seamen and to establish the right of American ships to use Japanese ports. Whig President Millard Fillmore and Secretary of State Daniel Webster made the expedition a part of Whig policy. Commander Glynn, as an authority on Japan, made recommendations to the President, advising him that the man chosen to lead the expedition should have “maturity of experience and judgment, tact, patience, intelligent obstinacy, and naval rank/’ Daniel Webster said : “The success of this expedition depends solely upon whether it is in the hands of the right man.” Convinced that Perry was indeed “the right man,” Webster recommended that the Commodore be allowed to write the instructions for his own mission. Webster felt strongly that the commander of so important an expedition should not “be trammeled with superfluous or minute instructions.” “THE RIGHT MAN” Matthew Calbraith Perry was born to the sea. His father, Chris- topher Raymond Perry, had been the first of his line to leap the gap between Quaker meetinghouse and quarterdeck. His 5 sons fol- lowed him, and his 3 daughters married naval officers. Born in 1794, Matthew Calbraith was a midshipman at 15 and a lieutenant at 18. He was ambitious for his country, the Navy, and the Perry family. Where the Navy was concerned, he was a perfectionist, and even as a junior officer his brain churned with ideas for im- proving naval training, equipment, and health. An ardent sup- porter of steam power for the Navy, he got command of the pioneer naval steamship Fulton. He chased pirates in the West Indies, delivered the American envoy to the court of the Czar, put down an uprising of tribal chiefs on the west coast of Africa, and bombarded Veracruz in the Mexican 4 War of 1846. The last expedition had brought Perry to command of the largest task force that had ever flown the American colors. His command of the expedition to Japan came about by a fluke. Commodore John H. Aulick had set off on the mission in June 1851, but was recalled from Hong Kong to answer charges made against him by an enemy in the consular service. Out of Aulick's recall came Perry's appointment. Anticipating the plum of peacetime assignments, command of the Mediterranean squadron, Perry was not pleased to be asked to re- place Aulick, his junior. He informed the Secretary of the Navy in rather stiff language that he considered relief of Aulick “a retro- grade movement" unless “the sphere of action of the East India squadron and its force be so much enlarged as to . . . confer dis- tinction upon its commander.” He received a promise of 12 ships and time to equip them. Thus reassured, he began preparations by doing exhaustive research on Japan. Unhampered by the formalities and complex organization of a later day, the Commodore “acted as purchasing agent, personnel director, intelligence officer, and general manager of the Japan expedition.” He handpicked his senior officers. He turned down flat a swarm of applications from writers, scientists, artists, and adventurers who wanted to go along. Determined to have abso- lute authority during the voyage and to maintain a strict censorship on the movements of the squadron, Perry wanted no civilians under foot. His pride in the Navy led him to believe that any talent needed could be found within the Navy. However, before embark- ing, he weakened to the extent of commissioning two civilian artists and an agriculturist. At Hong Kong, he took on two civilian chroniclers: one, the poet and New York Tribune Correspondent Bayard Taylor; the other, Dr. Samuel Wells Williams, the great missionary scholar. In order to provide Japan with indisputable evidence of the value of friendship and commerce with America, Perry invited American manufacturers to contribute samples of their prowess. His cargo included a quarter-size locomotive with tender, car, and a half-mile of track; a telegraph set with 15 miles of wire; clocks, agricultural 5 The quarter-size locomotive Perry presented to Jap , implements, cotton cloth, books, a printing press, a set of Audubon prints, baskets of Irish potatoes, a lorgnette, a hundred gallons of whisky; and a thousand dollars’ worth of the latest in small arms. As Arthur Walworth observed in his Black Ships Off Japan, “It was as if Perry were assembling an American exhibit for a world’s fair in Japan.” Ships were less easily collected than exhibits. The steam frigate Susquehanna and the sailing sloops-of-war Saratoga and Plymouth awaited the Commodore at the East India Station, and in the spring of 1852 he sent ahead a coaling ship and a storeship. He had on hand only his flagship of the Mexican War, the Mississippi. Plans for assembling the rest of the promised dozen went awry. Delay followed delay. While waiting, Perry settled down to the important labor of writ- ing his instructions from the State Department to the Navy. This memorandum names three objectives: protection of shipwrecked American seamen and property; permission for American vessels to use one or more Japanese ports for supplies, fuel, and repair; and permission to trade at such ports. At Norfolk, his flagship's consort Princeton developed boiler trouble and could go no farther, and the other ships promised him failed to appear. His patience exhausted, Perry departed on No- vember 24, 1852, without consort and with the solitary Mississippi so overloaded that she drew 21 feet instead of the usual 18. BEHIND THE JAPANESE SCREEN The screen that the early Tokugawa Shogunate had drawn around the island empire provided one-way vision from inside for qualified individuals. Because the government wanted to keep in- formed of events in the outer world and needed some of its goods, the Shogunate had permitted both Dutch and Chinese to carry on a limited trade through the port of Nagasaki on the southernmost island of Kyushu. 7 Third among European nations to enter relations with Japan, the Dutch had concentrated on trade, leaving evangelism to the Portuguese and Spanish. By 1641 they had been reduced to one trading post on the 3-acre islet of Deshima in Nagasaki Bay. It was more compound than trading post, for the Japanese built a high wall around it and kept close guard. Once a year the Dutch officials made a duty call at the shogun's court in Yedo, where they paid tribute in the guise of gifts, submitted to close questioning, and often were asked to clown for the amusement of the Court. By the time of the Perry expedition, the Dutch had been limited to one trading vessel a year, but they clung to their monopoly of Western trade with Japan. From the Dutch, isolated on Deshima, came the idea accepted by the rest of the world at the time of Perry's expedition that Japan had two emperors, one spiritual and one secular. The misconcep- tion was understandable, considering the complexity of Japan's political organization and history and the isolation of the traders. Before the Europeans Came In the beginning Japan expressed the concepts of religion and government with the same word; the concepts were embodied in the person of the Emperor. Believed to be the lineal descendant of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, the Emperor was both high priest and high chief. Heads of the great families, or clans, which traced their descent from lesser deities of the Shinto pantheon, functioned in the dual role of priest-chief under the supreme authority of the Emperor. Buddhism, introduced in the sixth century A. D., effected cul- tural and political changes. It inspired great works of art, gave Japan a written language, and detracted from the authority of the Emperor. Members of the imperial family, including emperors and empresses, turned from court ceremonial to follow the Noble Eight-Fold Path to wisdom and peace. Abdications in favor of minor heirs became a commonplace, with administrative authority falling to regents chosen from the favored clan. 8 Japanese history recounts the rise and decline of the great fami- lies in a never-ending struggle for secular power. Soga rule gave way to Fujiwara, Fujiwara to Minamoto. The regencies were civilian. With the rise to power of the Minamoto, shoguns replaced regents. The title of shogun, bestowed by the Emperor, meant generalissimo, and a shogunate was a military dictatorship. But hereditary shogunates, like hereditary regencies, declined with the vitality of the family lines. Eventually there were shadow shoguns as well as shadow emperors, with actual power in the hands of energetic ministers. Toward the middle of the 16th century, the Ashikaga Shogunate was fading. It had no control over the daimyo, the feudal lords. On the sea, pirate retainers of the daimyo had cost Japan most of its once flourishing legitimate trade with the rest of Asia. On land, daimyo fought daimyo, each having his own army of military retainers or samurai. To add to the confusion, militant priests of the Tendai sect of Buddhism had converted their vast monasteries at Hiyeizan into a military fortress and gave armed support to the highest bidder. Commerce and Christianity This was the situation in 1 542, when the first Europeans reached Japan. These were Portuguese traders. They brought Japan its first firearms and its first Christian missionaries, Jesuits. To the daimyo, guns meant power, and trade conducted by the substan- tial and virtually pirate-proof Portuguese ships meant prosperity. The daimyo competed for the favor of the traders, and, because the traders venerated the Jesuit missionaries, the daimyo gave the Jesuits a free hand. About 1568, Oda Nobunaga, the man who was then rising to supreme power in Japan, decided to use the Christians as foils to the militant Buddhist monks. Under his patronage, the Jesuits made converts by the tens of thousands, with daimyo and samurai embracing the new faith in increasing numbers. The Portuguese prospered spiritually and materially in Japan un- 9 til 1593, when the Spanish arrived and set up competition. Such peace as Nobunaga and his successor Hideyoshi had won for the country was soon disturbed by the intense rivalry between the Portu- guese and the Spanish. After Hideyoshi’s death in 1598, Tokugawa lyeyasu, who had served as an able general in turn to Nobunaga and to Hideyoshi, took over the dictatorship. Foreign trade was essential to Iyeyasu’s plans, and, until he could build an efficient merchant marine, he needed foreign ships. He announced that he would not enforce the anti-Christian edicts of his predecessors, and he let it be known that he wanted to know more about foreign shipbuilding. The answer to his need reached Japan in 1 600 in the form of Will Adams, English prototype of the Connecticut Yankee and pilot of a wrecked Dutch vessel. Will Adams became Iyeyasu’s trusted adviser and master shipbuilder. In Iyeyasu’s time excellent ships of Japanese construction plied the seas, two accomplishing the long and hazard- ous round-trip voyage to Acapulco on the southwestern coast of Mexico. Establishment of the Tokugawa Shogimate In 1603 lyeyasu achieved the title of Sei-i-tai-Shogun (Bar- barian-expelling Supreme Generalissimo) and set about safeguard- ing both title and power for his descendants. Of the 237 daimyo who held nearly all Japan in fief, 115 were Tokugawa vassals, lyeyasu so distributed holdings that the lands of a Tokugawa vassal always stood between the holdings of any two daimyo of less reliable character. He inaugurated the policy of keeping the daimyo under constant surveillance, keeping them busy, and keeping them poor. Iyeyasu’s policy in regard to the Emperor was equally shrewd. As secretaries, the Shogun’s agents kept close watch over the Im- perial Court at Kyoto. The Emperor was accorded deference and ceremony and all orders were issued in his name, but he had no hand in formulating them. The new administrative capital at Yedo was discreetly remote from the Imperial Court. As for the foreigners, Dutch and English were in high repute 10 with Iyeyasu. Both hated the Spanish and were bitter against all Catholics. Iyeyasu listened to Protestant opinions of Catholicism. Will Adams warned him of Spanish imperialism. In 1614 Iyeyasu banned the Christian faith and ordered deportation of all members of Christian religious orders whether foreign or Japanese. Withdrawal From the World After Iyeyasu’s death in 1616, Hidetada, second Tokugawa Shogun, intensified the campaign against Christians and ordered many executions. Papers captured from a Spanish ship in 1623 revealed a plot against the Japanese Government. Expulsion of the Spanish traders followed. Later the papers proved to be forgeries. Iyemitsu, third Tokugawa Shogun, introduced new punishment for Christians and in 1636 ordered destruction of all Japanese vessels of sea-going capacity and prohibited construction of craft capable of leaving home waters. After the Shimabara incident, suspecting the Portuguese of com- plicity in the revolt, Iyemitsu deported all Portuguese together with their Japanese wives and mixed-blood children. At the same time he added the death penalty to his earlier prohibition against Japanese leaving the country. By this time, the English traders had left of their own accord. By 1641 except for the tiny trading post on Deshima, Japan had shut itself in and the world out. Forces of Unrest Secured against the world and against civil wars, people pre- viously denied opportunity and time pursued learning. Introduction of movable type from Korea in the late 16th century had made printing swift and cheap. Peasants learned to read. Samurai be- came scholars. A school of native literature and art arose to chal- lenge the traditional Chinese school. Followers of the native school looked back to mythological and legendary periods of Japanese history for inspiration. Certain daimyo chafing under Tokugawa 11 domination began to see in this backward look the starting point of a movement to restore the Emperor to power. At the other extreme, inquiring minds were reaching outward and forward for information and inspiration. The eighth shogun had made it possible for them to do so when he lifted the ban on foreign books that were free of Christian influence. A Japanese- Dutch grammar appeared, and Japanese students studied Dutch in order to understand the books that entered the country through Deshima. Japanese interpreters at Deshima turned pupil to any Dutch scientist assigned to the post. By the 19th century, the Japanese economy was going from bad to worse. The fabulous growth of the capital at Yedo had expanded and elevated the merchant class, and the daimyo were increasingly in debt to the merchants. The population had out- grown native resources. For the masses of people food was short. In 1836 a devastating famine produced an unsuccessful but de- structive uprising of the peasantry. In 1837 the 12th Tokugawa Shogun, lyeyoshi, inherited with the title a practically empty treasury. Several of the more influential daimyo were obviously edging closer to the Imperial Court. The devotees of foreign learning were asking with quiet insistence for renewed intercourse with the West, and foreign ships kept appear- ing in forbidden places. Russians, French, and English had knocked more than once at the barred gates, and in the year of Iyeyoshi’s succession, the unarmed American Morrison arrived, only to be fired upon and driven away. A scholarly writer, Takano Choei, dared to write a fictional piece called The Story of a Dream, picturing what might have been had Japan welcomed the Morri- son in a different fashion. In 1842 the new Emperor Komei dis- mayed the Shogunate by insisting that all questions pertaining to foreign policy be submitted to him. By July 1853 lyeyoshi was on his death bed, too ill to be told of the arrival of Perry’s ships in Yedo Bay. 12 THE COMING OF THE BLACK SHIPS At dawn on July 8, 1853, the Susquehanna and the Mississippi plowed along the east coast of Honshu towing the Saratoga and the Plymouth. The promised 12-ship squadron had shrunk to 4. At first only the snow-covered cone of Mount Fuji was visible, but the rising sun dissipated the mist, revealing white cliffs and green rice paddies and scattering fishing junks. Fishermen and rice farmers resorted to prayer at sight of the black ships moving swiftly without sails and against the current, the lead ships belching black smoke like floating volcanoes. “Black ships of evil omen'’ they called them. In response to signal guns on shore, Japanese interceptor boats pushed off, but those that crossed the bows of the ships hurried out of the way of the churning paddle wheels. Toward noon the squadron moved into the waters of Yedo Bay and edged into the bight of Uraga, closer to the capital than foreign ships had previously gone. When the squadron had assumed its line of anchorage, guard boats came from all directions. The Americans were struck with the beauty of these small boats, constructed, as they were, of un- painted wood, with a very sharp bow, a broad beam, a slightly tapering stern, and a clean run. They were propelled swiftly through the water and seemed to skim upon its surface. The order had gone around that only the flagship Susquehanna was to receive visitors and it no more than three at a time and those must have business. If the Japanese were exclusive about their shores, the Commodore would be exclusive about his ships. During the first afternoon, Nagashima Saburosuke, announced as Vice Governor of Uraga, was received aboard the flagship with his interpreter — but not by Perry. Assuming that a people given to ceremony would have more respect for a foreigner who stood on formality, the Commodore had decided to receive personally none but a high-ranking official. So he kept out of sight but within earshot, leaving his aide, Lieutenant John Contee, and the Dutch interpreter Portman in nominal charge. 13 Nagashima requested the Americans to go to Nagasaki and con- duct their business through the Dutch on Deshima — that was the law of the land. Lieutenant C.ontee explained that the Commodore had come in peace to deliver an important letter to the “Emperor” at Yedo, that he would deliver a copy of the letter to a sufficiently high-ranking official, but that he desired to deliver both copy and original at Uraga. Then, on instructions from the Commodore, Contee urged that the guard boats be dispersed immediately. Nagashima inspected the ship’s armaments, tried lifting a 64-pound shot, and ordered the guard boats to disperse. That night the Americans were tense and puzzled by such phenomena as they observed. Beacons were alight on every hilltop and along the shore. From time to time a great bell tolled. After the 9 o’clock firing of the flagship’s 64-pounder, many of the bonfires were quenched, but the bell tolled on. Adding to the eerie quality of the night, a strange meteor appeared at midnight, “a great blue sphere with a red, wedge-shaped tail.” 1 Until it vanished 4 hours later, the “spars, sails, and hulls of the ships reflected its glare so distinctly as though a blue light were burning from each vessel.” At sunrise a boatload of Japanese artists came out to sketch the foreign ships. At seven, a large official boat with escort came along- side the Susquehanna, and the interpreter announced the Governor of U raga, Kayama Yezaeman. Again Perry kept out of sight but acknowledged the higher rank of the second visitor by adding two commanders to the reception committee. Kayama, too, asked the Americans to go to Nagasaki. The invisible Commodore said that, if a suitable person were not appointed to receive the documents in U raga, it would be his duty to go ashore with “a sufficient force and deliver them in person.” It was agreed that Kayama would have 3 days to communicate with Yedo. 1 Unless otherwise noted, quoted matter is from Perry’s official report, “Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China seas and Japan, performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under the command of Commodore M. C. Perry, United States Navy, by order of the Government of the United States.” Washington, A. O. P. Nicholson, Printer, 1856. 14 The day before the deadline Kayama made a final futile appeal to the “Lord Admiral” to go to Nagasaki for his answer and, failing in this respect, asked that the originals be delivered together with copies and translation at a site around the headland from the squad- ron’s regular anchorage. Perry agreed to make the delivery at the site suggested by Kayama, stipulating only that the official appointed to receive the documents should be of rank equal to that of an American admiral and should be accredited by the Emperor. To satisfy the Lord Admiral’s demand for high rank, the real Gov- ernor of Uraga became for the time being Toda, Lord of Idzu. THE LANDING AT K UR I HAMA Perry’s preparations for the landing were elaborate. He intended his first appearance to be impressive. Despite the summer heat, full dress uniform was in order: broadcloth and gold braid to his chin, a plethora of decorations, gold-weighted hat, and heavy sword. Barring the unlucky few detailed to ship duty, all men and officers aboard would accompany him, and woe betide anyone whose buttons or boots lacked luster. At dawn on July 14, the Commodore moved his vessels in front of the point of reception, where the Japanese had thrown up a temporary structure in the open country near Kurihama. Not to be outdone in pageantry, they had bordered the bay with painted screens emblazoned with the arms of the Emperor. Flags and ban- ners w^ere bright in the early sun. Some 5,000 troops had been assembled. Regiments of soldiers armed with matchlocks, bows, and swords lined the beach, backed by rows of colorfully uniformed cavalrymen on beautiful horses. Along the water’s edge a hundred guard boats, red flags flying at the sterns and 25 to 30 men in each, were arranged in parallel lines. When all w 7 as ready, Kayama and Nagashima in rich and elaborate robes, each with his own boat and 15 Pageantry at Kurihama: Perry’s first landing in Japan, July 14, 1853. retinue, went out to the Susquehanna to escort the visitors ashore. Commander Buchanan’s launch, flanked by the Japanese official boats, led the American flotilla of 15 or more craft. When the boats were halfway to shore, the 13 guns of the flagship announced the Commodore's departure. Buchanan was the first American to land. Major Zeilin of the Marines came next. A hundred marines marched up the wharf and lined up on either side ; a hun- dred sailors followed suit; the two brass bands of the squadron brought up the rear. To quote the official report : On arrival of the Commodore, his suite of officers formed a double line along the landing place, and as he passed up between, they fell into order behind him. . . . Kayama Yezaeman and his interpreter preceding the party, the marines led the way, and the sailors following, the Commodore was duly escorted up the beach. The United States flag and the broad pennant were borne by two athletic seamen . . . selected ... on account of their stalwart proportions. Two boys, dressed for the ceremony, preceded the Commodore, bearing in an envelope of scarlet cloth the boxes which contained his credentials and the President’s letter. These documents, of folio size, were beautifully written on vellum, and not folded, but bound in blue silk velvet. Each seal, attached by cords of interwoven gold and silk, with pendant gold tassels, was encased in a circular box six inches in diameter and three in depth, wrought of pure gold. Each of the documents together with its seal, was placed in a box of rosewood about a foot long, with lock, hinges, and mountings, all of gold. On either side of the Commodore marched a tall, well-formed Negro, who, armed to the teeth, acted as his personal guard. . . . Perry and his suite entered the “house of reception” through a tent of painted canvas, passed through a red-carpeted entrance hall, and stepped up to the council chamber, which was carpeted in red and lined with rich silk hangings. Two dignitaries in gold and silver brocade robes arose and bowed. The interpreter an- nounced them as Toda, Lord of Idzu, and Ido, Lord of Iwami. Ido, a provincial governor like Toda, had been sent from Yedo as an observer. With a maximum of ritual the American documents were trans- ferred from their rosewood and gold caskets to the crimson lacquer chest provided by the Japanese to receive them. The documents were the President’s letter, the Commodore’s letter of credence, and 17 At Yokohama March 8, 1854, neither side was without resources for defense. three letters from the Commodore to the Emperor, all with trans- lations. The silent lords presented Perry with a receipt. Perry had gained entry to Japan without bloodshed and become the first foreign ambassador to be received on Japanese soil in more than two centuries. In later years the date of his landing, July 14, 1853, was to become known as the birthday of New Japan. RETURN OF THE BLACK SHIPS The second week of February 1854 brought Perry back to Japan, this time with 3 steam frigates and 4 sailing vessels. He returned in icy winds that made his chronic rheumatism a torment, but his will and wits remained unimpaired. He had suc- ceeded in setting the gates of Japan ajar. Now he had to open them wide. Perry’s squadron had doubled in size; he had supplies sufficient for 8 months; and he was reasonably confident that agreement could be reached by peaceful means. For some days there was a stalemate. The Japanese insisted that negotiations should take place at either Uraga or Kamakura — - even farther from Yedo than Uraga. Perry urged that they take place on the shore opposite the American anchorage or in Yedo. Then, tiring of the stalemate, he left Captain Adams to try to bring the Japanese commissioners to terms at Uraga, while he moved up the bay and anchored his flagship off Kanagawa in Yokohama Bay. From there the Americans could hear the bells of Yedo. This move produced great consternation in the Shogun’s court and resulted in prompt agreement on a site for negotiations, between Yokohama and Kanagawa. On February 27 the Commodore moored his squadron within a mile of Yokohama. On March 4 the Saratoga caught up with the squadron, bringing its number to eight. The Japanese worked night and day on the building for the negotiations and a wharf for the landing. March 8 was the appointed day. 19 Procession of American sightseers in Y okohama during the period of negotiations. THE NEGOTIATIONS In accordance with standard diplomatic practice, an exchange of compliments and expressions of mutual trust and confidence pre- ceded the negotiations. Because they had come to know and trust the Americans, the Japanese said, they planned no such display of military force as they had assembled at Kurihama. Perry's spokes- men assured the Japanese that only an honor guard would accom- pany the Commodore to the treaty house. When the day arrived, however, neither side was without resources for defense. The Japanese had thrown up no fortifications in the area, but military encampments surrounded it. Many thousands of samurai, pledged to fight to the death should the Americans start trouble, made a formidable land force. A fleet of several hundred guard boats lined the shore. Perry’s “honor guard” consisted of about 500 officers, seamen, and marines. The Commodore embarked from his flagship under a salute of 1 7 guns. The pomp and ceremony attending this landing exceeded that employed at Kurihama, and Perry had planned a special gesture in courtesy to the Japanese. By prearrangement, as he and his party entered the building, howitzers which had been mounted on the bows of the larger ship’s boats that were floating just by the shore, commenced firing in admirable order a salute of twenty-one guns in honor of the Emperor . . . succeeded by a salute of seventeen for Hayashi Daigaku-no-kami, the high commissioner, and the hoisting of the Japanese striped flag from the masthead of the steamer Powhatan [temporarily the flagship] in the bay. Negotiations were slow. To begin with, the answer to the Presi- dent's letter was delivered unsigned. Perry requested that it be signed and returned on the following day. He had noted that the reply granted the requests for humane treatment of shipwrecked Americans and for supplies for ships in need, offering one port as a coaling station. Through interpreters, Perry talked with Hayashi. Although not “next in power to the Emperor,” as Perry believed him to be, 21 Perry at Shimoda, one of the ports opened to the U nited States by the Treaty of K, this man was a greatly esteemed scholar, the Regent and Professor of Chinese at the University in Yedo. He was also a loyal retainer of the Tokugawa. This Confucian scholar’s dignity so impressed the Commodore that he adopted a gentler tone for the conference. Perry left with Hayashi a copy of the earlier commercial treaty between the United States and China and what he considered an appropriate draft for a treaty between the United States and Japan. Perry went beyond the requests of Fillmore, asking for 5 ports in- stead of 1, and a treaty rather than simple assurance of good treatment. During the period of negotiation, relations became easier. The squadron’s officers wined and dined Japanese officials on shipboard. The Japanese granted permission for the Commodore’s officers to enjoy the freedom of Kanagawa and Yokohama as long as they stayed within those limits. When Perry went ashore, he dispensed with his honor guard. The treaty of peace and amity signed on March 31, 1854, did not give Perry everything he wanted, but it granted more than the administration that had sent him had expected. It provided principally for opening 2 ports to the Americans for provisioning, Shimoda on Honshu and Flakodate on Flokkaido; relief to ship- wrecked Americans; trade subject to local regulations in the 2 named ports; procurement of coal and provisions only through Japanese officers; restriction of American ships to the 2 named ports unless under stress of storms; establishment of an American consulate at Shimoda; and exchange of ratifications within 18 months. It contained also a “most favored nation” clause. His work accomplished, Perry returned to America after 2 years of arduous and hazardous life in the interests of his country to find a reversal of the situation he had left in 1852. The new administra- tion, tending to regard his expedition as a dubious piece of Whiggery, ignored him and his work. But the people and the press acclaimed him. Those who had cried out against his departure and his mili- tary preparations now applauded his acumen and cheered him for negotiating the opening of Japan without bloodshed. 23 Japanese signatures on the Treaty of Kanagawa. AFTER PERRY Perry had been the “right man' 5 to open the gates of the closed Empire. Townsend Harris, first American Consul General and later first Minister to Japan, was the “right man” to enter those gates and live and work behind them. It was this man who became the first foreign diplomatic representative to be received in Yedo. Joseph Henry Longford, the British orientalist, said in tribute to Harris: . . . unbacked by any display of force ... he succeeded by his own personal efforts in overcoming the traditional hatred of centuries to even the smallest association with foreigners. [His record] is one of marvelous tact and patience, of steady determination and courage, of straightforward uprightness in every respect, that is not exceeded by any in the entire history of the international relations of the world. He won the confidence and trust of the Japanese. Harris knew stormy times in Japan. He had arrived in Shimoda after a series of calamities — fires, floods, and earthquakes — that had convinced the masses that the gods were wrathful over Japan’s break with tradition. The signing on behalf of the 12-year-old 14th Tokugawa Shogun of a new treaty negotiated by Harris in 1858 stirred the forces of revolution. The boy Shogun's chief minister, who was responsible for the signing without Imperial sanction, was assassinated in 1 860. By this time other foreign coun- tries had legations in or near Yedo, and attacks on foreigners multi- plied. Harris’ interpreter and secretary was slain in the street outside the American legation. All other foreign representatives left Yedo, but Harris remained with only friendly Japanese as guards. He suffered no harm. In 1868, after the succession of a new and spirited Emperor, the last Tokugawa Shogun abdicated and power once more was in the Imperial hands. Shortly after the Meiji Restoration, Japan began to send qualified young Japanese to foreign countries to study. The development of modern Japan was swift. 25 Miroku Bosatsu, gilt-bronze sculpture of the seventh century, sent from Japan for exhibit in five American cities. THE NEXT HUNDRED YEARS The coming century of American -Japanese relations will rest on a much firmer foundation than the first. We know and understand each other far better than we could in 1853, when, with our vastly different languages, customs, and manners, neither side made suf- ficient allowance for the differences because each believed that departure from the familiar was suspect. A hundred years ago, Perry reported to Washington that one day a struggle for power between Russia and the Western world would take place at the rim of Asia. He urged fortification of the very islands of the far Pacific that we fortified in World War II and continue to fortify now. Today the United States and Japan face together the danger that Perry anticipated a hundred years ago. For this centennial year, Japan has made a generous and friendly gesture in sending to the United States a priceless collection of great Japanese art treasures for showing in five American cities. These sculptures and paintings, dating from the sixth century A. D., are irreplaceable, but Japan is risking the hazards of weather and fire to let us see these masterpieces. We are hoping to send modern art and industrial exhibits to Japan, and in both countries pageants are being planned for the anniversary of Perry's landing at Kurihama. It is altogether fitting that we in America should join in this celebration, for the bluff, determined Lord Admiral helped bring out of its self-imposed isolation and into the community of free peoples a nation that the world needs now, as it did then. Section of a twelfth-century scroll of animal caricatures, part of the art exhibit. r H -< L L r H L L L - ■' . ■: '<■& ' : i -I k __ Centennial Celebration of the Opening of Japan M W