Japan’s Culture Shock
What happened when America’s ‘Black Ships’ hit Japan’s shores?
The United States of America grew by leaps and bounds across the North American continent during the 19th century. The discovery of gold in California in the 1840s helped drive American settlers to the Pacific Coast to make their fortunes. By mid-century, though much of the land in-between the coasts remained to be settled, the US had become a Pacific nation.
This opened new horizons for the US and its people. Among the most prominent was the desire to possess a share of the lucrative China trade. Hitherto, the Chinese market had been dominated by European powers, such as Britain and Holland, that had been trading in Asia for centuries.
Japan came to figure in American plans. The US sought to strengthen its presence in the Pacific through the creation of government-subsidised mail steamship lines that would compete with British firms for dominance of the international mail trade. American mail steamers would need to pass by Japan, a mysterious and closed island nation of which relatively little was known, and it was clear that the island nation would be an excellent place to obtain coal, if only the Japanese would allow foreign ships into their harbours.
Another important American reason for seeking to ‘open’ Japan was the treatment of shipwrecked
American seamen by the Japanese. American whaling ships had in recent years begun hunting prey in the northern Pacific, and unfortunate seamen who had washed ashore in Japan had run afoul of severe laws that forbade foreigners, especially Christians, from its shores. Those that had been stranded in Japan were often roughly handled by Japanese authorities, who sought to insulate their country from all foreign contact.
Japan in the middle of the 19th century was ruled by a military government of samurai, called the bakufu, under the leadership of the Tokugawa dynasty of shoguns in Edo (modern Tokyo).
The shoguns had closed off Japan for over two centuries, refusing to have anything to do with the ‘barbarians’ beyond. Japan had developed culturally in the intervening period, but would soon learn that it had fallen drastically behind the West, technologically speaking.
The Japan Expedition
Top-ranking figures in the US government, including President Millard Fillmore, wanted to open Japan to trade. Several earlier attempts to open Japan had failed, for various reasons, primarily because of the unwillingness of the Japanese to have anything but the most limited, carefully controlled intercourse with the outside world. This did not deter the Americans, who thought that a more determined, though peaceful, approach could achieve the results they wanted.
The US Navy chose Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, one of its leading officers, to command the Japan expedition. Perry was one of the best officers that the Navy could have picked to conduct the delicate diplomacy required for its success. During his long career Perry had conducted negotiations with numerous foreign potentates on behalf of the US government, including in Europe, Africa and Mexico.
Perry had been instrumental in getting the ball rolling for the Japan expedition, having written to Secretary of the Navy William Alexander Graham over the winter of 1851-52 about the desirability of sending an expedition to conclude a treaty with Japan. Once he had been given this assignment, he set about organising his expedition.
Perry was to carry a letter from President Fillmore addressed to his ‘Great and Good Friend’ the ‘Emperor’. The Americans were at this point only dimly aware of the position of the figure they would be dealing with in Edo, who was actually the shogun, Tokugawa Ieyoshi, ensconced in Edo Castle. The true emperor of Japan lived in Kyoto at this date. The letter expressed the ‘kindest feelings’ and requested an opening to trade and that shipwrecked US sailors be treated humanely.
Perru's First Visit, Julu 1853
Perry departed Norfolk, Virginia, in the steam frigate USS Mississippi on 24 November 1852, heading eastward across the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, Mississippi rounded South Africa, taking on coal at Cape Town, then called in at Mauritius, followed by a stop at Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
Mississippi then sailed through the Straits of Malacca and called at Singapore on 25 March 1853, where she took on coal again. The Mississippi consumed coal at a prodigious rate during the voyage, underscoring the need to have numerous coaling stations distributed around the globe, of which Japan, the US hoped, would be one.
Passing next through the South China Sea, she stopped at Macao on 6 April, and later that day moved on to Hong Kong where Perry rendezvoused with the other ships of the US Navy’s East India Squadron that he would lead to Japan. Perry’s expedition would be the biggest that the US Navy had ever deployed overseas.
The squadron moved on to Shanghai and then left for Japan on 16 May 1853. Perry’s command
was composed of four ships – the steam frigate Susquehanna, which he had made his new flagship; the Mississippi; and the sailing sloops Plymouth and Saratoga. Reaching Uraga, at the entrance of Edo Bay, on 8 July, Perry’s squadron was greeted by two Japanese cannon shots that announced his appearance. Perry’s vessels anchored a mile offshore and fired a salute with their guns.
The Japanese came out to the US squadron in small boats to take a closer look at the foreigners. Some carried artists who began sketching what they saw before them. Soon, their renditions of the barbarians from overseas were being churned out for eager public consumption by print-makers across Edo. Other Japanese were more militant in their reactions to the American ships, which would be forever known in Japan as ‘Black Ships’ on account of their colour. The samurai of Edo reached for their weapons, in case the foreigners were hostile.
Japanese soldiers and officials also went out to see the US ships, and tried to board, but the American sailors refused them access. One guard boat came up beside the Susquehanna, displaying a sign, written in French, telling the Americans to depart immediately.
A Japanese, speaking Dutch, next told the Americans that a high-ranking official was in his boat and wanted to come aboard. The Americans replied that he would not be allowed to confer with Perry directly because, as the representative of the US president, the commodore would only meet with the loftiest of Japanese government officials. The Japanese official present, Nakajima Saburonosuke, was only a lesser one, a mere aide to Uraga’s vice-governor.
Contee told Nakajima that Commodore Perry had come to Japan bearing a letter from President Millard Fillmore to the emperor. Nakajima said that the expedition should instead go to the Dutch trade factory at Nagasaki and send the letter through that.
Contee said no, insisting that the US expedition had arrived at Uraga precisely to be close to Edo. Contee also told Nakajima to withdraw the guard boats clustering around the American ships, or they would be made to back off. Most of the guard boats pulled back, and Nakajima departed, saying that he would return the next day, after conferring with his superior.
With Perry off Uraga, the Tokugawa bakufu tried to delay to gain time. Its diplomatic effort was in the hands of Abe Masahiro, the chief senior adviser to the shogun. Perry was to be told that the Japanese government would receive President Fillmore’s letter at Uraga and that a response would be made in the spring of 1854. In the meantime, Abe started to devise a strategy to deal with the newcomers.
Another official, Kayama Eizaemon, arrived the next day, 9 July. Though Kayama was of a somewhat higher rank than Nakajima, Perry correctly deduced that he was still only a minor official, being just another aide to the vice-governor of Uraga, as was Nakajima. Perry refused to meet with Kayama directly, and conferred with him via
"The samurai of Edo reached for their weapons, in case the foreigners were hostile"
his own subordinate officers. Perry’s unwillingness to deal with anyone but a suitably high-ranking official was not mere stuffiness: it was imperative that he be seen as important by the Japanese.
The message from Abe was delivered to Perry, who was told that a high-ranking official would receive the letter from the American president and that an answer would be made via Dutch or Chinese interlocutors at Nagasaki in the spring.
Perry objected to this, and said that he would take it as an insult if the ‘emperor’ would not issue a reply directly to the US president’s own representatives. Perry insisted that the letter must be delivered to an appropriate dignitary in Edo
Bay. If it was not, he threatened to land an armed party and take it to Edo Castle directly. Kayama said that it would be eight days before a reply would be sent. Perry answered that he would wait only three or four days before he tried to deliver the letter on his own.
Thus motivated, the Japanese agreed to a formal ceremony for the reception of the letter. On 14
July, Perry and a party of around 250 American sailors and marines went ashore at Kurihama, a village nearby to Uraga, where Perry handed over President Fillmore’s letter in a wooden box to sufficiently exalted Japanese officials, a pair of aristocrats named Toda Izu and Ido Iwami.
Once the letter had been formally received,
Perry was told that he could now depart. Perry replied that he would return in the spring for an answer from the Japanese government, informing the Japanese that he would probably be bringing more ships with him.
The Commodore Returns, February-March 1854
Perry spent the intervening months in Asian waters before commencing his return voyage to Japan, which he reached on 13 February 1854. As he had suggested the previous summer, Perry brought with him more ships to better overawe the Japanese with a show of American naval might. A new shogun now reigned in Edo Castle. Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi had died soon after Perry’s departure, and had been succeeded by Tokugawa Iesada, his son. The Japanese had spent the past seven months since Perry’s first visit attempting to devise a viable strategy to deal with the Americans. Abe Masahiro had sounded out leading Japanese opinion on the matter. Some wanted to maintain Japan’s isolationist stance no matter what. Others wanted to open up a bit to Perry while they used the breathing space to build up a modern military, and the Japanese had by the spring already contracted with builders in the Netherlands for two modern warships. Still others thought that international trade would be a good thing for Japan.
With Perry back in Japanese waters, two weeks were spent negotiating over a place to hold talks. They at last agreed on Yokohama, a fishing village not too distant from Edo.
Perry and his landing party of 500 men rowed ashore in 27 boats on 8 March 1854. A reception hall was specially built by the Japanese for the negotiations. Some 500 sailors, marines and musicians accompanied Perry ashore, where he was met by a delegation of five Japanese commissioners. Simply speaking to each other was extremely cumbersome, since Perry’s English first had to be translated into Dutch, and then into Japanese. The Japanese had to have their words translated into Dutch, and then into English.
An official reply was delivered to Perry by the delegation’s chief commissioner, Hayashi Naburo. The Japanese were willing to provide fuel, food and water to American ships and give aid to distressed seamen. An opening of trade was not possible, however, but in five years time a port would be opened to American ships. Until then, American ships could resupply with coal at Nagasaki. The Japanese then informed Perry that they were ready to sign the treaty the next day.
But Perry wanted to have ports open to American ships designated forthwith. Meeting with the Japanese again on 17 March, the
Japanese commissioners agreed to allow the use of Hakodate and Shimoda. Perry also pressed for a commercial treaty akin to the one that the United States now had with China, but the Japanese resisted. By 31 March 1854, the
Treaty of Kanagawa, after the prefecture where Yokohama was located, was officially signed by representatives of both nations, establishing friendly relations between the two nations, the use of Japanese ports by American ships, and guarantees of aid to shipwrecked American sailors.
Japan opened
Perry was acclaimed for his success in opening Japan upon his return to America in January 1855, and he published three volumes of his memoirs.
Perry’s health failed him not many years after his return from Japan, and he died, aged 63, on 4 March 1858. The legacy of his voyage would long outlive him, both for good and ill. Spurred by the visit of the Black Ships and their inability to deter Perry, the Japanese acknowledged the technical superiority of the West. Subsequently, Japan undertook a rapid national modernisation program. During the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the shoguns were overthrown, to be replaced by a government with the emperor at its head. Japan industrialised, and by the 20th century had emerged as a major power. Memories of Western superciliousness nonetheless still rankled.
There would also be a dark side to this modernisation. Having avoided being colonised by Western powers, Japan embarked upon a career of imperial conquest of its own, with
China and Korea becoming its earliest victims, with vast amounts of blood shed by its armies. By 1941, Japan would find itself at war with the United States in a brutal struggle for dominance in the Pacific, culminating in its calamitous defeat in 1945. Since then, Japan has become an enormously prosperous nation, and has been at peace ever since.
"Perry's English first had to be translated into Dutch, and then into Japanese"