Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

222 • SAKOKU
imperial movement. He worked with Katsu Kaishu in studying
shipping and naval training, and later played a key role in negotiating
an alliance between Satsuma and Choshu domains. His assassination
by Tokugawa bakufu supporters in late 1867 motivated
opposition to the Tokugawa government.
SAKOKU. Meaning “national isolation,” the maritime and overseas
travel restrictions ordered by the Tokugawa shogunate in the 1630s
became known as the sakoku policy. Although never absolute, sakoku
restricted relations between Japan and Western countries for two centuries.
According to sakoku policies, Japanese castaway sailors
were not allowed to re-enter the country; the only Westerners allowed
to live in Japan were Dutch traders who had to live on the small island
of Dejima; and Japanese were forbidden from converting to
Christianity. See also EXPULSION EDICT.
SAKUMA, SHOZAN (1811–1864). Samurai scholar from Matsushiro
domain (Nagano), Sakuma was a Confucian scholar who also conducted
experiments and studied Western scientific methods. He took
part in making defense arrangements during Commodore Matthew
Perry’s 1853 visit to Japan. He promoted the dualistic concept of
“Eastern ethics, Western science”—a blending of Neo-Confucian ethical
principles with knowledge of Western science, languages, and economics.
Among his students and colleagues were Katsu Kaishu
(Sakuma’s brother-in-law), Shoin Yoshida, Ryoma Sakamoto, and
Shigeki Nishimura. While acting as a mediator between the imperial
court and the Tokugawa shogunate in 1864, Sakuma was assassinated
by anti-foreign samurai in Kyoto. See also MEIJI RESTORATION.
SAMURAI. See CLASS SYSTEM IN JAPAN.
SAN FRANCISCO PEACE TREATY. After World War II, the San
Francisco Peace Treaty was signed by Japan and 48 other countries on
8 September 1951. It became effective on 28 April 1952. Fifty-two
countries (including Japan) participated in the conference, but the Soviet
Union, Poland, and Czechoslovakia did not sign the treaty. India
and Burma were so dissatisfied with the treaty that they did not attend
the conference. China was a major player in the war with Japan, but