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

6 • INTRODUCTION
At this vulnerable historical moment, the West knocked on Japan’s
door. Russian, British, and American ships began appearing off Japan’s
coasts. The China trade and North Pacific whaling drew most of these
ships close to Japan’s shores. Japan turned down their occasional requests
for trade and diplomatic contact because it violated the centuries-old
sakoku policy. After the Opium War of 1839–1841 between the British
and the nearby Middle Kingdom of China, it became obvious to foresighted
Japanese scholars and officials that someday the increasingly
powerful Westerners would not take “no” for an answer to their demands.
THE FORMATIVE YEARS
The first direct contacts between the United States and Japan were
Japanese castaway sailors, most notably Manjiro Nakahama, Hikozo
Hamada (later known as Joseph Heco), and the adventurer Ranald Mac-
Donald from the Pacific Northwest Territory. Their sojourns and experiences
provided the first direct knowledge between the United States
and Japan. The United States government initially sent Edmund Roberts
in 1832, and then Commodore James Biddle in 1846 on missions to
Japan to investigate the possibility of beginning diplomatic and trade relations.
Roberts died of cholera in Macao and never arrived in Japan
while Biddle sailed away after the shogunate politely, yet firmly refused
his requests. Following the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848 and
the discovery of gold in California in 1848, the United States acquired
vast areas of the American southwest and California from Mexico.
Across the Pacific Ocean from China, where the United States had already
established trade and diplomatic relations, and near North Pacific
whaling areas frequented by New England whaling ships, Japan became
increasingly significant to American political and economic interests.
U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry was sent to Japan to make
a concerted effort to establish relations with Japan. In July 1853, he
sailed into Uraga Bay near Edo with four large warships and hundreds
of armed sailors. Two of the ships were steam frigates fitted with coalfired
engines and belched black smoke while chugging up the bay. The
wooden hulls of all four American ships were painted with dark sealant
to prevent the wood from rotting. The Japanese called them “the black
ships,” a symbolic harbinger of death. Perry delivered a letter from