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

The Dictionary
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A BROADWAY PAGEANT. Also known as “The Errand-Bearers,” this
is a poem written by Walt Whitman to commemorate the visit of the
Shogun’s Embassy to the United States in 1860. On 16 June 1860,
Whitman watched the parade on New York City’s Broadway Avenue
featuring the Japanese officials and wrote the poem shortly afterward.
The poem begins with this stanza:
Over sea, hither from Niphon [Nippon], Courteous, the Princes of Asia,
swart-cheek’d princes First-comers, guests, two-sworded princes,
Lesson-giving princes, leaning back in their open barouches, bareheaded,
impassive This day they ride through Manhattan . . .
The lengthy, free-verse poem expounds on the glories not only of
Japan, but all of Asia. Originally published in the New York Times on
27 June 1860, the poem later appeared in editions of Whitman’s
Leaves of Grass.
ABCD ENCIRCLEMENT. With the opening shots of the Manchurian
Incident in 1931, Japan turned to a policy of enlarging its sphere of
influence on the Asian continent by the use of force. Chiang Kaishek’s
stubborn refusal to surrender following the outbreak of the
Sino–Japanese War (1937–1945) notwithstanding, American opposition
to Japan’s militaristic adventurism provided Tokyo with its principal
stumbling block. This was brought home with startling clarity
when in July 1939 Washington announced its intention to abrogate the
two nations’ Treaty of Commerce and Navigation—a move that
threatened to cut Japan off from vital American commodities, including
especially scrap steel and petroleum. After a brief period in which
it tried to accommodate American concerns, Japan in the summer of
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