Shortly after dawn on 8 July 1853, a squadron of American ships, commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry, appeared off the entrance of Edo (Tokyo) Bay. As the sun burned away the early-morning mist, the American ships steamed into the bay at eight knots with their guns loaded and run out. Thousands of Japanese, who had never before seen a steamer, lined the shore to see the “burning ships.” With their black hulls and clouds of coal smoke pouring from their funnels, they soon became known to the Japanese as “the black ships.”
That evening Perry’s squadron anchored in line of battle, 30 miles from the capital, to begin a chess game of Far East diplomacy, something for which Perry, with his dignified—some would say “pompous”—manner, was ideally suited. Feudal Japan had long resisted contact with the outside world, and Perry had been dispatched to deliver a letter to the reclusive Japanese emperor from President Millard Fillmore, proposing a treaty of “peace and amity” (translation: “open markets”) between the two nations.
Insisting that the President’s letter had to be delivered to someone of imperial rank, Perry remained quietly but firmly aloof for a week as he waited for a reply. When Prince Izu, one of the emperor’s counselors, agreed to receive the letter, Perry then proceeded with much fanfare. A 13-gun salute echoed over the anchorage as he stepped into his barge and 15 boatloads of Sailors and Marines, as well as two bands, accompanied him ashore, where he marched to a special pavilion that had been hastily constructed. Formally handing the letter to the prince, Perry informed him that he would take his squadron to China and would return with more vessels the following spring to receive the emperor’s reply.
The following February Perry returned. With his ships close inshore where the Japanese could clearly see them, he again went ashore amid much pomp and circumstance. Having effectively played the show-of-force card, Perry understood the importance of allowing the Japanese to save face and now settled into a lengthy process of negotiations. As part of that process it was customary to exchange gifts, and the differences in the respective cultures were evident in what was exchanged. For their part, the Japanese gave the Americans gold-lacquered furniture and boxes, bronze ornaments, delicate porcelain goblets, and a collection of seashells. In turn, the Americans gave firearms, 100 gallons of whiskey, farm implements, clocks, stoves, a telegraph, and a one-fourth scale train, complete with track, locomotive, coal tender, and coach. The track was laid down, and soon Japanese dignitaries were rolling around the oval at 20 miles per hour, their ceremonial robes trailing in the wind.
As the negotiations progressed, the Japanese agreed to properly assist castaways and offered two sites as coaling stations. Still reluctant to agree to trade with the outside world, they compromised by accepting an American consul, which Perry correctly surmised would serve as a catalyst to further negotiations, eventually opening the door to trade.
Perry’s ability to blend implied power with diplomatic skills bore fruit on 31 March 1854, when the Japanese signed the Treaty of Kanagawa. Japan entered the modern world, creating new trade opportunities while opening a Pandora’s Box that would lead to cataclysm in less than a century, when Japanese planes arrived shortly after the rising sun at Pearl Harbor.