Perry Expedition

Perry's primary goal was to force an end to Japan's 220-year-old policy of isolation and to open Japanese ports to American trade, through the use of gunboat diplomacy if necessary.

The Perry Expedition led directly to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and the western Great Powers, and eventually to the collapse of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and the restoration of the Emperor.

The Americans were also driven by concepts of manifest destiny and the desire to impose the "benefits" of Western civilization and the Christian religion on what they perceived as backward Asian nations.

On May 10, 1851, Webster drafted a letter addressed to the "Japanese Emperor" with assurances that the expedition had no religious purpose but was only to request "friendship and commerce" and supplies of coal needed by American ships en route to China.

Siebold spent eight years working, teaching, and studying at the isolated Dutch island-trading post of Dejima in Nagasaki harbour before returning to Leiden in the Netherlands.

The expedition was assigned the steam warships Mississippi, Susquehanna, and Powhatan, the armed store steamships Lexington, Supply, and Southampton, and the sailing sloops Macedonian, Plymouth, and Saratoga.

There he met with American-born Sinologist Samuel Wells Williams (who had been to Japan with the Morrison in 1837), who provided Chinese-language translations of Perry's official letters, and rendezvoused with Plymouth and Saratoga.

He continued to Shanghai (May 4–17), where he met with the Dutch-born American diplomat Anton L. C. Portman, who translated his official letters into the Dutch language, and rendezvoused with Susquehanna.

Perry landed his Marines, whom he drilled on the beach for hours at a time, and demanded an audience with the Ryukyu King Shō Tai at Shuri Castle.

As he arrived, Perry ordered his ships to steam past Japanese lines towards the capital of Edo, and position their guns towards the town of Uraga.

On 9 July, a yoriki from the Uraga bugyō, Nakajima Saburosuke, accompanied by interpreter Hori Tatsunosuke, rowed out to Susquehanna, but were at first refused permission to come on board.

Perry remained in his cabin and refused to meet them, sending word through his officers that as he carried a letter from the President of the United States, he would only deal with officials of sufficient stature and authority.

[2] On 10 July, yoriki Kayama Eizaemon, pretending to be the Uraga bugyō, called on Susquehanna and was allowed to meet Captain Franklin, whom he advised to travel to Nagasaki, as this was the designated port for all foreign contact.

Kayama was told that unless a suitable official came to receive the document, Perry would land troops and march on Edo, to deliver the letter in person.

[14][15] The Japanese government was paralyzed due to the incapacitation by illness of Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyoshi and by political indecision on how to handle the unprecedented threat to the nation's capital.

On 11 July, senior rōjū Abe Masahiro temporized, deciding that simply accepting a letter from the Americans would not constitute a violation of Japanese sovereignty.

The decision was conveyed to Uraga, and Perry was asked to move his fleet slightly southwest to the beach at Kurihama (in modern-day Yokosuka), where he was allowed to land on 14 July.

Abe felt that it was currently impossible for Japan to resist the American demands by military force, and yet was reluctant to take any action on his own authority for such an unprecedented situation.

Perry eventually lost his temper and threatened to bring 100 ships (more than the actual size of the US Navy at the time) within 20 days to war on Japan.

The Americans presented the Japanese with a miniature steam locomotive, a telegraph apparatus, various agricultural tools, and small arms, as well as one hundred gallons of whiskey, clocks, stoves, and books about the United States.

The Japanese responded with gold-lacquered furniture and boxes, bronze ornaments, silk and brocade garments, porcelain goblets, and upon learning of Perry's personal hobby, a collection of seashells.