Commodore Matthew Perry

Japan and China had many contrasting responses to western penetration in the nineteenth century, including economic interaction - economically China suffered and Japan prospered, Japanese agricultural productivity increased while China’s did not, and China only accepted a small amount of goods while Japan accepted a wide range of goods- and political interaction - China went to war but Japan did not, Japan adopted western learning styles but China did not, and Japan heavily increased taxes on their people after 1890, while China did not -but had very comparable geographic traits – both had ocean borders – Japan was completely surrounded by water while China was bordered on a large percentage of itself, both kept their ports either fully

Ashley Queener 10-13-11 HIST 399 INEVITABLE In Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War by Akira Iriye, the author explores the events and circumstances that ended in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an American naval base. Iriye assembles a myriad of primary documents, such as proposals and imperial conferences, as well as essays that offer different perspectives of the Pacific War. Not only is the material in Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War informative of the situation between Japan and the United States, but it also provides a global context that allows for the readers to interpret Pearl Harbor and the events leading up to it how they may. Ultimately, both Pearl Harbor and the subsequent Pacific War between

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, westerners were heavily industrializing and practicing imperialism, and since both China and Japan wanted to retain their cultures and

Arthur Walworth's 1946 work, Black Ships Off Japan: The Story of Commodore Perry's Expedition, was released in the immediate aftermath of World War II, near the beginning of the American occupation of Japan. Walworth writes his account of Perry's expedition as objectively as possible given the relatively limited sources available in English at the time. The work goes into considerable detail in describing Perry's 1852-1853 visit, illustrating not only the minutiae of the diplomatic maneuvering, but also the various formalities of leisure events and ceremonies which grew increasingly frustrating to Perry.1 Walworth briefly examines Perry's 1954 return to Japan to accept the Treaty of Kanagawa, discussing delays caused by translation

Yilin Lyu In the 19th century, technological improvements enabled many European nations to enlarge their power and have greater impact on other parts of the world. Those impacts are clearly demonstrated in the book Abina and the Important Men and the source Fifty Years of New Japan. Abina and the Important Men views on how a young woman from Gold Coast, West Africa in the 1870s failed to declare her own freedom in a local British dominated court. The source Fifty Years of New Japan demonstrates how Japan had modernized in fifty years with adoption of European cultural practices. Because the Gold Coast was a crown colony of the British empire, change made by European culture and power was in favor of the interest of Britain. Indigenous people respond to such changes differently based on their different social status. Japan, on the other hand, was independently adopting western cultural practices for modernization, so Japan was able to better improve herself by learning about the Western Civilization.

One of the major differences between Europe and Japan was colonization: As individual European countries scrambled to gain more territory to add to their Empires, Japan feared the changes that visiting countries brought. When other countries visited Japan with imports to trade they also brought with them a new religion, Christianity. Japanese Emperors feared the chaos that a new religion would bring and decided to shut the rest of the world out. Only the Dutch were allowed to trade with the Japanese as a need remained to be informed of the rest of the world and medical advances.

This research project is a detailing of Japan’s history and its relations with the U.S. The document is intended to explain the rising conflict between them during The Second Sino-Japanese War, U.S retaliation due to the attempted conquest of Asia and the Attack on Pearl Harbor, and subsequent economical and environmental complications. In terms of value, the majority of the document is relevant to my research and

Japan is a country that needs to trade to get their resources because their country doesn’t have its own resources. In 1940 Japan decided to ally themselves with the Axis powers, such as Germany. The U.S. saw this as the Japanese getting too strong so they chose to place an embargo on the country and cut them off from valuable resources such as oil. Japan needed these resources in order to last for longer than a few months in the war. The only way to obtain more resources was to attack the South-East Asian resources. The only thing holding the Japanese back was fear that the U.S. Pacific Fleet would intervene on their attack. The Japanese’ Admiral Yamamoto was planning and simulating air attacks on the Pacific Fleet many months before they actually decided they’d actually do it. They hoped that diplomatic talks would solve the problem but they didn’t fall through so the attack was there to fall back on. General Tojo Hideki secretly set November 29th as the date that the Japanese would accept a settlement without going to war. The Japanese planned to attack Burma, Malaya, the East Indies, and the Philippines, in addition to establishing a defensive perimeter in the central and

Japan was an isolated country for over two hundred years. This led the United States to send Commodore Matthew Perry overseas in hopes to convince Japan to be more accessible. Commodore Matthew Perry knew that his task would be challenging because of Japan’s reluctance to interact with other countries and its belief that it was the greatest country of all. As a result of Perry’s mission, Japan changed politically, socially, and economically.

Japan however, was more interested in learning the ways of other countries, after watching China’s failed attempt Japan knew that they had to approach it another way. Japan knew that the powers that were pressuring them into open trade could more than likely make it happen even if they refused.

"China and Japan's Responses to the West in the 19th Century."EInternational Relations. N.p., 4 Nov. 2013. Web. 19 Sept. 2016.

Japan, forced to rebuild itself from the ashes of defeat, was occupied by Americans in the aftermath of World War II. Although it was commonly perceived through the victors’ eyes, in John W. Dower’s novel, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, Dower summarized his studies of Occupied Japan and the impact of war on Japanese society in the view of both the conqueror and the defeated. He demonstrated the “Transcending Despair” (p. 85) of the Japanese people through their everyday lives in the early stages of the occupation. In chapter three, Dower attempted to comprehend the hopes and dreams – as well as the hopelessness and realities – of the Japanese who were in a state of exhaustion and despair. In chapter four, due partly to the food shortage, crime rates rose as people began to steal. Women turned to prostitution while men turned to the black market. Some Japanese were so desperate that they stripped out of their clothing and exchanged it for food. Dower vividly conveyed the depth of loss and confusion that Japan experienced. On the other hand, Kasutori culture flourished in the 1950s as sexually oriented entertainments dominated the commercial world. In chapter five, the people of Japan turned wartime slogans into slogans for reconstruction and peace. They used witty defeat jokes as a way to escape despair. Even though they were defeated, the people of Japan pushed through the misery and sought to reinvent their identity as illustrated through prostitution, the black market, and “Bridges of Language” (p. 168).

I find that the juxtaposition of East and West is firmly demonstrated in the written and participative aspects of the military throughout this period. The combination of both ideologies highlights the fractured nature of Japan, connected in part to its Eastern ancestral roots, yet also determined to become a Western empire. However by 1885 this sentiment has changed, evidenced by the work of Fukuzawa Yukichi who argues in favour of adopting Western practices and bluntly saying ‘goodbye’ to

Ever since I was little, I’ve always been fascinated by Japanese culture. The fashion, art, cuisine, architecture, and way of life has mesmerized me. So when we received this assignment, I instantly knew that I wanted to do it on a historic event in Japan. I remembered a book I read called Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus. Heart of a Samurai tells the true story of a Japanese fisherman and his crew, who get shipwrecked and are rescued by an American ship. It takes place during the isolation period and the main fisherman had tremendous effects on the opening of the Japanese border. I found this story really interesting and decided to focus on the opening of Japan’s borders for my NHD project. The whole situation is so fascinating and I love learning about all the different ways Western and Japanese culture mixed and meshed.

From the early to mid 1800s, the United States expanded rapidly. With this expansion, the United States sought out new areas for trade commerce. With Britain and other countries heavily involved in China, the U.S. searched for another of trade within the region. President Millard Fillmore dispatched Commodore Matthew C.