Commodore Matthew Perry

Prior to Pearl Harbor, Japan started to create an empire that especially did not want to be manipulated by the United States. Steven Hook, the author of “U.S. Foreign Policy: The Paradox of World Power,” mentions that “With French and Dutch colonies in East Asia up for grabs, Japanese leaders knew that only the United States stood in the way of their plan to create a Japanese-led ‘co-prosperity

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

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.

During the early nineteenth century, both China and Japan enforced policies restricting foreign trade in order to avoid industrialization and western ideas, but after both societies experienced foreign invasions and unequal treaties being established by foreigners, Japan began to industrialize and became imperialists trying to create an empire, while China differed in that the people wanted reform and government restrained the reformation of their society, therefore causing multiple rebellions and overall the collapse of their empire.

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

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

Japan could increase their purchase from Mexico.” However, despite that Japan could align with new trading partners, in the spite of time, the embargo had forced other nations to be in fear of trading with them. Without any countries that are willing to trade, Japan would still suffered from supplies shortage and in danger of collapsing. These pre-modernist historians is convincing as they perform lots of research and look at things holistically, however, during the late 1900s, they might not think the same way as these historians since they don’t know what would happened.

In Commodore Perry and the Japanese: A Study in the Dramaturgy of Power, the author Michio Kitahara argues that Commodore Perry’s display of power through face-to-face interactions manipulated the Japanese and coerced them into opening the country. On the other hand, in Perry and Pearl: The Unintended Consequence, the author George Feifer argues that instead of displaying US military superiority, Commodore Perry’s intrusion to a large extend threatened the Japanese sense of national security and eventually transformed Japan into an aggressor. I agree more with Feifer and argue that Commodore Perry’s expeditions not only forced the Japanese to realized that Sakoku had made them vulnerable and defenseless against western imperialism, but also served as a wake-up call for Bakumatsu Japan and eventually led to the rise of

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.

Throughout the work, Fujitani draws evidence from, and references, a plethora of different sources that add validity to his statements and accounts of not only what the Japanese and United States did, but also why they acted the way they did. In a time of war, both countries took different actions that were not readily understood. Japan

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).

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.

            Throughout history most of Asia has been viewed as strange and exotic by western cultures.  This is especially true for Japan, because, unlike other Asian nations Japan was isolated from western culture until around the year 1542 when the Portuguese landed at Tanegashima (Bryant 14).  There are several reasons for Japan’s solitude, most of them geographical.  One of the primary reasons is what the Japanese call kamikaze, or divine wind (Bryant 24).  These strong stormy winds blew across the waters surrounding Japan, making it quite difficult to approach the island.  Japan is also quite far away from most western nations, especially since the ships had to sail around Africa to get to it.  When the

Japan emerged from the Tokugawa-Meiji transition as the first Asian industrialized nation. Domestic commercial activities and limited foreign trade had met the demands for material culture in the Tokugawa period, but the modernized Meiji era had radically different requirements. From the beginning, the Meiji rulers embraced the concept of a market economy and adopted British and North American forms of free enterprise capitalism. The private sector — in a nation blessed with an abundance of aggressive entrepreneurs — welcomed such change.