The Opening of the Ports of Japan

Some American sailors, whale fishermen, were cast ashore upon the island kingdom of Japan and burned to death as foreigners. The protecting arms of our Republic sent Commodore Perry to inquire into the matter.

On July 8th, 1853, Commodore Matthew C. Perry, of the United States Navy, commanding two large steamships, the Susquehanna and the Mississippi, and two sloops of war, the Plymouth and Saratoga, steamed into the Bay of Yeddo, which had been closed to the outside world for two hundred and fifty years, by laws exclusive and inclusive, rigidly enforced. Foreigners were to be burned to death upon the shore; natives were forbidden to leave Japan, and any one evading this law was never to be allowed to return.

The small fleet of Commodore Perry came to anchor off what is now called "Treaty Point," not far from Yokohama. The force which such an array of armed vessels represented to the Shogun government of Japan so paralyzed the chief ruler that when the Commodore, by an interpreter, sent a letter to the Shogun from President Filmore, of the United States of America, he replied, "Sail away and come back in a year for your answer." The letter which the President of the United States sent to the Japanese Government not only asked for the assurance of care for future shipwrecked sailors cast upon her shores, but also for a coaling station and any other supplies which American ships in the Pacific Ocean might require. The Shogun government was greatly perplexed by the responsibility placed so suddenly upon it, realizing that serious results would ensue if a courteous answer was refused the President of the United States. The self-imposed seclusion so long maintained incapacitated the Japanese Government for dealing with international questions. Notwithstanding Commodore Perry's protestations of friendliness, they were afraid of his great ships. They knew he could easily force his way up the Bay; what resistance could the Government make to prevent him from battering down the castle of the Shogun and the castles of the Daimyos? But should the Government suddenly make a treaty with the Americans, the Anti-Shogunite party in Japan would rise.

Mito, a celebrated daimyo, gave ten reasons against making a treaty with the United States:

1. Never has the clash of foreign arms been heard within the precincts of our holy ground. Let not our generation be the first to see the disgrace of a barbarian army treading on the land where our forefathers rest.

2. Notwithstanding the strict interdiction of Christianity, there are those guilty of the heinous crime of this evil sect. If America be admitted, it means the rise of this accursed religion.

3. What ! trade our gold, silver, copper, iron and useful materials for useless trashy articles?

4. Many a time, recently , Russia and other countries have solicited trade with us and been refused. If America is permitted the privilege, what excuse is there for not extending the same to other nations?

5. The policy of barbarous nations is first to enter our country and then to introduce their religion, which means to stir up strife.

6. The Dutch scholars say that we should cross the ocean and engage in trade with other nations, but our long-continued peace incapacitates us for any such activity.

7. But the necessity of caution against the ships lying in the harbor (Perry's squadron) has brought many valiant samurai (soldiers) to the capital. Shall we disappoint them?

8. The Naval defenses of our Kingdom are unable to cope with this invasion.

9. The haughty demeanor of the barbarians now at anchor will provoke the illiterate populace. Should nothing be done, the people will lose all fear and respect for the Government.

10. Peace and prosperity of long duration have enervated the spirit, and rusted the armor, and blunted the swords of our men.

The Shogun sent to all the daimyos a copy of the letter from the President of the United States, asking their opinion as to an answer. The majority declared against opening the ports; some advised the experiment for three years.

After long consultation the Council consented to receive, through an officer of equal rank with their Shogun, the letter from the President of the United States to the Emperor of Japan. When this was accorded, Commodore Perry sailed away, and during the interval was busy in the Orient.

On February 13th, 1854, he made his appearance again, according to agreement, in the Bay of Yeddo, to receive the answer to the President of the United States. Additional vessels having been added to his squadron, ten vessels under his command now entered the Bay.

After much discussion as to the place of conference, it was decided that Commodore Perry should meet the Shogun at Kanagawa, now the city of Yokohama. After much deliberation and discussion, the Treaty was signed March 31st, 1854, and immediately dispatched to Washington.

As this was the first formal Treaty made by Japan with any western power, a synopsis of its provisions is interesting.

Article I. Peace and amity to exist between the two countries.

II. The port of Shimoda to be opened immediately, and the port of Hakodate to be opened in one year. American ships to be supplied with necessary provisions in these ports.

III. Shipwrecked persons of either nation to be imprisoned, but to be amenable to just laws.

V. Americans at Shimoda and Hakodate not to be subject to confinement, but free to go about within defined limits.

VI. Further deliberations to be held between parties to settle concerning trade and matters requiring to be arranged.

VII. Trade in "open ports" to be subject to such regulations as the Japanese Government shall establish.

VIII. Wood, water, provisions, coal, etc., to be procured only through appointed Japanese officers.

IX. If at any future day privileges in addition to those here enumerated are granted to any other nation, the same to be allowed to Americans.

X. Ships of the United States not to resort to other ports than Shimoda and Hakodate, except in stress of weather.

XI. Consuls or agents of the United States to reside at Shimoda.

XII. The ratification of this Treaty to be exchanged within eighteen months.

Treaties with European powers followed in 1857-59. Yokohama was opened as a port in 1858; the first Japanese embassy visited the United States in 1860. The Shogunate was abolished in 1868. Civil war waged in Japan between the Imperalists and the Non-Imperalists, 1868-69. The Emperor was restored to full power and removed his capital to Yeddo, the former Shogun capital, now called Tokio. The Constitution was adopted in 1889; the first Diet, or Parliament, met 1890.

With the meeting of the first Parliament, Japan came of age and assumed her full rights as one of the great nations of the earth.

The late war with China, 1894-95, showed that she was able to maintain the place so recently assigned her--and it was during this war that Japan was spoken of as "the Child of the World's Old Age." And yet so old is Japan, in her own estimation, that the rest of the world seems young in comparison. Such inversions and contradictions form, perhaps, the basis of that fascination which everything Japanese has for her mundane opposite neighbors, the Americans.

Inversion is an admirable word to impress upon the mind when visiting the Orient. It characterizes not only the general mode of Oriental life, but also every detail. It is not simply that their ways and thoughts differ from ours, but that they are the reversal of ours. For instance, when a Japanese builds a house, he begins at the roof, and every tool he uses is the reversal of ours. The saws are drawn toward the body; the gimlets are threaded the opposite way from ours; keyholes are made upside down, and the keys turn backwards. The best rooms in the house are always in the rear. When the house is finished, a Japanese, on entering, instead of taking off his hat takes off his shoes. If he picks up a book to read, he begins at the back and reads downward from left to right, the words being placed vertically instead of horizontally. If there is a clock in the room, the hands remain stationary and the face revolves backwards, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,; reckoning backwards from noon. In writing a letter, he takes a reel instead of a sheet of paper, and begins with the formal words with which we close, then putting it in an envelope, open at the end, he addresses it "America, United States, Pennsylvania, Pittsburg, Brown James, Mr.," then seals it and puts the stamp on the back! "After-dinner speeches" are always made before dinner. Young ladies instead of taking from, add to, their ages; they desire to grow old, that they may receive the reverence accorded to age.

White is the emblem of mourning, and if one meets what would seem to be a festal procession in the street, it is sure to be a funeral in progress. The casket is borne in an upright position, and is so interred. These and endless other inversions, running through all the details of life, make the islanders of Japan appear to be a curious up-side-down sort of people, who could hardly differ from us more had they been born on another planet than ours. Of course our first thought is that they are all wrong, and that we are all right; but is it so? May their ways not be better than ours? In fact many of them are, for all travelers agree that Japan is the brightest and most fascinating country on the globe, with the cheeriest, merriest, kindest and most graceful people, who seem as glad to see each individual stranger as if they had waited for his visit all these years; they smile upon you in the streets, and make you feel that their homes are your own as soon as you cross the threshold. They drag you around in the little Jinrikisha (man-drawn carriage) as if it were a joke; and they sit by the score along the streets or roadsides in all degrees of dress and undress, in all the colors of the rainbow, chattering away and making pretty gestures as if civility and good manners were the first duties in life, and, to be happy, the chief end of man's existence. May Americans not learn a lesson from the social side of Japan, as they look at the careworn, anxious faces that daily pass along the streets of American cities?