July 8 - Commodore Perry Opens Japan to the Western World

This Day in History: 8 July 2020

 

8 July 1853

 

167 years ago, today, Commodore Matthew C. Perry, representing the US government, sailed into Tokyo Bay and opened Japan to Western influence and trade. For a while, Japanese officials refused to speak with Perry. However, under threat of attack by the superior American ships, they reluctantly accepted letters from US President Millard Fillmore. This marked the United States as the first Western nation to establish relations with the nation, since it declared itself closed to foreigners two centuries before. After 1639, only the Dutch and the Chinese had been permitted to continue to trade with the Japanese. This trade was still restricted and confided to the island of Dejima, however.

 

Perry returned to Tokyo with nine ships once again in March 1854, after allowing Japan time to consider the possibility of external relations. The Treaty of Kanagawa was signed on March 31 between Perry and Japan's government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to the Americans, as well as permitting the creation of a US consulate in Japan. Four years later, the first Japanese diplomats to visit a foreign power in over 200 years were welcomed into Washington, D.C. Treaties with other Western powers followed shortly afterwards, contributing to the collapse of Japan's shogunate, and ultimately, the modernisation of Japan.

 

Want to find out more about the opening of Japan to the Western world? Click here for more information, or here for more about the modernisation of Japan.