Perry Expedition (1853-1854): The Black Ships Open Japan

The Perry Expedition was the American naval mission, led by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, that sailed into Edo Bay on 8 July 1853 and returned in 1854 to sign the Convention of Kanagawa with Japan’s Tokugawa shogunate. The arrival of the “Black Ships” ended more than two centuries of strictly limited contact with the outside world. It set off a political crisis that within fifteen years toppled the shogunate.

Background: Japan’s seclusion

Since the 1630s the Tokugawa shoguns, the military rulers who governed in the emperor’s name from Edo (now Tokyo), had enforced a policy later called sakoku, or “closed country”. Japanese were forbidden to travel abroad, Christianity was banned, and Western trade was limited to a small Dutch post on the artificial island of Dejima at Nagasaki. Chinese merchants also traded at Nagasaki, and there were contacts through Korea, Ryukyu and the Ainu lands in the north.

In the early 19th century Russian, British and American ships appeared more often. In 1825 the shogunate ordered coastal defences to drive foreign ships away, and in 1837 an American merchant ship, the Morrison, was fired upon. News of China’s defeat in the First Opium War alarmed Japanese officials, and the order was softened in 1842 to allow ships to take on water and fuel. In 1846 an American commodore, James Biddle, came to Edo Bay but left without result.

The shogunate was not unaware of the danger. In 1844 King Willem II of the Netherlands sent a letter urging Japan to open its ports before Western powers forced it to, and in 1852 the Dutch representative at Dejima warned that an American squadron was on its way. Officials discussed the reports, but the government made few concrete preparations.

Why the United States came

The United States had become a Pacific power after acquiring California in 1848. American whalers worked the seas off Japan, and shipwrecked sailors were sometimes imprisoned and harshly treated. Steamship lines planned to cross the Pacific to China and needed coal along the way.

President Millard Fillmore approved an expedition in 1852 and chose Matthew Calbraith Perry, a senior naval officer who had championed steam warships. Perry studied everything he could find on Japan. He decided to avoid Nagasaki, where earlier visitors had been turned away, and to insist on dealing with high officials near the capital, backed by an impressive show of force.

Perry left Norfolk, Virginia, aboard the steam frigate Mississippi in November 1852. He sailed east via Madeira, the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon and Singapore to Hong Kong and Shanghai, where he gathered his ships. In May 1853 he called at Naha in the Ryukyu Kingdom, whose king was a vassal of the Satsuma domain, and he also surveyed the Bonin Islands as a possible coaling station.

The first visit, July 1853

Perry’s squadron of four ships, the steam frigates Susquehanna and Mississippi and the sailing sloops Plymouth and Saratoga, anchored off Uraga at the mouth of Edo Bay on 8 July 1853. The steamers, towing the sailing ships against the wind, astonished onlookers. Guard boats surrounded the squadron, and Japanese officials told Perry to go to Nagasaki.

Perry refused to meet anyone of low rank and threatened to land in force if his letter was not received. He sent boats to survey the bay towards Edo. After consulting the government, the shogunate agreed to accept the documents. On 14 July Perry landed at Kurihama with several hundred sailors and marines and handed President Fillmore’s letter, requesting friendship, trade, coal and protection for castaways, to two shogunal representatives.

Perry then announced he would return the following year for an answer and left on 17 July. Days later the shogun, Tokugawa Ieyoshi, died, leaving his sickly son Iesada as successor.

The arrival caused alarm and fascination in Edo. Rumours spread through the city, some families fled, and samurai hurried to guard the coast. Artists produced woodblock prints and scrolls depicting the steamships and the American sailors, sometimes with exaggerated, demon-like features. A satirical verse traditionally linked to the episode, though possibly composed later, punned on the name of a premium tea, joking that just four cups had been enough to keep the whole country awake at night.

Debate in Japan

The senior councillor Abe Masahiro, head of the shogun’s council of elders, took the unusual step of circulating the American letter to the daimyo, the regional lords, and even to some lower officials, asking for their views. Most opposed opening the country, but few believed Japan could fight. The consultation itself was a break with tradition, since it invited outsiders into decisions the shogunate had always made alone.

Meanwhile the shogunate began building artillery batteries on artificial islands in Edo Bay, the Odaiba forts, and lifted the ban on building large ocean-going ships. A Russian envoy, Yevfimy Putyatin, also arrived at Nagasaki in August 1853 seeking a treaty, adding to the pressure.

The return and the Convention of Kanagawa

Perry returned in February 1854, earlier than expected, with a larger squadron, usually counted as eight or nine ships and around 1,600 men. After disputes over the meeting place, negotiations opened at the village of Yokohama near Kanagawa on 8 March. The chief Japanese negotiator was the Confucian scholar Hayashi Akira.

Gifts were exchanged. The Americans brought a working quarter-size steam locomotive with a circular track, a telegraph set, rifles and books, while the Japanese gave silks, lacquerware and porcelain and staged a display by sumo wrestlers. The two sides talked through Dutch and Chinese interpreters.

The Convention of Kanagawa was signed on 31 March 1854. Its main terms were:

• peace and friendship between the United States and Japan;
• the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate opened to American ships for wood, water, coal and provisions;
• assistance and good treatment for shipwrecked American sailors;
• permission for a US consul to live at Shimoda;
• a most-favoured-nation clause giving the United States any privileges later granted to other countries.

The treaty did not open Japan to regular commerce. Perry also visited the Ryukyu Kingdom at Naha and signed a compact there in July 1854 before returning home.

The talks were not one-sided. Hayashi firmly rejected any opening to trade, arguing that Japan was self-sufficient, and Perry eventually accepted a treaty limited to ports, supplies and castaways. When an American marine died during the negotiations, the Japanese allowed his burial on shore, an early sign of changing attitudes. In April 1854, at Shimoda, the young samurai scholar Yoshida Shōin tried to stow away on one of Perry’s ships to learn about the West; he was turned back and imprisoned by the shogunate, but he later became an influential teacher of the men who led the Meiji Restoration.

Key people

• Matthew C. Perry (1794-1858): US naval officer who commanded the expedition and later oversaw publication of its official narrative.
• Millard Fillmore (1800-1874): US president who authorised the mission and signed the letter to the Japanese ruler.
• Abe Masahiro (1819-1857): head of the shogun’s council, who sought broad opinion and accepted the treaty.
• Hayashi Akira (1800-1859): scholar-official who led the Japanese side in the 1854 negotiations.

Consequences

Britain, Russia and the Netherlands soon obtained similar agreements. The first American consul, Townsend Harris, arrived at Shimoda in 1856 and in 1858 negotiated the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, which opened further ports to trade, fixed low tariffs and gave foreigners extraterritoriality, meaning they were tried in their own consular courts. Japanese critics saw these “unequal treaties” as a national humiliation.

The senior minister Ii Naosuke signed the 1858 treaty without the emperor’s approval and purged his critics. He was assassinated outside Edo Castle in 1860. The slogan sonnō jōi, “revere the emperor, expel the barbarians”, rallied samurai in domains such as Chōshū and Satsuma against the shogunate, which lost authority year by year.

The crisis ended in the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which returned formal power to the emperor and launched Japan’s rapid modernisation. The sudden appearance of steam warships in 1853 is often taken as the starting point of that transformation.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Japan was completely closed before Perry. In fact the Dutch and Chinese traded at Nagasaki throughout the period, and Japanese scholars of “Dutch learning” followed Western science closely.
• Myth: Perry forced Japan open with gunfire. No shots were fired in anger; the threat of force was enough.
• Myth: the Convention of Kanagawa opened trade. It opened two ports for supplies and shipwreck aid; full commercial relations came with the Harris Treaty of 1858.

Timeline

• 1837: The American merchant ship Morrison is fired upon in Japanese waters.
• 1846: Commodore James Biddle visits Edo Bay without success.
• 1852, November: Perry sails from Norfolk, Virginia.
• 1853, 8 July: Perry’s four ships anchor off Uraga.
• 1853, 14 July: Perry delivers President Fillmore’s letter at Kurihama.
• 1853, 17 July: The squadron leaves Edo Bay.
• 1854, February: Perry returns with a larger fleet.
• 1854, 31 March: The Convention of Kanagawa is signed.
• 1858, 29 July: The Harris Treaty opens Japan to trade.
• 1868: The Meiji Restoration ends the Tokugawa shogunate.

Why it matters

The Perry Expedition forced Japan’s leaders to confront Western military and industrial power. The debates and treaties it triggered undermined the Tokugawa shogunate and set Japan on the road to the Meiji Restoration, rapid industrialisation and its rise as a major power.