Matthew Perry (naval officer)

Matthew Calbraith Perry (April 10, 1794 – March 4, 1858) was the Commodore of the U.S. Navy who forced the opening of Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854, under the threat of military force.

The "Opening of Japan": 1852-1854

Precedents

Perry's expedition to Japan was preceded by several naval expeditions by American ships:

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• From 1797 to 1809, several American ships traded in Nagasaki under the Dutch flag, upon the request of the Dutch who were not able to send their own ships because of their conflict against Britain during the Napoleonic Wars.
• In 1837, an American businessman in Canton, named Charles W. King saw an opportunity to open trade by trying to return to Japan three Japanese sailors (among them, Otokichi) who had been shipwrecked a few years before on the coast of Oregon. He went to Uraga Channel with Morrison, an unarmed American merchant ship. The ship was fired upon several times, and finally sailed back unsuccessfully.
• In 1846, Commander James Biddle, sent by the United States Government to open trade, anchored in Tokyo Bay with two ships, including one warship with 72 canons, but his demands for a trade agreement remained unsuccessful.
• In 1848, Captain James Glynn sailed to Nagasaki, leading at last to the first successful negotiation by an American with "Closed Country" Japan. James Glynn recommended to the United States Congress that negotiations to open Japan should be backed up by a demonstration of force, thus paving the way to Perry's expedition.

First Visit, 1852-1853

In 1852, Perry embarked from Norfolk, Virginia for Japan, in command of a squadron in search of a Japanese trade treaty. Aboard a black-hulled steam frigate, he ported

Related Topics:
1852 - Norfolk, Virginia - Japan

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Mississippi,

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Plymouth,

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Saratoga,

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and

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Susquehanna

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at Uraga Harbor near Edo (modern Tokyo) on July 8, 1853, and was met by representatives of the Tokugawa Shogunate who told him to proceed to Nagasaki, where there was limited trade with the Netherlands and which was the only Japanese port open to foreigners at that time (see Sakoku). Perry refused to leave and demanded permission to present a letter from President Millard Fillmore, threatening force if he was denied. Japan had been living reclusely apart from modern technology, and the Japanese military forces could not resist Perry's modern weaponry; the "black ships" would then become, in Japan, a symbol of threatening Western technology and colonialism.

Related Topics:
Edo - Tokyo - July 8 - 1853 - Tokugawa Shogunate - Nagasaki - Netherlands - Sakoku - Millard Fillmore - Black ships - Colonialism

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The Japanese government, so as to avoid naval bombardment, had to accept Perry's coming ashore. Perry proceeded ashore at Kurihama, (near present Yokosuka) on July 14, presented the letter to delegates present and left for the China coast, promising to return for a reply.

Related Topics:
Kurihama - Yokosuka - July 14

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Second Visit, 1854

Perry returned in February, 1854 with twice as many ships, finding that the delegates had prepared a treaty embodying virtually all the demands in Fillmore's letter. Perry signed the Convention of Kanagawa on March 31, 1854 and departed, mistakenly believing the agreement had been made with imperial representatives.

Related Topics:
February - 1854 - Convention of Kanagawa - March 31 - Imperial

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On his way to Japan, Perry anchored off of Keelung in Formosa, known today as Taiwan, for ten days. Perry and crew members landed on Formosa and investigated the potential of mining the coal deposits in that area. He emphasized in his reports that Formosa provided a convenient, mid-way trade location. The island was also very defensible. It could serve as a base for exploration in a similar way as Cuba had done for the Spanish in the Americas. Occupying Formosa could help the US counter European monopolization of the major trade routes. The United States government failed to respond to Perry's proposal to claim sovereignty over Formosa.

Related Topics:
Keelung - Formosa - Cuba

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Return to the United States, 1855

Upon Perry's return to the United States in 1855, Congress voted to grant him a reward of $20,000 in appreciation of his work in Japan. Perry used part of this money to prepare and publish a report on the expedition in three volumes, titled Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan.

Related Topics:
1855 - Congress - China Sea

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