Perry Mission to Japan

Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the United States Navy was dispatched in 1853 with a squadron of warships to open relations with Japan, which had largely sealed itself off from the Western world for more than two centuries under the policy of seclusion enforced by the Tokugawa shogunate. The United States sought coaling stations for its Pacific steamships, protection for shipwrecked sailors, and access to Japanese ports for trade.

Perry's imposing "black ships" anchored in Edo Bay and presented demands from the American president, then withdrew, promising to return for an answer. When he came back in 1854, Japanese authorities, impressed and intimidated by American naval power, agreed to the Treaty of Kanagawa. It opened two ports to American vessels, guaranteed aid to shipwrecked sailors, and permitted an American consul to reside in Japan.

Perry's expedition ended Japan's long isolation and set in motion sweeping changes across the country. Other Western powers soon secured similar agreements, and the resulting upheaval contributed to the fall of the shogunate and the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Japan thereafter embarked on rapid modernization that transformed it into a major industrial and military power within a generation.