The nytimes has an interesting Op Ed piece by Christopher Benfey about Commodore Perry and the opening of Japan to trade with the West:
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Commodore Matthew Perry's fabled "opening" of Japan. If you said, "Commodore who?" you wouldn't be alone. Commodore Perry -- Matthew Calbraith Perry, to be exact -- has faded from American memory, even though every Japanese school child knows his name.In 1853, Perry brought a fleet of four heavily armed "Black Ships" into Edo Bay, near present-day Tokyo, and demanded, in the name of President Millard Fillmore, that Japan open its ports to American ships. Japan, which had been closed to foreigners for more than two centuries, complied, and Perry steamed home expecting a hero's welcome.
He was disappointed, for Washington had more pressing concerns than a tiny archipelago across the Pacific: namely, the extension of slavery into the West and the threatening noises about secession from Southern senators. Perry decided he needed public relations help.
Although Commodore Perry's name may have faded in the American consciousness, he's well known, of course, to any fan of Stephen Sondheim, whose Pacific Overtures (written in collaboration with John Weidman) tells the story of the interaction between Japan and the West.
Posted by jt at December 6, 2003 05:34 AM