Commodore Perry Forces Japan to Open

The Tokugawa shogunate in Japan prohibited ocean going vessels or travel between Japan and most countries.

Japan rejected offers to commence trade with the West.

Commodore Perry forced a first treaty on a reluctant Japan. This will be the opening of Japan to foreign trade and an eye-opening realization that Japanese military technology is behind.

The Samurai and country wanted to resist, but instead Japan began to open up and build a navy and build up a more western military. Katsu Kaishu wants to learn western military skills to restore honour to Japan.

American desires for a new trade treaty uncover fractures among the Bakufu and with the Imperial Court. A new movement was building: “Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians”. The Bakufu, also known as the Tokugawa shogunate, would come to lose power and the Meiji Emperor would be restored.

Image: “samurai portrait” by The Public Domain Review is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.

Timestamps
00:00 – Japan Was Closed to Trade, Observing the Opium War
00:29 -The Tokugawa Regime of Japan
02:01 – Japan’s Traditional Class System and the Samurai
03:24 – Japan’s Isolation
04:00 – West Powers Attempt to Trade with Japan
06:45– Forward Looking Samurai Notice Western Strength
07:20– The USA and Commodore Perry Open Japan to Trade
13:23– Japanese Samurai Start Criticizing the Bakufu
14:39– Katsu Kaishu
18:25– Foreign Powers Push for More Opening, Exposing Internal Divisions in Japan

Japan was aware of its neighbour China’s troubles,  like the Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion. Japan is to the east of China. It’s  a series of islands in the Pacific   Ocean mostly east of Korea and of the lands  that China transferred to Russia in 1858 and  

1860. Kyushu island, in Japan’s southwest,  which includes the major port of Nagasaki,   is almost south of Korea. And Nagasaki  is closer to Shanghai than to Tokyo. At the time of the Opium War  and the Taiping Rebellion,   Japan was governed by the Tokugawa shogun.  This shogun period had begun in 1603 with  

Tokugawa Ieyasu. While Japan had an Emperor,  it was Tokugawa Ieyasu and his descendants   who wielded the real power in Japan as Shogun  to the Emperor. Ieyasu had ended a long period   of civil war and brought peace to the Japanese  islands. The Emperor was merely a figurehead.

Japan was divided into a series of han  or domains, with a daimyo, or lord,   on top of each han. The Shogun was the leading  lord and led the whole of Japan. Other daimyo   and han had positions in the government, in part  based on their economic or military importance and  

Whether they had been allied with Tokugawa Ieyasu  or had not supported him as he came to power. Part of the way the Tokugawa controlled the other  daimyo was by requiring them to leave their home   domain every second year and live part of the  time in Edo. Edo was Japan’s administrative  

Capital (as opposed to Kyoto, which housed the  Emperor and his court). Edo later became modern   Tokyo. By this time, in the mid 1800’s, Edo  was one of the world’s most populated cities.   When a daimyo was not in Edo, he was required to  leave his wife and heir there. In other words,  

The daimyo’s closest family members were  effectively hostages during his absences. Japan had a class-based system  with a warrior class, farmer class,   artisan and then merchant class. The Japanese  warriors were samurai. During the long period   of internal peace, the samurai were  not needed for wars and instead took  

On a more administrative role. Others  trained in martial arts or sword work,   but without major battles. The samurai famously  operated under the Bushido code which governed   their actions and life. Bushido could be  its own podcast topic. To put it simply,   martial arts mastery, loyalty, sincerity and  honour until death were all important elements.

Confucian principles were important in Japan  and concepts of filial piety and loyalty were   important. As such, the responsibility of the  daimyo for his people and the loyalty of his   people to the daimyo and ultimately  shogun and emperor were crucial too. The daimyo and samurai received stipends. The  peasants produced rice and other agricultural  

Crops and the artisans and merchants were  beneath them, in that order. The samurai   were generally divided into two castes as  well. The higher-ranking administrators   received greater stipends than the lower  ranking soldiers who practiced martial arts. To maintain control, the Shogunate  implemented rules that prohibited  

Christianity, ocean going vessels,  leaving Japan or returning to it.   Japan officially became isolated from  the world. This was meant to prevent   daimyo from being able to transport large  numbers of troops or weapons by water. For more than 200 years, the only western  power that was allowed to trade with Japan  

Was Holland. The Dutch East India Company  was allowed to only operate on a small   fan shaped island in the harbour of  Nagasaki, in the far west of Japan. Other countries wanted to trade with  Japan but were rebuffed. For instance,   in 1778 and 1792, Russian ships  approached the northern island,  

Now known as Hokkaido, to trade but  were refused by the local daimyo. In 1804, a Russian ship arrived at Nagasaki  with a letter from Czar Alexander I,   requesting trading privileges. It was refused. In 1808, at a time when Britain and Holland  were at war during the Napoleonic period,  

A British warship flying a Dutch flag approached  Nagasaki. The local Japanese assumed it was   a Dutch merchant and approached in a small  boat, including with Dutch officials. However,   the British then took those Dutch officials  hostage, demanded fuel and water and then  

Left. The local Japanese were so ashamed by  the incident that after issuing their report,   they committed seppuku or ritual suicide  through disembowelment to atone for the mistake. In 1818, a British ship approached Edo Bay  requesting trading privileges, but was refused.  

Whalers landed six years later in a couple of  spots in Japan, causing trouble with locals. As   a result, the Shogun issued a “don’t think twice”  decree. Any foreign vessel that wasn’t Dutch or   Chinese was to be fired upon regardless of why  it was there. However, seventeen years later,  

In 1842, that decree was rescinded. To comply  with international norms, vessels in distress   were to be assisted with food, water, fuel or  other necessities but warned not to land and to   leave forthwith. That Japanese reform coincided  with the end of the first Opium War in China.

In 1844, King Willem II of Holland  sent a letter to the Shogunate advising   them that isolation was no longer  sustainable. The Japanese received   it politely but declined to change the  strict prohibitions of their ancestor. In 1846, two American ships were turned away  at Edo Bay. They requested mediation through  

The Dutch which sent a report to the Japanese  authorities. But again, no change resulted. The Tokugawa saw no reason to change  their policies, which had kept them   in power for around 250 years and replaced  a period of civil war with internal peace.

Of course, they were being warned by  the Dutch that times were changing,   and the Japanese were being approached by other  powers for trade and exchanges. But for now,   Japanese policy remained strictly isolationist. Some minor Japanese samurai were paying  attention. For instance, Katsu Kaishu had  

Done some Dutch studies in Japan. He had read  on western military matters. He was interested   in western style guns and since 1850 had been  teaching students about those weapons in the   capital. He was also manufacturing western  style guns for Japanese lords. He had been  

Researching western naval vessels. He knew that  Japanese coastal fortifications could only fire   about 800 metres, which was 1/3 or 1/4th the  distance that western vessels could fire. In 1852, the US Secretary of State  gave instructions to Commodore Perry   to lead a mission to Japan. This  was 4 years after the start of the  

Gold rush in California and two years  after California became a state. Now,   the US was becoming a Pacific nation  with its growing port at San Francisco. Commodore Perry’s instructions  were limited. It was for permanent   protection of shipwrecked Americans off  the coast of Japan and provision of water,  

Fuel etc. Given the experience of American  and other traders, he was warned “not to   excite a hostile feeling or a distrust  of the government of the United States.” However, Perry decided to force his will  upon Japan. He arrived with two steam  

Frigates and two sloops-of-war in Edo Bay,  within view of the administrative capital.   One ship had thirty or forty cannons, two  had more than twenty cannons each and one   had twelve. It was noted by the Japanese  that the American ships could move freely  

Without scull or oar and at great speed.  They were described as “floating castles”. At this time, the largest Japanese ships  had displacements of around 100 tons,   while Perry’s largest was over 2400  tons…or twenty-four times more. Contrary to his instructions, Perry  did excite the Japanese. He refused  

To leave for Nagasaki and presented  the Japanese with two white flags for   surrender to his terms. He insisted that  the letter he brought be communicated. Perry landed and a hasty ceremony took place  as the letter was communicated. The American  

Ships took soundings and documented the Bay.  This was all a violation of Japanese law and   an offence to the Japanese who watched. The  shogunate promised a reply by next year.   Perry in turn promised to return the next year  with an even larger fleet to hear the response.

The shogunate was therefore in its most  precarious spot in centuries. To agree   to the American terms would be humiliating  and show weakness. But the Japanese naval   defence was out of date and to resist would  almost certainly lead to a major defeat.

The Japanese leadership was well-aware of  Britain’s defeat of China in the Opium War.   If the Central Country, which had been  the pinnacle of eastern civilization,   had been unable to resist the west,  then Japan’s chances looked slim. To make matters worse, Shogun Ieyoshi died 10  days after Commodore Perry’s first expedition  

Left. That left the Senior Council without  a shogun at a time of serious discussion. All feudal lords were summoned  to Edo to solicit their views.   This was without precedent. Feudal  lords were not used to being invited   for consultations. The Senior Council even  invited written submissions from samurai.

All in all, 700 responses were received. Most  wanted the American requests rejected, even at   the cost of an unsuccessful war. That became known  as the “Expel the Barbarians” or Joi position. A   minority recommended accepting the demands.  This became known as the “Open the Country”  

Position. Mostly, this was practical, to build up  the military first before ejecting the barbarians.   In short, everyone wanted the barbarians  expelled. They just differed on how best   to do so. Most wanted war first. Some wanted to  westernize first and build forces before doing so.

Katsu Kaishu, who was the samurai producing  western guns and teaching about them,   expressed indifference about opening  the country or not. He recommended   revamping the military to achieve a modern navy,  lifting the prohibition on oceangoing vessels,   constructing western style warships, constructing  batteries with powerful cannons along the coast  

And training men to operate the new ships. He  suggested first that a military academy teach   modern principles and that the military should  be opened to capable men regardless of birth   rank. He wanted to exclude useless but wealthy  men of noble rank. He wanted improvements in  

The translation of foreign texts. Translation had  begun, but he considered their quality to be poor. Within two months, the shogunate did end  the prohibition on ocean going vessels.   The Bakufu, another expression for the government,   did build a western style ship. Two  daimyo also built some for their domains. Commodore Perry returned early,  

In February 1854 with 7 ships. He made it  clear he would not leave without a treaty. Most Japanese still preferred to resist.  For example, Katsu Kaishu’s cousin Odani   Seiichiro was chief instructor of the official  military academy. He was to deliver a letter to  

The Americans. He secretly planned to use  that as an opportunity to kill Perry. He   recruited two of his students to come along  to kill two of the other officers. His plan   was to show Japanese resistance and to make the  Americans flee in fear. But the Bakufu may have  

Sensed something was off and replaced him at  the last minute. By the end of March 1854,   the Treaty of Peace and Amity was arranged  by the new Shogun, ending the long period of   isolation. It did not specify trade terms, but  did allow American ships to purchase fuel and  

Supplies and friendly treatment in case they  were shipwrecked. Two ports were opened. One   in the far north on what is now Hokkaido. One  was near Edo, the administrative capital. Soon,   similar treaties were signed with Great  Britain, France, the Netherlands and Russia.

Two Japanese samurai tried to stow  away on the American ships to better   learn about them. But they were found,  removed and tried in Japan. They were   imprisoned and one of the two died in  prison within a few months. The other  

Was eventually released and continued to  study so as to better fight for Japan. Sakuma Shozan, their teacher, who was also a  teacher of Katsu Kaishu, was also incarcerated   as a result. He was from Choshu, which was an  area of Japan that had not supported Tokugawa  

Ieyasu in the early 1600s. As a result, its power  was lower than those han who were long time allies   of the Tokugawa. The stowaways had left a sword  on the American vessel and a letter from Sakuma,   which implicated him. He was imprisoned and  later subject to eight years house arrest.  

He lectured the Bakufu officials saying that  samurai should not be prosecuted for wanting   to defend Japan when it was the Americans who  had broken the law. He spent his time under   house arrest reading and writing. In his works, he  was critical of the Bakufu system of appointments  

Based on family lineage. He argued this led to  mediocrity and ineptitude among the officials. His student Katsu Kaishu, who has already  been mentioned a few times, grew up in Edo,   the administrative capital and as a vassal of  the Tokugawa. His family had once been peasants,  

But an ancestor who was blind had been able to  save up enough funds as a masseur and healer to   purchase the lowest level of samurai rank. As a  result, his descendants, including Katsu Kaishu,   were of samurai rank. Katsu’s family was quite  poor and he grew up in a rough part of the city,  

Close to brothels and the like. But he did  visit the Edo castle grounds as a child and   the shogun had noticed him and taken a liking  to him. Katsu had played with the shogun’s son,   which Katsu’s father had encouraged. Katsu  had also been trained in fencing and kendo  

Before commencing Dutch studies, where he had  begun learning about the rest of the world. Dutch studies, which meant the learning of a  European language and reading foreign texts,   including in astronomy, biographies  and other works, was not encouraged by   the Bakufu. Katsu’s studies were therefore  outside of the norm or what was considered  

Proper. But he correctly anticipated that  studying western military matters would   mean more to a samurai than sword work  going forward. He started those studies in 1842,   the year that China was opened through force  by Great Britain following the Opium War.

When his father died, Katsu inherited a  large debt. He tried to pay it off and   made and sold cannons and guns to daimyo.  Some imagined that he was profiteering,   but he invited them to observe him and found  that he worked frugally and carefully to deliver  

Quality. One corrupt blacksmith suggested that  they use inferior materials and split the savings.   Katsu instead lectured him on the importance of  quality to defend the country. He was a patriot,   ahead of his time in recognizing Japan’s need  to arm itself to protect its independence.

In 1855, Katsu was noticed by a forward-looking  lord who recruited him into government service.   He asked Katsu to translate Dutch books, which  did not interest Katsu much. But more enticing   was an inspection of coastal defences  in western Japan. He enjoyed that. Shortly thereafter,  

He was ordered to enrol as a cadet  at the new naval academy in Nagasaki. He and about 160 Japanese cadets were trained  by twenty-two Dutch officers on a ship donated   by the Netherlands to the Shogun. They had  duties on the ship and learned navigation,   shipbuilding, surveying, mathematics,  engineering and gunnery. Katsu also  

Improved his Dutch and while he could  previously read and understand it,   now he could also speak it. After a year and a  half, the trained cadets were replaced with new   students. The experienced cadets were ordered  to a new Warship Training Institute in Edo.

Katsu was asked to stay behind to help the new  cadets adjust. Then, a newly purchased ship   arrived that had been purchased from Holland.  It was renamed the Kanrin. He captained it on a   training mission up the coast with cadets, under  the supervision of Dutch instructors. One time,  

They went west and observed Korea. Katsu  was resentful that even with his experience,   he was always inferior to the less experienced,  but noble Kimura Yoshitake, who was head of the   Naval Academy. Katsu took opportunities to take  revenge when he could. When Kimura was onboard  

And asked Katsu why he wouldn’t venture  further out to sea, Katsu then navigated   forward into seas so rough that Kimura started  vomiting and asked Katsu to turn back to shore. Five years after the first treaties, foreign  powers pushed for new trade treaties. The  

First treaties had been bad enough from the  Japanese perspective, but without trade, they   minimized contact between the Japanese and the  foreigners. Trade would add many further exchanges   and interactions. The Bakufu were in charge, but  they knew that trade treaties would be unpopular.

When Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi died 10 days after  Perry’s departure, he was succeeded by Tokugawa   Iesada, who was childless. He was also weak and  in poor health. He would die in 1858, shortly   after the US Consul Townsend Harris pushed for a  trade treaty. As a result, the line of succession  

In the Shogunate was muddied. The Shogun’s first  cousin, Tokugawa Yoshitomi, daimyo of Kii, was his   closest living relative. But he was only 13 years  old. An alternative was Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu,   who was 22 years old, mature and capable. But  he was more distantly related to the shogun.

Also, as the shogun was weak and ill,   his senior council was really in charge  and there was maneuvering among those men. So, when the delicate issue of negotiating and  signing a trade treaty was being demanded by   the Americans, Japan was not governed by a  strong shogun but by wannabe puppet masters.  

Given the unpopularity of any such treaties,  it was decided that the Bakufu would ask for   the Emperor’s consent to the treaties. This  was not a legal requirement. The shogun was   the most powerful authority. However, to  build support for such an unpopular act  

As a foreign trade treaty, it was decided  that Imperial blessing would be desirable. Harris, as envoy of the Americans, was getting  impatient for a treaty and threatened to go to   Kyoto to get the Emperor to sign if  the Bakufu would not sign it in Edo.

However, the Imperial Court would  not readily endorse the treaty. There was of course, tension between Open  the Country and Expel the Barbarian views.   The Imperial Court, inland in Kyoto away  from the coast, was symphathetic to the   Expel the Barbarian view. The Emperor was  considered xenophobic and anti-foreigner.

Many in the Imperial Court also favoured  Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu for Shogun and   were positioning to have him be the next Shogun  rather than a regency for the thirteen-year-old. Also, there was now a growing Sonno-Joi movement   among the populace: “Revere the  Emperor, Expel the Barbarians”.