The Perry Expedition (Japanese: 黒船来航, kurofune raikō, "Arrival of the Black Ships") was a diplomatic and military expedition in two separate voyages (1852–1853 and 1854–1855) to the Tokugawa shogunate (徳川幕府) by warships of the United States Navy. The goals of this expedition included exploration, surveying, and the establishment of diplomatic relations and negotiation of trade agreements with the various nations in the region. Opening contact with the government of Japan was considered a top priority of the expedition, and was one of the key reasons for its inception.
The expedition was commanded by Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, under orders from President Millard Fillmore. Perry's primary goal was to force an end to Japan's 220-year-old policy of isolation and to open Japanese ports to American trade, through the use of gunboat diplomacy if necessary. The Perry Expedition led directly to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and the western Great Powers, and eventually to the collapse of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and the restoration of the Emperor. Following the expedition, Japan's burgeoning trade routes with the world led to the cultural trend of Japonisme, in which aspects of Japanese culture influenced art in Europe and America.
Growing commerce between America and China, the presence of American whalers in waters off Japan, and the increasing monopolization of potential coaling stations by European colonial powers in Asia were all contributing factors in the decision by President Fillmore to dispatch an expedition to Japan. Shipwrecked Westerners were treated harshly or even executed in Japan, under the policy of Sakoku, including sailors from the American whaling ship the Lawrence in 1846. The Americans were also driven by concepts of manifest destiny and the desire to impose the benefits of Western civilization and the Christian religion on what they perceived as backward Asian nations.
By the early 19th century, the Japanese policy of isolation was increasingly under challenge. In 1844, Dutch King William II sent a letter urging Japan to end the isolation policy on its own before change would be forced from the outside. Between 1790 and 1853, at least twenty-seven U.S. ships, including three warships, visited Japan, only to be turned away.
There were increased sightings and incursions of foreign ships into Japanese waters, and this led to considerable internal debate in Japan on how best to meet this potential threat to Japan's economic and political sovereignty. In May 1851, American Secretary of State Daniel Webster authorized Commodore John H. Aulick, commander of the American East India Squadron, to attempt to return seventeen shipwrecked Japanese sailors residing in San Francisco, which might provide the opportunity for opening commercial relations with Japan. On May 10, 1851, Webster drafted a letter addressed to the "Japanese Emperor" with assurances that the expedition had no religious purpose but was only to request "friendship and commerce" and supplies of coal needed by American ships en route to China.
The letter also boasted of American expansion across the North American continent and its technical prowess, and was signed by President Fillmore. However, Aulick became involved in a diplomatic row with a Brazilian diplomat and quarrels with the captain of his flagship, and was relieved of his command before he could undertake the Japan expedition. His replacement, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, was a senior-ranking officer in the United States Navy, and had extensive diplomatic experience.
Perry was well aware of the difficulties involved in attempting to establish relations with Japan and initially protested that he would prefer to command the Mediterranean Squadron of the U.S. Navy instead of being assigned to yet another attempt to open Japan, which he considered unlikely to win. Relevant precedents included:
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 with the United Kingdom during the Napoleonic Wars.
In 1837, an American businessman in Canton (Guangzhou) 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 Washington. He went to Uraga Channel with Morrison, an American merchant ship. The ship was attacked several times and sailed back without completing its mission.
In 1846, Commander James Biddle, anchored in Edo Bay on an official mission with two ships, including one warship armed with seventy-two cannons, asking for ports to be opened for trade, but his requests for a trade agreement remained unsuccessful.
In 1849, Captain James Glynn sailed to Nagasaki, leading at last to the first successful negotiation by an American with Japan. James Glynn recommended to the United States Congress that negotiations to open Japan be backed up by a demonstration of force, thus paving the way for Perry's expedition.
In addition to Perry's preparations, discussions were taking place in the halls of Congress and marine industry lobbyists. Most famously the Director of the American and Foreign Agency, a prominent trade advocacy firm of the time, Aaron Haight Palmer wrote a letter to Secretary of State John M. Clayton in 1849 urging forward the Perry Expedition. In advance of his voyage, Perry read widely amongst available books about Japan. His research also included consultation with the Japanologist Philipp Franz von Siebold. Siebold spent eight years working, teaching, and studying at the isolated Dutch island-trading post of Dejima in Nagasaki harbour before returning to Leiden in the Netherlands. Perry also demanded greater latitude in his orders from Webster, a demand the Secretary of State granted just before his death in October 1852. Perry thus sailed for Japan with "full and discretionary powers", including possible use of force if the Japanese tried to treat him as they had Commodore Biddle. Perry also refused to allow any professional diplomats to accompany the expedition. He asked the German painter Wilhelm Heine and pioneer daguerreotype photographer Eliphalet M. Brown Jr. to join the expedition as official artists. Agricultural specialist Dr. James Morrow was assigned by the US State Department. Several Japanese castaways were also taken on as unofficial interpreters.
The expedition was assigned the steam warships Mississippi, Susquehanna, and Powhatan, the armed store steamships Lexington, Supply, and Southampton, and the sailing sloops Macedonian, Plymouth, and Saratoga. To command his fleet, Perry chose officers with whom he had served in the Mexican–American War. Commander Franklin Buchanan was captain of Susquehanna and Joel Abbot was captain of Macedonian. Commander Henry A. Adams became the Commodore's chief of staff with the title "Captain of the Fleet". Major Jacob Zeilin (future commandant of the United States Marine Corps) was the ranking Marine officer, and was stationed on Mississippi. Perry also received permission to take government stores as gifts for the natives, especially obsolete small arms. These included 40 M1819 Hall rifles (with 4,000 cartridges), 20 percussion pistols (with 2,000 cartridges), 20 artillery swords, 20 muskets with Maynard percussion locks and 40 light cavalry sabers, as well as 100 Colt revolvers.
First visit to Japan, 1852–1853
Perry chose the black-hulled paddle-wheeled Mississippi as his flagship, and cleared Hampton Roads, Virginia on November 24, 1852. Perry made port calls at Madeira (December 11–15), St Helena (January 10–11), Cape Town (January 24 – February 3), Mauritius (February 18–28), Ceylon (March 10–15), Singapore (March 25–29), and Macao and Hong Kong (April 7–28). There he met with American-born Sinologist Samuel Wells Williams (who had been to Japan with the Morrison in 1837), who provided Chinese-language translations of Perry's official letters, and rendezvoused with Plymouth and Saratoga. He continued to Shanghai (May 4–17), where he met with the Dutch-born American diplomat Anton L. C. Portman, who translated his official letters into the Dutch language, and rendezvoused with Susquehanna.