Historical Document Describing The First U.S. Contact With Japan

For the past month or so, I have been in contact with the folks over at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts in the U.S. of A.

Now, since Japan - It's A Wonderful Rife tends to keep things exclusively about Japan and Japan related things, some of you may be wondering just what the heck I would be doing researching materials from an American Antiquarian anything.

Well, truth be told, quite a lot actually.

Now... don't be mislead by the name of this wonderful organization. It's a library. Some of you may have heard of these things - it's a place where there are books made out of something called paper.

To pull directly from their website (HERE), the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) library houses the largest and most accessible collection of printed materials from first contact through 1876 in what is now the United States, the West Indies and parts of Canada.

Okay, Andrew, I hear you moan, so what?

So what? So what? If I could paraphrase basketball miscreant Allen Iverson, "We're talking books. Books, man. Books."

And, since this library tends to focus its collections on material up to and including 1876 (the centenary of the birth of the United States) - it has some real old stuff that most of us have never heard of, or have heard of in Wikipedia, but have never seen.

Thanks to the aid of the Curator of Newspapers and Periodicals at the AAS, one Vincent Golden, I have come across material from the United States about Japan.

And here's the thing... since Japan had a closed door foreign policy until 1868, you know what I have to share is from that era until 1876.

Only it's not!

Now... the link I have here is actually from Google Books, but Vincent was the one who provided the lead. And now... we can read The Americans In Japan: An Abridgement of the Government Narrative of the U.S. Expedition to Japan Under Commodore Perry. From 1857.

The book was written by Robert Tomes (1817-1882) and is clear and easy to understand.

The following document - starting at CHAPTER 7 for the stuff about Japan - offers some excellent historical insight into the efforts of Commodore Perry (1794-1858) and his Black Ships to open up Japan's doors to the rest of the world.

The book revolves around Perry's trips to Japan and the surrounding Asian countries between 1852-1854, meaning it took some time for Japan to finally open its doors in 1868.

I have read this book - and it is fascinating. I love the phonetic mis-spellings of some of the Japanese names and locations! It's almost like I was involved in writing it!

Of course, Japan wasn't the real goal for the United States - it was trade with China, but since its steam ships needed coal, the U.S. wanted to land in Japan and purchase its coal. Therefore, it needed to open up trade relations with Japan, a country that didn't really want to open up trade relations with anyone. (Japan was of course trading with a few countries, but only in a limited manner.)

A link to this U.S. document can be found HERE - and remember, I said start at Chapter 7. I might skip most of Chapter 9 if you are only interested in Japan, but the whole document looks at America's involvement in the Pacific during this exciting tie of expansionism.

Now, since some of you are lazy and won't actually read the book (for shame), let me at least tell you what Perry accomplished.

He was able to get a treaty signed between the U.S. and Japan.

Signed on March 31, 1854, the treaty was called The Convention of Kanagawa, and featured three important things that helped pave the way for the end of Japan's isolationist policy:

Article 1
There shall be a perfect, permanent, and universal peace and a sincere and cordial amity between the United States of America and on the one part, and the Empire of Japan on the other part, and between their people respectively, without exception of persons or places.

Article 2
The port of Simoda [in Yedo harbor], in the principality of Idzu, and the port of Hakodade, in the principality of Matsmai [Hokkaido], are granted by the Japanese as ports for the reception of American ships, where they can be supplied with wood, water, provisions, and coal, and other articles their necessities may require, as far as the Japanese have them. The time for opening the first-named port is immediately on signing this treaty; the last named port is to be opened immediately after the same day in the ensuing Japanese year.
NOTE: A tariff of prices shall be given by the Japanese officers of the things which they can furnish, payment for which shall be made in gold and silver coin.

Article 3
Whenever ships of the United States are thrown or wrecked on the coast of Japan, the Japanese vessels will assist them, and carry their crews to Simoda, or Hakodade, and hand them over to their countrymen, appointed to received them; whatever articles the shipwrecked mean may have preserved shall likewise be restored, and the expenses incurred in the rescue and support of Americans and Japanese who may thus be thrown upon the shores of either nation are not to be refunded.

Hmmm... sounds like the U.S. got its coal, friendship with the Japanese, and a promise for them to help shipwrecked sailors rather than just assassinate them and steal their possessions. I guess there was enough of that going on for that to need to be included in the document.

Now... if you tell your friends, and come back soon, I'll present some other interesting books from the same expedition, and some from elsewhere.

Yes... I am aware of the irony of heaping the praises of books and then presenting it to you in an electronic format - and by my paperless blog.

But... it's not like you and I are going to get out hands on the original book. But, you can view it at the American Antiquarian Society website -and while I have not physically visited the place, the website and search engine is more than helpful.

Thank you American Antiquarian Society and Vincent!

Cheers
Andrew Joseph
And... while I will present a few more documents, my initial purpose wasn't o write about
Commodore Perry, but I suppose a a little preamble was required first.
PS: The image above is a Japanese 1854 print describing Commodore Perry's Black Ships.
PPS: In the The Convention of Kanagawa above, 'Yedo', is of course actually 'Edo', now known as 'Tokyo', the seat of power of Japan.