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    Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun
    Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun
    Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun
    Ebook179 pages1 hour

    Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun

    By Rhoda Blumberg

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    In 1853, few Japanese people knew that a country called America even existed.

    For centuries, Japan had isolated itself from the outside world by refusing to trade with other countries and even refusing to help shipwrecked sailors, foreign or Japanese. The country's people still lived under a feudal system like that of Europe in the Middle Ages. But everything began to change when American Commodore Perry and his troops sailed to the Land of the Rising Sun, bringing with them new science and technology, and a new way of life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 6, 2009
    ISBN9780061971693
    Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun
    Author

    Rhoda Blumberg

    Rhoda Blumberg has written about the opening of Japan (1853-1854) in Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun, a Newbery Honor Book, which also won the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award and the Golden Kite Award. Her acclaimed histories also include The Incredible Journey of Lewis & Clark, The Great American Gold Rush, and The Remarkable Voyages of Captain Cook, all ALA Notable Books. She is the winner of the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award for her overall contribution to nonfiction. Rhoda Blumberg says that while doing research for Commodore Perry, "I read about the ordeals and strange adventures of Manjiro, then spent years replaying his life story in my mind until I felt impelled to write about him." The author and her husband, Gerald, live in Yorktown Heights, New York.

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    Reviews for Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      The use of original drawings from both Americans and Japanese who were present add so much. They help convey the setting and attitudes of each side.
    • 4/5
      I was pleasantly surprised with this book. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it so much. The book is relatively quick as a reading experience and presents well -without endless details, names, and dates- the efforts of Perry and his men to form a treaty with the Japanese people during a time of extreme isolationism. The manner in which the two sides keep each other at length and also cross over to learn about one another is entertaining.
    • 4/5
      A fairly dry and more-than-fairly racially dated account of Perry's interactions with the Japanese. For kids. Really not sure how this won a Newbery Honor. Yoicks.
    • 4/5
      hay phết
    • 4/5
      Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun is a concise account of the forced opening of Japan to the Western world in 1854. The event marked a powerful and dangerous precedent that Japan itself would later use to its own advantage on neighboring Korea. Commodore Perry was not the first U.S. Naval officer to bring warships in hopes of establishing trade with Japan, but he was the first successful one employing a sort of "gunboat diplomacy"; a deadly mixture of stubbornness and the firepower to enforce an open-door policy with America. In truth, Japan had already been mingling on a limited scale with the Dutch but had also retained a rather nasty international reputation for its treatment of shipwrecked Americans. Therefore, in addition to insisting on opening a trading port to supply merchant and whaling operations in the Pacific, one of the many points of the Treaty of Kanagawa included ceasing an open hostile policy towards shipwrecked sailors. The radical diplomatic changes that Perry was able to enact coincided with the gradual decline of the shogunate and the young Japanese emperor's eventual sweeping reforms now known as the Meiji Restoration. The book abruptly ends on this note. Although the author's target audience is the young adult crowd, it's a sufficient account of the Commodore's expedition. Short, sweet and recommended.

    Book preview

    Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun - Rhoda Blumberg

    Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun

    by Rhoda Blumberg

    For my husband, Gerald

    and my son, Lawrence

    I want to thank my friend Dorothy Segall, who helped me

    acquire some of the illustrations and supplied me with source

    material from her private library.

    I’m also grateful for the guidance of another dear friend

    Amy Poster, Associate Curator of Oriental Art

    at the Brooklyn Museum.

    • Table of Contents

    Part I The Coming of the Barbarians

    1   Aliens Arrive

    2   The Black Ships of the Evil Men

    3   His High and Mighty Mysteriousness

    4   Landing on Sacred Soil

    The Audience Hall

    5   The Dutch Island Prison

    6   Foreigners Forbidden

    7   The Great Peace

    The Emperor • The Shogun • The Lords • Samurai • Farmers • Artisans and Merchants

    8   Clouds Over the Land of the Rising Sun

    The Japanese-American

    Part II The Return of the Barbarians

    9   The Black Ships Return

    Parties

    10   The Treaty House

    11   An Array of Gifts

    Gifts for the Japanese • Gifts for the Americans

    12   The Grand Banquet

    13   The Treaty

    A Japanese Feast

    14   Excursions on Land and Sea

    A Birthday Cruise

    15   Shore Leave

    Shimoda • Hakodate

    16   In the Wake of the Black Ships

    Afterword

    The First American Consul • The Fall of the Shogun

    Appendices

    A   Letter of the President of the United States to the Emperor of Japan

    B   Translation of Answer to the President’s Letter, Signed by Yenosuke

    C   Some of the American Presents for the Japanese

    D   Some of the Japanese Presents for the Americans

    E   Text of the Treaty of Kanagawa

    Notes

    About the Illustrations

    Bibliography

    Searchable Terms

    About the Author

    Other Books by Rhoda Blumberg

    Credits

    Copyright

    About the Publisher

    Steamships were new to the Japanese.

    courtesy of Asahi Shimbun and Kanagawa Prefecture Museum

    PART I

    THE COMING OF THE BARBARIANS

    The Black Ships arrive, July 8, 1853.

    courtesy of the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo

    1 • ALIENS ARRIVE

    IF MONSTERS HAD DESCENDED UPON JAPAN the effect could not have been more terrifying.

    People in the fishing village of Shimoda were the first to spot four huge hulks, two streaming smoke, on the ocean’s surface approaching the shore. Giant dragons puffing smoke, cried some. Alien ships of fire, cried others. According to a folktale, smoke above water was made by the breath of clams. Only a child would believe that. Perhaps enemies knew how to push erupting volcanoes toward the Japanese homeland. Surely something horrible was happening on this day, Friday, July 8, 1853.

    Fishermen pulled in their nets, grabbed their oars, and rowed to shore frantically. They had been close up and knew that these floating mysteries were foreign ships. Black ships that belched black clouds! They had never seen anything like it. They didn’t even know that steamboats existed, and they were appalled by the number and size of the guns.

    Barbarians from out of the blue! Will they invade, kidnap, kill, then destroy everything? What will become of the sacred Land of the Rising Sun?

    General alarms were sounded. Temple bells rang, and messengers raced throughout Japan to warn everyone that enemy aliens were approaching by ship.

    Rumors spread that one hundred thousand devils with white faces were about to overrun the country. People panicked. They carried their valuables and furniture in all directions in order to hide them from invading barbarians. Women and children were locked up in their homes or sent to friends and relatives who lived inland, far from the endangered shore.

    Messengers rushed to the capital of Edo (now Tokyo) to alert government officials. Edo, the world’s largest city with more than one million occupants, went into a state of chaos the very day the ships were sighted. Women raced about in the streets with children in their arms. Men carried their mothers on their backs, not knowing which way to turn.

    Who could control the turmoil? The Emperor Komei was isolated in his royal palace at Kyoto. Although he was worshiped as a divine descendent of the sun goddess, Amaterasu, he was a powerless puppet, responsible primarily for conducting religious ceremonies. During his leisure hours he was expected to study the classics and compose poetry. The Japanese referred to their emperor as he who lives above the clouds. By law, he was not permitted to leave his heavenly palace unless he received special permission from the government. An emperor’s sphere of influence was otherworldly. All down-to-earth decisions were made by shoguns who had been wielding power for more than 700 years.

    The word shogun means barbarian expelling generalissimo. How appropriate at this time! Surely the Shogun would take command!

    But Shogun Ieyoshi who occupied the palace at Edo in 1853 was a weakling. No one even bothered to tell him the frightening news. Three days after the ships arrived he over-heard chatter about them while enjoying a Noh play that was being performed for him in his palace. The news affected him so badly that he went to bed, sick at heart.

    Because the Shogun was inept, his councillors, called the Bakufu, ruled the country. But according to a Japanese reporter, They were too alarmed to open their mouths.¹ The Bakufu should not have been so surprised. Before reaching Japan the American fleet had stopped at Loo Choo (now Okinawa). Japanese spies stationed there had sent word that American ships were on their way to Japan. Dutch traders had also alerted the Bakufu. But for mystifying reasons, the government did not take these reports seriously until the Black Ships arrived on July 8. After recovering from shock they ordered the great clans to prepare to battle barbarians.

    Locked away from the rest of the world, using the Pacific Ocean as its moat, Japan had maintained a feudal society similar to that of Europe during the Middle Ages. There were lords (daimyos), knights (samurai), and vassals who labored in their lord’s domain and paid tithes to their masters.

    A samurai readies for battle.

    courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bashford Dean Memorial Collection

    The country had not been at war since it invaded Korea in 1597. That was 256 years earlier. Nevertheless, feudal lords were able to mobilize troops. Men who had never dressed for warfare worked to get rust off spears. They placed new feathers in their families’ antique arrows. Tailors were pressed into service so they could fix the silk cords on ancient armor, make warriors’ cloaks, and sew cotton skull-caps that would cushion the weight of heavy helmets. Seventeen thousand soldiers were readied for battle.

    When the ships moved toward land that first day, Japanese guard boats set out to surround the enemy. But they could not catch up with aliens whose ships were so magical that they steamed ahead against the wind without using sails or oars.

    At five o’clock in the afternoon the foreign ships anchored a mile and a half from shore, at Edo Bay. They were less than thirty-five miles from the capital city. Beautiful cliffs, rolling green hills, and, above all, snow-capped Mount Fuji made a breathtaking scene. After dusk, beacon fires dotted the land, and there was an incessant toll of temple gongs.

    That night a meteor with a fiery tail streaked through the sky like a rocket. An omen from the gods! Shrines and temples were jammed. Priests told worshipers that barbarians were about to punish them for their sins.

    2 • THE BLACK SHIPS OF THE EVIL MEN

    The Susquehanna was a steam-powered sailing ship.

    courtesy of the National Archives

    FOUR SHIPS AND 560 MEN of the U.S. Navy had created this furor. The Mississippi and the Susquehanna were steam-powered. The

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