There was no 'invasion'. Americans shipwrecked there.. all 'gaijin' in fact, were summarily executed when they set foot on Japanese soil. The Japanese for 200 years had maintained an extreme isolationist policy. American merchants wanted trade, safe harbor, normal relations. Perry was sent there with a force considered large enough to press the point and the japanese agreed.
Perry's Second Visit to Japan
Perry returned to Japan in February, 1854. He came with seven ships, four sailing ships, three steamers, 1,600 men and dropped anchor 26 miles from the Japanese capital, Edo. The Japanese, worried about the American ships, activated the harbor defenses which included mobilizing soldiers and sending them to harbor forts and batteries.
As soon as the East India Fleet dropped anchor two guard boats came up to Perry’s flagship, but were turned away and sent to the Powhatan where they could talk to Captain Henry Adams. Later, when Perry had recovered from the arthritis attack that had forced him to turn the Japanese away initially, he responded to Japanese demands that he leave and negotiate somewhere else by saying that trade must begin soon, and that all further negotiations were to be carried out in Edo. The Japanese took this as a serious threat because Perry had told them that he planned to move up the bay toward Edo if demands weren’t met soon. He would also shell the city if necessary to get his point across.
The Landing
Perry landed for peace and trade talks on March 8th, 1854. Three naval bands were there playing the Star Spangled Banner. He told the Japanese how the Chinese and United States had both benefited from trade. After much intense negotiations, the Japanese gave in and signed the Treaty of Kanagawa on March 31st, 1854. The treaty guaranteed that the Japanese would save shipwrecked Americans, that they would provide food, coal, water, and other provisions for the American ships that docked in Nagasaki. Then in five years the same supplies could be procured at Shimoda and Hakodate. It also granted the United States permission to build a consulate in Shimoda. The Japanese would sign to all of these things but wouldn’t sign for trade. Eventually the Japanese gave in and trade was granted as well. This ended Japan’s two-hundred year isolation policy.
Ramzey, yup; America understood the rules of the Era.. POWER. Her chief competitor and protagonist for trade... the English Empire. Yup; we fought the Spanish and stole the Philippines, then slaughtered morro's and indigents left and right, ran all over central and south america, invading here, setting up puppet governments there, and did all kinds of stuff the liberal pinheads of today would shed their hair over.
Big freakin deal. Japan should count herself lucky it wasn't a British Fleet that showed up in Tokyo bay. By the standards of the era, we were in fact, benevolent. Even the act of dropping a pair of nukes on them a 100 years later... to end the war THEY started.. especially after Nanking, Bataan and Okinawa was benevolent.. saved several million lives on their side, half again as many on our side.
Deal with it.
