Before the dawn by Shimazaki Tōson 1872-1943;Naff William E

Author:Shimazaki, Tōson, 1872-1943;Naff, William E
Language: eng
Format: epub

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Commodore Perry, the American who came some one hundred and sixty years later, did not share the attitudes of the Dutch. He was in no way prepared to act the buffoon in order to gain the trading privileges hitherto denied the Americans. Acting on a basis of absolute equality, he stripped away the masks that the Dutch had worn, to carry out an important mission for his country.

Yet it must not be forgotten that the Dutch, who had come early to the Far East, left valuable guidance to those who came after them. If it be assumed that starting in 1633, when Japanese were forbidden to voyage overseas and the construction of vessels of more than five hundred koku capacity was forbidden, the people of this nation were altogether uninformed about conditions overseas and those in other countries were totally lacking in knowledge of Japan, that would be an overly hasty conclusion. The route that Perry took was said to have led from the east coast of the United States to Madeira, around the Cape of Good Hope to Mauritius, Ceylon, and Singapore, and from there into the China Sea, but in fact Perry had undergone a long preparation for the voyage before he left Annapolis. He had sought out everything that had been written about Japan. He had read the invaluable works of the great Siebold and he had asked the United States government to buy other books. He was said to have persuaded the government to spend $30,000 to obtain the charts that the Dutch had prepared. Although Japan was so distant from America and unknown in American literature, it was reported that there were no people of East Asia about whom there was more information in the libraries of Europe. Still, the thing that Perry particularly wanted to learn but failed to learn was the current political situation in Japan and the true relationship between the emperor and the “taikun,” or shogun.

After sending two steamships ahead to the Cape of Good Hope and Mauritius, Perry set out on his long voyage in command of four warships. From American scientists and other scholars had come a request that a representative of their number be sent along on the voyage. This in itself shows what an utterly unprecedented venture this was. Before he came to pound on the door of the closed nation of Japan, Perry first gained a detailed knowledge of the seas arojmd the Ryukyus and the Japanese seacoast. Then at last he set out to drive full tilt straight into Edo bay, ignoring all Japanese objections. Before Perry reached the Japanese mainland, he stopped off in the Ryukyus, where he had an interview with the king and his ministers, and then he went to the Ogasawara islands, where he left with the white men who were living there cattle, sheep, seeds, and other necessities, along with an American flag. He was not coming with small plans. When he landed at Kurihama in Uraga it was just

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