The Perry Expedition and the "Opening of Japan to the West," 1853–1873: A Short History with Documents (Passages: Key Moments in History)

Today the American right complains about interference in our affairs by the Chinese, Japanese, and Russians. As Martin Luther said : "The opinion of what is right depends on who's ox is gored." The USA has consistently interfered in the affairs of the sovereign countries of China, Japan, and Russia through its fifth column missionary activity and armed military coercion. The role of Issichar Jacox Roberts a Southern Baptist minister, who's presence was enabled by the British opium wars, in instigating the TaiPing rebellion which resulted in 40 million Chinese deaths and the downfall of the Qing dynasty of China is one of the worst examples of foreign meddling. Similar activity by Jesuit missionaries in Shimabra province, Japan in the 1600s failed. Mathew Perry was more successful in the 1800s with his steam powered gunships. It was equivalent to a Russian submarine surfacing in New York harbor and demanding a say in our affairs. The USA put an expeditionary force ashore at Archangel in Russia after the Russian Revolution in support of the White Russians. Clark does a good job of assembling the facts concerned with Mathew Perry's coercion of the Japanese government to Kowtow to western interests. This resulted in the overthrow of the Shogunate and ushered in the Meiji restoration. I spent 3 years of my time in the USAF at Kadena AFB Okinawa. This is where I first heard legend of Commodore Perry . This book presents many new to me facts and contains English language versions of several official Japanese and American correspondences. This is an excellent book for anyone who enjoyed James Clavel's "Shogun". It provides insight into the Japanese view of "whose ox is gored". An excellent history. Well documented.

The second half of the book has many documents pertaining to the opening ofJapan and its aftermath. I found these quite interesting.