Black ships are comin' to win us...

[rolanni]

Current reading is Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Bewitched the West by Lesley Downer. In it, I learn that Sada was four or five when Commodore Perry came in his black ships to force Japan to open itself to the rest of the world (and cut the Dutch out of a trade monopoly, not that the US would have worried any about that, ahem). What I don't remember (if I ever knew) is how Perry (or, if you like, Millard Fillmore, who had been my favorite president until I found out late in high school that he hadn't done nothing during his term) had the leverage (gall and/or chutzpah) to demand that Japan open its borders. I do understand that the ships came at ...an opportune time, as the shogunate was starting to deteriorate, but surely the motive could not have been to prevent the messy collapse of the Japanese government, especially since the influx of Westerners and Western Stuff sent the culture and the politics into a tailspin, anyway.

Japan had withdrawn from the world; it was backward, insular, politically inept, and a sovereign nation. So, where did the US get the moral standing to demand the opening of borders and trade?

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

"So, where did the US get the moral standing to demand the opening of borders and trade?"

Might makes right. The British did the same sort of thing as well in the Far East. Of course the US and UK would never do anything like that these days, we would never interfere in the business of a sovereign nation just because we wanted something they had, like oil, or because we didn't like their political stance...

[elbales]

I like the way you think. Sarcasm FTW!

[ramblin-phyl.livejournal.com]

semi biographical YA novel (probably out of print) called Young Mac of Fort Vancouver--I may have a copy but will have to SEARCH. In the 1930's a Japanese fishing boat washed up on the shores of Oregon. Hudson's Bay Company Factor, Dr. John McLoughlin fed and housed them for an entire winter while the boat was repaired at his expense.

Young Mac, a half-breed at Ft Vancouver, was fascinated by these fishermen who actually looked like him. He learned rudimentary Japanese from them. After schooling in England he became a trader for HBC, quit and sailed to Japan. He was there when Perry arrived.

An idea worth looking into.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I work inside a college library nowadays, so I'll check the shelves here.

[ramblin-phyl.livejournal.com]

The lost fishing boat was 1830's. sorry for the typo. My c opy of the book is not on my Oregon history shelf so it must have gone back to the McLoughlin House museum.

Heard rumors that the Japanese made a film of the incident staring Johnny Cash as McLoughlin. Never saw it but would like to.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Moral standing? I thought it was the guns.

Z was saying the other day that it would make a great sequence to have those black ships sweep in and train their guns on the Japanese shore and after a moment be met by mechs. Because they've always had mechs.

Someone should do that.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Z was saying the other day that it would make a great sequence to have those black ships sweep in and train their guns on the Japanese shore and after a moment be met by mechs.

What a delightfully evil child you have...

Favorite Presidents

[(Anonymous)]

If Fillmore wasn't lethargic enough, you might consider William Henry Harrison. He died about a month into his first (and only) term as President. He really didn't have time to do much of anything -- good (rare) or bad (all too common).

Cheers, Jack

Re: Favorite Presidents

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

William Henry Harrison. He died about a month into his first (and only) term as President.

Thereby allowing John Tyler to become President. On whom we may blame Texas.

Not much to choose between for the lot of 'em, is there?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

I wonder. If Japan had been more aware of the world politics, such as they were at the time, would they have responded the same way or not?

Perhaps only a country that had withdrawn would have felt the sense of pressure that they felt?