So long as the Sun shall warm the earth, let no Christian dare come to Japan; and, let all know that the King of Spain himself, or his Christian’s God…if he violates this command shall pay with his head. -Shogun’s Edict of 1638
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For more than two centuries before Perry arrived Japan was a closed land to Westerners. But a confluence of money and world politics led President Fillmore to send Mexican-American War veteran Matthew Perry to Japan with instructions to open the country to American commerce and sailors. Perry got the job done and ushered in the Meiji Restoration, an era in Japanese history where the country transformed itself at breakneck pace from technological backwater to great power. The ripple effects of this opening were felt most strongly in 1941 when a rising Japan contested the United States Navy for control of the Pacific, and continues to be felt today as our ally in the United States' emerging contest with China.
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