One of the most remarkable things about these foreigners, especially the Americans, was how much they loved Japan. It would be an understatement to say that they were successful. Determined to catch up with the West, the young emperor and his advisors centralized power, abolished the samurai class, and invited in hundreds of western experts–French, German, British and American–to help in the remaking of Japan. The change started in earnest when the feudalism of the Tokogawa Shogunate was replaced in 1868 by the forward-looking rule of the 16-year-old Meiji Emperor. Majestically impassive in public, his personality and thoughts remain an open question for historians. And eighteen days from Japan to San Francisco was better than the one-hundred-and-twenty days from New York to San Francisco. I am desirous that our two countries should trade with each other for the benefit both of Japan and the United States.Ĭalifornia was the only state mentioned in the letter (Oregon still being a territory) because California miners were still strapped for food and supplies. Japan is also a rich and fertile country, and produces many very valuable articles. Our great state of California produces about sixty million dollars in gold, every year, besides silver, quicksilver, precious stones and many other valuable articles. Our steamships can go from California to Japan in eighteen days. The United States of American reach from ocean to ocean, and our territory of Oregon and state of California lie directly opposite to the dominions of your Imperial Majesty. However, what becomes very clear when you read the official letter President Millard Fillmore had Perry deliver is that the gold of California was at the forefront of American minds.
Perry’s mission was to open Japanese ports to American trade, and to establish coaling stations - refueling points - for steamships along the route from China to California.
In 1853, just five years after John Marshall’s discovery of gold, Commodore Matthew Perry and a flotilla of American warships sailed into Edo Bay and ended 250 years of self-imposed Japanese isolation. Imperious, dyspeptic, gouty but also fair and very capable, Commodore Perry was not a man to take no for an answer.
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