Perry's Square
Just downhill from Motomachi Park is a wide open grassy park with a statue and memorial in the corner commemorating Commodore Matthew Perry's visit after prying the doors of isolationist Japan open in March of 1854. With the resulting Convention of Kanagawa signed in Yokohama, the Tokugawa Shogunate ceded access to the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate.
Interestingly, the gunboat diplomacy eventually resulted in the demise of the Shogunate government and the rise of a central government with the Emperor as symbolic head.
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1750_perry.htm
And the rest, as they say, is history. Actually, all of it is history, and it is interesting that Perry is seen in a positive light in Japan.
And I think that because of that history in those locations, Yokohama and Hakodate are international in their background, and are familiar and comfortable bookends for American and other western visitors.
[collage, history, Japan, JT]
This is the monument to Perry at Kurihama, Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Yokohama that I took in 2007. Perry landed at Kurihama and presented a letter from President Filmore. After the treaty was signed at Yokohama, a consulate was opened in Shimoda, and Shimoda and Hakodate was opened to American vessels.
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On July 8, 1853, American Commodore Matthew Perry entered the waters of what is now Tokyo Bay, Japan, with four armed steamships. Perry’s show of military strength forced Japan to open its ports to trade with the West for the first time in more than 200 years.
ReplyDeletenationalgeographic.org - Perry Enters Tokyo Bay - National Geographic Society