A fekete hajók előtt

It is a well-known fact in Japanese historiography that the country was openedup to Western powers by the American Perry expedition in 1853, dubbed inJapan ’the arrival of the black ships’. However, those ships did not comeout of nowhere; there had been various earlier attempts to establish diplomaticand commercial relations with Japan, first by Russia and later by other Westernpowers. These attempts sparked heated debates in Japan regarding the dangercaused by the foreign ships and the best way to avoid this menace. In this paper, after providing a brief description of earlier initiativesaimed at establishing diplomatic relations with Japan, I concentrate on UnitedStates foreign policy vis-à-vis Japan: the USA came into contact with Japanthrough its thriving whaling industry, as in the 1820s US whalers frequentedthe waters close to Japan. Later various economic considerations led to thedecision to organize an expedition to Japan to effectively ensure that Japaneseports would receive US ships and to open the country for commerce. Thesuccess of the US expedition was due to various factors, not least the motivation and determination of its leader, Matthew C. Perry.