Today in 1853 Commodore Arthur Sinclair commanded the supply ships and
sailed in to Tokyo Bay with Matthew Calbraith Perry, the expedition
established United States relations with Japan. Perry was the brother of
Oliver Hazard Perry. In 1853 Perry was sent on the mission to Japan, a
country that had been closed to outsiders since the 17th century. On July 8,
he led a squadron of four ships into Tokyo Bay and presented representatives
of the emperor with the text of a proposed commercial and friendship treaty.
To give the reluctant Japanese court time to consider the offer, he then
sailed for China. With an even more powerful fleet, he returned to Tokyo in
February 1854. The treaty, signed on March 31, 1854, provided that humane
treatment be extended to sailors shipwrecked in Japanese territory, that
U.S. ships be permitted to buy coal in Japan, and that the ports of Shimoda
and Hakodate be opened to U.S. commerce. Perry's mission ended Japan's
isolation, a prerequisite for its subsequent development.
Our Arthur was a 4th generation Americian Navel officer, a decendent of a
good Virigina Priate.
Sinclair
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