Part 102

"In several of the provinces of Kyushu the princes had become converts and had freely used their influence, and sometimes their authority, to extend Christianity among their subjects. In Kyoto and Yamaguchi, in Osaka and Sakai, as well as in Kyusbu, the Jesuit fathers had founded flourishing churches and exerted a wide influence. They had established colleges where the candidates for the church could be educated and trained. They had organized hospitals and asylums at Nagasaki and elsewhere, where those needing aid could be received and treated. It is true hat the progress of the work had met with a severe setback in A. D. 1587, when Taiko Sam a issued an edict expelling all foreign religious teachers from Japan. In pursuance of this edict nine foreigners who had evaded expulsion were burnt at Nagasaki. The reason for this decisive action on the part of Taiko Sama is usually attributed to the suspicion which had been awakened in him by the loose and unguarded talk of a Portuguese sea captain. But other causes undoubtedly contributed to produce in him this intolerant frame of mind. … In several of the provinces of Japan where the Jesuits had attained the ascendancy, the most forcible measures had been taken by the Christian princes to compel all their subjects to follow their own example and adopt the Christian faith. Takeyama, whom the Jesuit fathers designate as Justo Ucondono, carried out in his territory at Akashi a system of bitter persecution. He gave his subjects the option of becoming Christians or leaving his territory. Konishi Yukinaga, who received part of the province of Higo as his fief after the Korean war, enforced with great persistency the acceptance of the Christian faith, and robbed the Buddhist priests of their temples and their lands. The princes of Omura and Arima, and to a certain extent the princes of Bungo, followed the advice of the Jesuit fathers in using their authority to advance the cause of Christianity. The fathers could scarcely complain of having the system of intolerance practised upon them, which, when circumstances were favorable, they had advised to be applied to their opponents. … During the first years of Ieyasu's supremacy the Christians were not disturbed. … He issued in 1606 what may be called a warning proclamation, announcing that he had learned with pain that, contrary to Taiko Sama's edict, many had embraced the Christian religion. He warned all officers of his court to see that the edict was strictly enforced, He declared that it was for the good of the state that none should embrace the new doctrine; and that such as had already done so must change immediately. … In the meantime both the English and Dutch had appeared on the scene. … Their object was solely trade, and as the Portuguese monopoly hitherto had been mainly secured by the Jesuit fathers, it was natural for the new-comers to represent the motive of these fathers in an unfavorable and suspicious light. 'Indeed,' as Hildreth says, 'they had only to confirm the truth of what the Portuguese and Spanish said of each other to excite in the minds of the Japanese rulers the gravest distrust as to the designs of the priests of both nations.' Whether it is true as charged that the minds of the Japanese rulers had been poisoned against the Jesuit fathers by misrepresentation and falsehood, it may be impossible to determine definitely; but it is fair to infer that the cruel and intolerant policy of the Spanish and Portuguese would be fully set forth and the danger to the Japanese empire from the machinations of the foreign religious teachers held up in the worst light. … Ieyasu, evidently having made up his mind that for the safety of the empire Christianity must be extirpated, in 1614 issued an edict that the members of all religious orders, whether European or Japanese, should be sent out of the country: that the churches which had been erected in various localities should be pulled down, and that the native adherents of the faith should be compelled to renounce it. In part execution of this edict all the members of the Society of Jesus, native and foreign, were ordered to be sent to Nagasaki. Native Christians were sent to Tsugaru, the northern extremity of the Main island. … In accordance with this edict, as many as 300 persons are said to have been shipped from Japan October 25, 1614. All the resident Jesuits were included in this number, excepting eighteen fathers and nine brothers, who concealed themselves and thus escaped the search. Following his deportation of converts the most persistent efforts continued to be made to force the native Christians to renounce their faith. The accounts given, both by the foreign and by the Japanese writers, of the persecutions which now broke upon the heads of the Christians are beyond description horrible. … Rewards were offered for information involving Christians of every position and rank, even of parents against their children and of children against their parents. … The persecution began in its worst form about 1616. This was the year in which Ieyasu died, but his son and successor carried out the terrible programme with heartless thoroughness. It has never been surpassed for cruelty and brutality on the part of the persecutors, or for courage and constancy on the part of those who suffered. … Mr. Gubbins … says: 'We read of Christians being executed in a barbarous manner in sight of each other, of their being hurled from the tops of precipices, of their being buried alive, of their being torn asunder by oxen, of their being tied up in rice-bags, which were heaped up together, and of the pile thus formed being set on fire. Others were tortured before death by the insertion of sharp spikes under the nails of their hands and feet, while some poor wretches by a refinement of horrid cruelty were shut up in cages and there left to starve with food before their eyes. Let it not be supposed that we have drawn on the Jesuit accounts solely for this information. An examination of the Japanese records will show that the case is not overstated.'"

_D. Murray, Story of Japan, chapter 11._

"The persecutions went on, the discovery of Christians occasionally occurring for several years, but in 1686 'the few remaining had learnt how to conceal their belief and the practice of their religion so well, that the Council issued a circular to the chief Daimios of the south and west, stating that none of the Kirishitan sect had been discovered of late years, owing perhaps to laziness on the part of those whose duty it was to search for them, and enjoining vigilance' (Satow). Traces of the Christian religion and people lingered in the country down to our own time."

_Sir E. J. Reed, Japan, page 301._

{1877}

JAPAN: A. D. 1852-1888. Opening the ports to foreigners. The treaty with the United States and the other treaties which followed.

"It is estimated that about the middle of the present century, American capital to the amount of seventeen million dollars was invested in the whaling industry in the seas of Japan and China. We thus see that it was not a mere outburst of French enthusiasm when M. Michelet paid this high tribute to the service of the whale to civilization: 'Who opened to men the great distant navigation? Who revealed the ocean and marked out its zones and its liquid highways? Who discovered the secrets of the globe? The Whale and the Whaler.' … There were causes other than the mere safety of whalers which led to the inception of the American expedition to Japan. On the one hand, the rise of industrial and commercial commonwealths on the Pacific, the discovery of gold in California, the increasing trade with China, the development of steam navigation—necessitating coal depots and ports for shelter, the opening of highways across the Isthmus of Central America, the missionary enterprises on the Asiatic continent, the rise of the Hawaiian Islands,—on the other hand, the knowledge of foreign nations among the ruling class in Japan, the news of the British victory in China, the progress of European settlements in the Pacific, the dissemination of western science among a progressive class of scholars, the advice from the Dutch government to discontinue the antiquated policy of exclusion—all these testified that the fulness of time for Japan to turn a new page in her history was at hand. … About this time, a newspaper article concerning some Japanese waifs who had been picked up at sea by the barque Auckland—Captain Jennings—and brought to San Francisco, attracted the attention of Commodore Aulick. He submitted a proposal to the government that it should take advantage of this incident to open commercial relations with the Empire, or at least to manifest the friendly feelings of the country. This proposal was made on the 9th of May, 1851. Daniel Webster was then Secretary of State, and in him Aulick found a ready friend. … Clothed with full power to negotiate and sign treaties, and furnished with a letter from President Fillmore to the Emperor, Commodore Aulick was on the eve of departure when for some reason he was prevented. Thus the project which began at his suggestion was obstructed when it was about to be accomplished, and another man, perhaps better fitted for the undertaking, entered into his labors. … Commodore [Matthew Calbraith] Perry shared the belief in the expediency of sending a special mission for the purpose. When Commodore Aulick was recalled, Perry proposed to the U. S. Government an immediate expedition. The proposal was accepted, and an expedition on the most liberal scale was resolved upon. He was invested with extraordinary powers, naval and diplomatic. The East India and China Seas and Japan were the official designation of the field of service, but the real object in view was the establishment of a coal depot in Japan. The public announcement of the resolution was followed by applications from all quarters of Christendom for permission to accompany the expedition; all these were, however, refused on prudential grounds. … Impatient of the delay caused by the tardy preparations of his vessels, Perry sailed from Norfolk on the 24th of November, 1852, with one ship, the Mississippi, leaving the rest to follow as soon as ready. … The Mississippi … touching at, several ports on her way, reached Loo Choo in May, where the squadron united. … In the afternoon of the 8th of July, 1853, the squadron entered the Bay of Yedo in martial order, and about 5 o'clock in the evening was anchored off the town of Uraga. No sooner had 'the black ships of the evil mien' made their entry into the Bay, than the signal guns were fired, followed by the discharge of rockets; then were seen on the shore companies of soldiers moving from garrison to garrison. The popular commotion in Yedo at the news of 'a foreign invasion' was beyond description. The whole city was in an uproar. In all directions were seen mothers flying with children in their arms, and men with mothers on their backs. Rumors of an immediate action, exaggerated each time they were communicated from mouth to mouth, added horror to the horror-stricken. … As the squadron dropped anchor, it was surrounded by junks and boats of all sorts, but there was no hostile sign shown. A document in French was handed on board, which proved to be a warning to any foreign vessel not to come nearer. The next day was spent in informal conference between the local officials of Uraga and the subordinate officers of the squadron. It was Commodore Perry's policy to behave with as much reserve and exclusiveness as the Japanese diplomats had done and would do. He would neither see, nor talk with, any except the highest dignitary of the realm. Meanwhile, the governor of Uraga came on board and was received by captains and lieutenants. He declared that the laws forbade any foreign communication to be held elsewhere than Nagasaki; but to Nagasaki the squadron would never go. The vexed governor would send to Yedo for further instructions, and the 12th was fixed as a day for another conference. Any exchange of thought was either in the Dutch language, for which interpreters were provided on both sides, or in Chinese, through Dr. S. Wells Williams, and afterward in Japanese, through Manjiro Nakahama. … On the 12th, the Governor of Uraga again appeared on board and insisted on the squadron's leaving the Yedo Bay for Nagasaki, where the President's letter would be duly received through the Dutch or the Chinese. This the Commodore firmly refused to do. It was therefore decided at the court of Yedo that the letter be received at Kurihama, a few miles from the town of Uraga. This procedure was, in the language of the commissioners, 'in opposition to the Japanese law;' but, on the ground that 'the Admiral, in his quality as Ambassador of the President, would be insulted by any other course,' the original of Mr. Fillmore's letter to the Japanese Emperor, enclosed in a golden box of one thousand dollars in value, was delivered on the 14th of July to the commissioners appointed by the Shogun. … {1878} Fortunately for Japan, the disturbed state of affairs in China made it prudent for Perry to repair to the ports of that country, which he did as though he had consulted solely the diplomatic convenience of our country. He left word that he would come the ensuing spring for our answer. … It was the Taiping Rebellion which called for Perry's presence in China. The American merchants had large interests at stake there—their property in Shanghai alone amounting, it is said, to $1,200,000. … While in China, Commodore Perry found that the Russian and French admirals, who were staying in Shanghai, contemplated a near visit to Japan. That he might not give any advantage to them, he left Macao earlier than he had intended, and, on the 13th of February, found himself again in the Bay of Yedo, with a stately fleet of eight ships. As the place where the conference had been held at the previous visit was out of the reach of gun-shot from the anchorage, Perry expressed a desire of holding negotiations in Yedo, a request impossible for the Japanese to comply with. After some hesitation, the suburb Kanagawa was mutually agreed upon as a suitable site, and there a temporary building was accordingly erected for the transaction of the business. On the 8th of May, Commodore Perry, arrayed in the paraphernalia befitting his rank, was ushered into the house. The reply of the Shogun to the President's letter was now given—the purport of which was, decidedly in word but reluctantly in spirit, in favor of friendly intercourse. Conferences were repeated in the middle and latter part of the month, and after many evasions and equivocations, deliberations and delays, invitations to banquets and exchanges of presents, at last, on Friday, the 31st of May, the formal treaty was signed; a synopsis of which is here presented:

1. Peace and friendship. 2. Ports of Shimoda and Hakodate open to American ships, and necessary provisions to be supplied them. 3. Relief to shipwrecked people; expenses thereof not to be refunded. 4. Americans to be free as in other countries, but amenable to just laws. 5. Americans at Shimoda and Hakodate not to be subject to restrictions; free to go about within defined limits. 6. Careful deliberation in transacting business which affects the welfare of either party. 7. Trade in open ports subject to local regulations. 8. Wood, water, provisions, coal, etc., to be procured through Japanese officers only. 9. Most-favored nation clause. 10. U. S. ships restricted to ports of Shimoda and Hakodate, except when forced by stress of weather. 11. U. S. Consuls or agents to reside at Shimoda. 12. Ratifications to be exchanged within eighteen months. …

His labors at an end, Perry bade the last farewell to Japan and started on his home-bound voyage. This was in June, 1854. … No sooner had Perry left, carrying off the trophy of peaceful victory—the treaty (though the Yedo government was in no enjoyment of peaceful rest), than the Russian Admiral Pontiatine appeared in Nagasaki. He urged that the same privileges be granted his country as were allowed the Americans. … Soon, the English Rear Admiral, Sir James Stirling, arrives at the same harbor, very kindly to notify the government that there may be some fighting in Japanese waters between Russians and his countrymen. … The British convention was signed October 14, 1854, and followed, in 1858, by the Elgin treaty. The treaty with Russia was signed January 26, 1855; Netherlands, 9th of November the same year; France, October 9, 1858; Portugal, 3rd of August, 1860; German Customs Union, 25th of January, 1861. The other nations which followed the United States were Italy, Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, Sweden and Norway, Peru, Hawaii, China, Corea and Siam; lastly Mexico, with whom we concluded a treaty on terms of perfect equality (November 30, 1888)."

_Inazo (Ota) Nitobe, The Intercourse between the U. S. and Japan, chapter 2._

ALSO IN: _F. L. Hawks, Narrative of the Expedition under Commander Perry._

_W. E. Griffis, Matthew Calbraith Perry, chapters 27-33._

JAPAN: A. D. 1869-1890. Constitutional development.