On this day in 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay in Japan and made its government open diplomatic relations with the U.S. under threat of force. This ended Japan's 214-year period of "sakoku," an extreme form of isolationism that resulted in most foreigners being banned from the country, and most Japanese people being prohibited from leaving.
Japan originally imposed the sakoku system in reaction to Europeans' aggressive trade practices and attempts to convert their people to Catholicism. The country decided that it would trade only with China and the Netherlands. As the U.S. spread to the Pacific Ocean, it became more in its interest to secure places to restock its ships in Asia.
When Perry arrived in Japan, he landed on the Ryukyu and Bonin island chains further away from the main island chain and claimed territory for the U.S. Then, he landed at Tokyo Bay, something expressly forbidden by the Japanese. Perry took a carrot and stick approach: On the one hand, he brought the emperor fancy gifts from the West; on the other, he intentionally made a display of the weaponry aboard U.S. ships, seeing the threat of force as the only way to ensure Japanese cooperation.
When he returned the next year, the Japanese government reluctantly agreed to sign the Treaty of Kanagawa, requiring Japan to assist stranded sailors and open ports to restock American ships.
You can read more about Perry's 1853 mission to Japan at the website of the State Department's Office of the Historian.
