The Japan of the mid-nineteenth century was a shadow of the modern economic juggernaut  that is now one of the world's leading traders. For hundreds of years, Japan had been secluded  from the outside world by the strict policies of the rulers of Japan, the Tokugawa shoguns. With  the exception of one Dutch ship per year at the port of the Nagasaki, the Japanese refused to deal with foreign ships or nations. Sailors shipwrecked on the Japanese islands were treated harshly  and often imprisoned. Passing vessels were refused food, water, and other provisions. With a goal  to right these wrongs and to open Japan to trade, in 1853, the United States sent its most capable  man, Admiral Matthew Perry, and four warships to open Japan to the rest of the world. The  consequences of those actions are still being felt today. 
In the seventeenth century, the Japanese had opened their doors briefly to the Dutch and  allowed a trading station and Christian enclave in Nagasaki. Guns were imported as part of this trade, and they were one of the reasons for a great upheaval that engulfed Japan for many decades,  as a civil war raged between powerful shoguns, or warlords. Finally, Tokugawa emerged as the  victor and claimed the lordship of Japan. During these upheavals, the emperor and his family had stood by wielding no power and existed merely as a figurehead. Soon after the civil war, the abandoned the use of guns and the art of the gun making. When Admiral Perry and his  fleet arrived in 1853, they were defenseless against his awesome firepower. 
Perry had three main purposes when he arrived in Japan: open the country to American trade, get an agreement to use Japan as a coaling and provisioning station for American vessels, and provide guarantees that Japan would aid shipwrecked American sailors. He wished to deal only  with the highest officials and rebuffed Japanese attempts to foster lower-level emissaries on him.  He sailed away to examine further the coast of Taiwan as a possible coaling station but returned to  Japan the following spring in March 1854. This time, under threat of naval bombardment, the  Japanese relented and finally signed the Treaty of Kanagawa on March 31, 1854. In addition to the three main items, the Japanese agreed to allow an American consulate to be established. At first,  only Nagasaki was open to American trade, but the treaty stipulated that, after five years, other  ports would be opened.
The consequences of these events were far reaching for Japan and the world. Within a few  years, foreign currency began to flow to Japan, which upset its economy and caused rising inflation. This was a precursor to the fall of the Tokugawa shoguns and the return of the emperor as the leader of Japanese affairs in 1868. The Emperor Meiji then set a clear path for his nation,  not wanting Japan to be under the heel of the foreigners who now clamored at the heel of the  foreigners of his land. Meiji sent sailors to England to learn how to build ships and fight a modern  naval war, invited German army officers to train his soldiers, and made deals with many  companies to modernize Japan's industry, transportation, and communications. In fact, the efforts  were so successful that, by the 1980s, the world began to view Japan as one of the great powers, more so after it defeated both China and Russia on land and at sea in two local wars. The Russian  defeat was even more astonishing since the Europeans were unused to losing to those they  considered their inferiors. 
Japan's rapid industrialized and militarization had dreadful consequences for Asia, as  Meiji's grandson Hirohito led the nation down the path to world war, which ultimately saw the destruction of much of Japan. The shock of this defeat still echoes through Japanese history, as&nbs

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