Perry at Edo Bay

July 8, 1853

Four black-hulled American warships - two of them steamers, trailing smoke the Japanese had never seen - anchored off Uraga and demanded a trade treaty. Commodore Matthew Perry refused to leave until his letter had been accepted. Two centuries of Japanese seclusion cracked in a single afternoon. Perry returned the following year with more ships, and the resulting treaty opened Japanese ports and began the transformation that led to the Meiji Restoration.