Table of Contents

Preface; A Word about Sources; Acknowledgements; List of Illustrations; 1. Japan’s Relations with the Western World Until 1839; 2. Knocking on Japan’s Locked Doors, 1840–52; 3. Who Will Open Japan?: The Contest Begins, 1852–53; 4. Ten Days that Shook Japan: The Americans’ First Visit, 8–17 July 1853; 5. Black Ships Revisited: The Russians in Nagasaki in 1854; 6. Interlude on the China Coast and Ryukyu; 7. Neighbourly Relations: The Recognition of Changing Times; 8. The Commodore Returns:Threats,Treats and a Treaty; 9. Testing the Treaty in the Opened Ports; 10. The Dutch, British, Russians (and Americans) in `Opened’ Japan; 11. Days of Ennui and Disappointment: The Russians and Americans in Heda and Shimoda, February to December 1855; 12. A Gathering of Forces: British, French, Russian and Dutch; 13. The First Four Treaties Compared; 14. Retrospect and Prospect; Bibliography; Index

About the Author

William McOmie graduated in psychobiology at the University of California at Santa Cruz and received an MA in Russian language, literature and history from the University of California at Davis. He subsequently travelled and lived abroad, studying German and Japanese to an advanced level. For the last ten years he has been accessing primary sources in English, Russian, German and Dutch for the writing of this book, most recently as a visiting scholar at the Center for Japanese Studies,at the University of California, Berkley (2001-2). He is currently Associate Professor in the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Kanagawa University, Japan, and is also author of the forthcoming The Opening of Japan, 1853-55. A comparative study of the American, British and Russian campaigns to force the Tokugawa shogunate to conclude treaties and open ports to their ships (Global Oriental, 2005)