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Research & Teaching: Bibliography     日本語で見る | Read in Japanese 日本語で見る | Read in Japanese

U.S.–Japanese Relations


Articles


Books

  • Warren I. Cohen, The Asian American Century (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2002).
  • Chang-su Houchins, Artifacts of diplomacy: Smithsonian collections from Commodore Matthew Perry's Japan Expedition, 1853-1854 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995).
  • Peter Duus, The Japanese Discovery of America: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: Bedford Books, 1997)
  • Oliver Statler, The Black Ship Scroll: an account of the Perry expedition at Shimoda in 1854 and the lively beginnings of people-to-people relations between Japan & American based on contemporary records. With translations by Richard Lane and scroll paintings in full color by an anonymous Japanese eyewitness (Tokyo : Weatherhill, 1963).
  • James C. Thomson, Jr., et. al., Sentimental Imperialists: The American Experience in East Asia (New York: Harper & Row, 1981).
  • Robert Tomes, The Americans in Japan: An Abridgment of the Government Narrative of the U.S. Expedition to Japan, under Commodore Perry (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1857).
  • Peter Booth Wiley, Yankees in the land of the gods: Commodore Perry and the opening Japan (New York: Viking, 1990).


Web Resources

  • Black Ships & Samurai
    Part of MIT's Open Course Ware, this on-line exhibit features a huge range of visual materials about Perry's voyage to Japan, as seen by both Americans and Japanese. Professor John Dower, who wrote the marvelous text and chose the images, remains one of the premier historians of US-Japan relations and this site reflects his many years of research and teaching on the subject.
  • Commodore Matthew C. Perry and the Opening of Japan – Naval History and Heritage Command (U.S. Navy)
    The Naval History and Heritage Command website on the expedition of Commodore Perry to Japan includes a list of documents in the Navy Department Library, full text of the 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa and 1852-1854 Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Navy, and suggestions for classroom activities that make use of these documents. This includes a chart to plot the latitude and longitude of places Perry visited, guessing game to identify levels of the Japanese class system, activity to think about which gifts were exchanged by the Americans or Japanese, and a list of discussion questions (see Activities).
  • Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan. Naval Diplomat and Collector – Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University, U.K.
    Digital Exhibit that features Perry as an early American coin collector in addition to naval diplomat. Describes his expedition and the coin collection using digitized primary sources, and links to a database of the coins in the museum.
  • Contemporary Japan: A Teaching Workbook: Commodore Perry and Japan –
    Asia for Educators Project, Columbia University, New York, NY, U.S.A.
    Contains full text of letters from U.S. president Millard Fillmore and Commodore Perry to the Emperor of Japan, along with an introduction to the historical background, discussion questions, and writing exercises that use the primary sources.
  • Doing Photography and Social Research in the Allied Occupation of Japan, 1948-1951: A Personal and Professional Memoir, by John W. Bennett
    Photographs taken by anthropologist John W. Bennett in occupied Japan, 1948-1951 (a few were made in the 1960s during his term at Waseda University), with comments on the photos by Bennett. Also included are extensive selections from Bennett's professional journal of the period, and other documents. Consisting of a personal and professional memoir, this site is also a record of a unique experiment in social analysis and research that focuses on a period of particular significance in the development of Japanese and international history, politics, economics, and culture.
  • Fine Prints: Japanese, pre-1915 – Library of Congress: Prints and Photographs Online Catalog
    The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog at the Library of Congress contains digitized images of Japanese prints depicting the arrival of foreigners in Japan, including broadsides, portraits, and a woodblock prints. Suggestions for search words include: Perry, Adams, Kurofune, Uraga, Yokohama, foreigner.
  • The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923
  • Modern Japan in Archives: Opening of the Country – National Diet Library, Tokyo, Japan
    A digital exhibit at the National Diet Library (counterpart to the U.S. Library of Congress) describes the political history from the opening of Japan to the post-war eras. This page introduces primary sources such as the "Translations of Letters from the United States [President]" to the Japanese Emperor and the 1855 U.S.-Japan Treaty of Peace and Amity, with links to digitized images of the original text. The NDL has written the introductions in English, but the actual documents are in Japanese.
  • The Treaty of Kanagawa: Setting the Stage for Japanese-American Relations –
    National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
    This United States National Archives and Records Administration page features a digitized image of the English language version of the 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa. It notes the significant omission of a Japanese signature on the treaty.
  • US-Japan 150 years digital exhibit – Consulate General of Japan in New York City
    A website built in 2003-2004 as a part of the U.S.-Japan 150th Anniversary Ceremony by the Consulate General of Japan in New York. It connects to a parallel site in Japanese, and links to a flash site that uses historical prints and photographs to narrate the journeys of Commodore Perry. The flash site provides an overview of the expedition as the beginning of a deep relation between the two countries. It also provides information on Perry's life in New York, the New York Botanical Garden collection of Japanese plants he brought back from the expedition, and a Broadway musical of his endeavors, “Pacific Overtures.”


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