Departure [Scroll 12]
Heather Velez, Brown '05
![[Departure II]](https://library.brown.edu/jpegs/1232057611406250.jpg)
This panel provided a better view of the Americans return to their "Black Ships." The American flags flailed in the wind. Canons aboard these small boats were not visible in the last panel. From each boat a canon is discharged in the direction of the steamships. Possibly the purpose of setting off canons was a salute to the success of the negotiations and the cordiality of the Japanese people.
Although Commodore Perry returned to the United States with a treaty, which thereby "opened" Japan, not much had really been resolved. There was no mention of trade in the treaty. In addition, the ports of Shimoda and Hakodadi were in insignificant parts of the country, thus leaving the Americans and their consulate isolated from the rest of the Empire.
In 1856, Townsend Harris acting as American consul arrived in Shimoda. After two years of laborious effort a commercial treaty was negotiated. The Japanese opened the ports of Kanagawa, Nagasaki, Niigato, and Hyogo to the United States, in addition to Shimoda and Hakodadi. Americans could live in the cities of Edo and Osaka for the purposes of trade. A fixed tariff was placed on goods imported to Japan. Furthermore, Americans were granted extraterritorial privileges, for which they are subject only to their own laws and courts.