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The Telegraph [Scroll 5]

Moye Ishimoto, Brown '03

[The telegraph]

[The telegraph]

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The fifth panel in the scroll depicted the American telegraph, presented both as a gift for the Japanese and a symbol for Western advancement in technology and science.1 According to Robert Tomes, who described Perry's voyage in 1857, the telegraph provided an "exhibition...of those triumphs of civilization."2 Tomes explained that the telegraph appeared as part of a large, sophisticated display, where "wires extended nearly a mile in a direct line" between the Treaty House and a secondary building. After its demonstration, the Japanese Commissioners were "greatly amazed to find that in an instant of time messages were conveyed in the English, Dutch and, Japanese languages from building to building."3 Perry's journal similarly portrayed the impressive event, where "posts were brought and erected" and "wires of nearly a mile...were soon extended in as perfect a manner as could have been done in the United States."4 His audience, duly noted as "remarkable for their inordinate curiosity", were properly amazed at the instantaneous communication.5 Although ostensibly a gift, the advanced technology was also used to provoke Japan's admiration and kindle its desire to for American trade.

The fifth panel illustrated a unique Japanese perspective on the American telegraph. Like Tomes' and Perry's descriptions, the Japanese artist depicted the scale of the system as the wires span across two separate panels, originating from the small building in the current panel and continuing in the backdrop of the sixth panel. However, this particular panel portrayed only one telegraph station, located in what appears to be the secondary building, due to its thatched roof, empty interior and small size. Furthermore, the following sixth panel revealed the other end of the telegraph wires terminating at the largest building with paneled roofs - which, according to the Americans, was the Treaty House. Although Perry described the wires spanning at least a mile - as well as the demonstration's instant timing-- the artist could only paint the telegraph's use from only one perspective at a time.

The painting lacked a display of the Japanese people's curiosity that Tomes and Perry so often mentioned in their writings. Despite Robert Tome's description of a "greatly amazed" audience,6 the panel revealed that Perry's demonstration was not accessible to everyone, emphasizing the restricted formal interactions between the Americans and the Japanese populace. Only six bystanders (at the secondary building, although there may have been more people at the main building) interacted with the Americans, while a large group gathers in the background, blocked off by the fence. Interestingly, while all four Americans were assiduously focused on and around the telegraph, the Japanese seemed to pay differing amounts of attention to the demonstration. Unlike the highest-ranking American (in his more elaborate uniform) who carefully oversaw the telegraph, the Japanese men were involved in a variety of activities. Two men in traveling gear can be seen holding a private conversation, seemingly oblivious to the demonstration. One man ran away from the telegraph and possibly towards the Treaty House to see the instantaneous result of telegraphic communication, while another cowered in fear from a nearby American. The additional bystanders peered over the fence, though their visible curiosity is up for interpretation. Only a single Japanese male seriously watched the telegraph with his arms resolutely crossed while his friend sat and waited nearby.

The Japanese, who had "ample means of gratifying this propensity"7 of curiosity, were not acting according to Tomes' and Perry's above descriptions but with a more passive awareness of their visitors' technology. According to the artist's viewpoint, the Americans' presence and their "triumphs of civilization"8 had little affect on their Japanese audience, which thus provided an opposing perspective on the interactions between the Americans and the Japanese during Perry's voyage than we get from the Americans' writings.

 

References

  1. Peter Duus, ed., The Japanese Discovery of America: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: Bedford Books, 1997), 9.
  2. Robert Tomes, The Americans in Japan: An Abridgment of the Government Narrative of the U.S. Expedition (New York: D. Appleton, 1857), 239.
  3. Ibid., 239.
  4. Rodger Pineau, ed., The Japan Expedition 1852-54, The Personal Journal of Commodore Matthew C. Perry (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1968), 94.
  5. Ibid., 94.
  6. Tomes, Americans in Japan, 239.
  7. Duus, ed., Japanese Discovery of America, 95
  8. Tomes, Americans in Japan, 239.