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Shimoda Story
On August 21, 3856, two years after an American fleet under Commodore Matthew C. Perry visited Japan's port of Shimoda, formal US. relations with the Japanese began: a naval vessel arrived at Shimoda, bringing Townsend Hurris with credentials as first Consul General to Japan. He had two directives: to establish a consular office and to negotiate a trade treaty.
Despite the Perry agreement, the Japanese did not welcome the presence of an American consul; they emphatically did not want a trade treaty. The maneuvering of the next sixteen months was complicated—at times dramatic, often amusing. Each side believed it was upholding the values of civilization against an opposing bariarism. Harris, with constant, often unreasonable demands, with threat and bluster, managed to throw all official Japan into turmoil. Perry had unlocked the door to Japan, but Harris opened it.
Harris's role in the negotiations has been familiar to historians through his journal, his copious correspondence, and the diary of his young Dutch secretary-interpreter, Henry Heusken. One of the great virtues of Mr. Statler's account is that he has drawn his story not only from these documents but also from the even more detailed Japanese records. His cast of characters is varied and colorful, from govemment officers whose careers were irevocably shaped by Harris's mission, to townspeople whose lives were only incidentally affected by the foreigner in their midst.
Shimoda Story is much more than a chronicle of negotiations. It is both a political and a social history of Japan in the 1850's. It gives a warm and intimate picture of Shimoda, a town of spirited inhabitants-merchants and innkeepers, fishermen and famers, girls who enticed and entertained the crews of coastal vessels, a town which was, for a few exciting months the setting for the drama of Japan's reentry into the world after more than two centuries of seclusion.
Despite the Perry agreement, the Japanese did not welcome the presence of an American consul; they emphatically did not want a trade treaty. The maneuvering of the next sixteen months was complicated—at times dramatic, often amusing. Each side believed it was upholding the values of civilization against an opposing bariarism. Harris, with constant, often unreasonable demands, with threat and bluster, managed to throw all official Japan into turmoil. Perry had unlocked the door to Japan, but Harris opened it.
Harris's role in the negotiations has been familiar to historians through his journal, his copious correspondence, and the diary of his young Dutch secretary-interpreter, Henry Heusken. One of the great virtues of Mr. Statler's account is that he has drawn his story not only from these documents but also from the even more detailed Japanese records. His cast of characters is varied and colorful, from govemment officers whose careers were irevocably shaped by Harris's mission, to townspeople whose lives were only incidentally affected by the foreigner in their midst.
Shimoda Story is much more than a chronicle of negotiations. It is both a political and a social history of Japan in the 1850's. It gives a warm and intimate picture of Shimoda, a town of spirited inhabitants-merchants and innkeepers, fishermen and famers, girls who enticed and entertained the crews of coastal vessels, a town which was, for a few exciting months the setting for the drama of Japan's reentry into the world after more than two centuries of seclusion.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1969
About the author
Oliver Statler
44 books8 followersOliver Hadley Statler (1915-2002) was a Bestselling Author and Japanese Art Expert. From his small-town, midwestern roots, Huntley native Oliver Hadley Statler found his life's passion in Japan and became an internationally acclaimed best-selling author and interpreter of Japanese art, culture and history.
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June 15, 2026
On August 18th, 1856, Townsend Harris approached Japan on the steam frigate San Jacinto as the first U.S. Consul General to Japan. After centuries of isolationism, Japan was opening two of its ports to American ships, and the town of Shimoda, where Harris would be stationed in a Buddhist temple, was one of them. The Japanese did not want an American consul on their soil but the world was changing and they were bound by a treaty negotiated two years earlier. Harris's goal was to negotiate a comprehensive commercial treaty, but American access meant Russian, British and French access would follow, and they were split on the issue. Who can blame them? As the Japanese were quick to note:
Both the Americans and the Japanese kept careful records of events and meetings, liberally quoted by Statler, and the contrast between the two is often amusing. The endless domestic details of Harris's sojourn were surprisingly fascinating. The entitled, moronic, and belligerent Harris wasn't shy with requests which included milk—or a cow to milk—in a country where the people did not drink milk and used cows only for labor, and often used threats of war as a negotiating tactic. Statler frequently ventures beyond the confines of Harris's compound to tell of regional disputes about ship salvage rights or lovesick priests, as well as detail countless Japanese traditions, customs, and festivals. For a work of nonfiction, it wouldn't be difficult to mistake this for a novel. Top notch, as with Statler's two other books on Japan—Japanese Inn and Japanese Pilgrimage.
The essential evil of such a state may be described in a single phrase—it is the desire of gain. Now, the desire of gain is common to all men, and is the pregnant womb of all evil. Confucius seldom spoke of gain, wishing to check the lust of it in its source. This, also, was the reason why my ancestors cut off all intercourse of foreign nations with Japan, because the desire of gain led astray the ignorant... till filial duty, modesty, and the sense of shame were all forgotten...Sounds a little too much like too many rich Westerners who have devoted too many decades to ruining the world, and this is why we now have the world's first absolute shit of a...trillionaire. Not that the Japanese feudal system of that time period didn't create and sustain an elite class of its own.
Both the Americans and the Japanese kept careful records of events and meetings, liberally quoted by Statler, and the contrast between the two is often amusing. The endless domestic details of Harris's sojourn were surprisingly fascinating. The entitled, moronic, and belligerent Harris wasn't shy with requests which included milk—or a cow to milk—in a country where the people did not drink milk and used cows only for labor, and often used threats of war as a negotiating tactic. Statler frequently ventures beyond the confines of Harris's compound to tell of regional disputes about ship salvage rights or lovesick priests, as well as detail countless Japanese traditions, customs, and festivals. For a work of nonfiction, it wouldn't be difficult to mistake this for a novel. Top notch, as with Statler's two other books on Japan—Japanese Inn and Japanese Pilgrimage.
Displaying 1 of 1 review