Tag: Tokyo

Join Us…or Else. Commodore Perry at Edo Harbor…

Today in History, July 8, 1853:

US Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry and his fleet arrive in Edo Harbor (Tokyo) Japan and by threat of force, demand that the Japanese contemplate relations with the US.

The Japanese had met Europeans before, but for the last 200 years had closed their society to outsiders.

Faced with the threat of bombardment from Perry’s ships, the Japanese accepted a letter from President Millard Fillmore. When Perry returned the next year, the offer of open relations was accepted.

The rest of the story is that Commodore Perry also pioneered steam power in the Navy, served under his famous older brother Oliver Hazard Perry (“We have met the enemy and they are ours!”) during the War of 1812, was a hero in the Mexican-American War, and he and his brother were direct descendants of William Wallace. Wow.

The irony cannot be ignored that America dragged Japan kicking and screaming into the modern industrial world. The Japanese responded with a complete turnaround, embracing the technology of the “modern” world, including battleships and air power. So that less than a century later Western nations…mostly America, would have to fight a thoroughly modern Japanese military in a world war. And then would drop an Atomic bomb on the Japanese homeland to end the conflict.

The US Forces Japan into the Modern World in 1853…Less than a Century before WWII

Today in History, July 8, 1853:US Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry and his fleet arrive in Edo Harbor (Tokyo) Japan and by threat of force, demand that the Japanese contemplate relations with the US. Faced with the threat of bombardment from Perry’s ships, the Japanese accepted a letter from President Millard Filmore. When Perry returned the next year, the offer of open relations was accepted. The rest of the story is that Commodore Perry also pioneered steam power in the Navy, served under his famous older brother Oliver Hazard Perry (“We have met the enemy and they are ours!”) during the War of 1812, was a hero in the Mexican-American War, and he and his brother were direct descendents of William Wallace. Wow. The irony cannot be ignored that America dragged Japan kicking and screaming into the modern industrial world, and less than a century later would have to fight a thoroughly modern Japanese military in a world war. And then would drop an Atomic bomb on their homeland.

Tokyo Bombed

Today in History, April 18, 1942:

A US Navy Task Force including aircraft carriers USS Hornet (CV-8) and USS Enterprise (CV-6) carries US Army Air Corps Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, his force of 16 twin engine B-25 Mitchell medium bombers and their crews to within 600 miles of the Japanese coast.

The intent was to get within 400 miles, but Japanese picket boats were encountered and the launch had to be made early lest the two American carriers (half of the carriers in the Pacific at that point) be destroyed by counter-attack.

Hornet carried the bombers, Enterprise provided cover with her planes. Doolittle’s men bombed their targets, made it across Japan’s defenses unscathed, but then had to crash land either in the sea or in China. Some made their way to safety with the assistance of Chinese resistance fighters; some were murdered by their Japanese captors.

When announcing the attack, which had a huge impact on American morale, President Roosevelt said the planes were launched from the new American base at “Shangri-la”, a reference to the 1933 novel Lost Horizon.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, their forces had “swept the board” for months in the Pacific; this attack was needed to show the Japanese, and the world, that they were “touchable”.

The raid was a major influence on the Japanese command to go ahead with Operation MI…the invasion of Midway Island. The purpose for that operation was to draw out and destroy the American fleet.