Customer Reviews

Breaking Open Japan: Commodore Perry, Lord Abe, and American Imperialism in 1853

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

On one level this remarkable book will provide invaluable background for anyone interested in understanding why Japan's love-hate relationship with the United States continues to this day. It should also serve to underline the dangers of imposing one nation's views on another.
But the book will also appeal to readers simply interested in a rich historical tour of Japan at the dawn of its modern era. The skillful weaving of the descriptions of the personalities, prejudices and political backgrounds of Commodore Perry and his Japanese counterpart Lord Abe brings to life and keeps in focus a story that might otherwise have drifted into an academic dissertation.
Breaking Open Japan will now be added to my list of must-reads for friends and acquaintances interested in peeling away the layers of a society that remains the most complex and conflicted of the modern era.

In 1853, in one of America's earliest demonstrations of its willingness to flex its muscles internationally, President Fillmore sent Perry to Japan to open an exotic ancient country to diplomacy and trade. Less than 90 years later, the Japanese invaded us. Obviously, between these two momentous happenings, there there were thousands of other intervening events which contributed to the forming of Japanese-American relations. However, beginnings contain the seed of what comes after, and this book is a terrific account of the often overlooked story of Commodore Perry. The author also does a wonderful (and frequently entertaining) job of linking Perry's story to Japanese history before and afterwards.

This book is certainly the best book I have read about Japanese history and culture, and it goes well beyond its ostensible subject, while stll keeping that amazing story as its main focus.

Commodore Perry's opening of Japan is an event that has faded somewhat in U.S. history, coming as it did in the years before the Civil War and well before the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor. But Feifer's scholarly, yet entertaining telling of the events deserves the attention of anyone who enjoys a good historical yarn or who seeks a better understanding of U.S. history in general.

Feifer's Breaking Open Japan is both magisterial in its understanding and colorful in its narrative. The author has a masterful knowledge of his subject--including the Japanese history that led it to the point of Perry's arrival in 1953--and he combines it with a novelist's style and an eye for detail.

The idea of any nation--especially Japan, now perhaps the world's greatest trader--being closed off from other nations is so foreign to modern eyes. But Feifer makes it understandable. He also shows how Perry's mission grew from the American sense that it had a duty to modernize, civilize, and (to some extent) Christianize the world. This is an attitude that grew through the 19th Century and into the 20th. In Perry, Feifer shows its personal embodiment.

If the book is to be faulted it is that Feifer seems to assume at least some knowledge of who Perry was and what he did. I doubt though that most Americans could recall his name. The result is that the beginning can be somewhat slow going. But as the reader warms to the fascinating, though foreign subject, Feifer's Breaking Open Japan gains focus. In the end his history is more riveting than one would have ever imagined possible. It's a huge achievement and no doubt essential for scholars of American history and Japanese history as well.

This is a fascinating story and the author presents substantive research. There is some good prose in parts, such as the character development of Commodore Perry and descriptions of Okinawa, but on the whole it is not a smooth read. The 4 stars I'm giving it are for its importance as a contribution to our understanding of this period, the author's discussion on the impact of the attitude with which Perry's mission was accomplished, and the research that has been brought together.

Had there not been such good material and insight, the text was so choppy that I would have not finished the book. The dangling ideas, that is, concepts introduced but not previously explained or later followed up on, were frustrating. Then there are a lot of tortured sentences and then some grammar that had to be ignored to get the meaning.

One example of a dangling idea was the paragraph that ended by saying that Abe Mashihiro had won an important victory in the appointment of his recommended defense advisor followed by a paragraph saying that the appointee was "his (Abe's) the most vocal critic." What did I miss? By this time in the book, I no longer flipped back. The concept of a victory for Abe getting a critic an influential position isn't ever clear. It could be that the author meant it in the wider context that through this appointment there was no war, but that isn't clear either.

An example of the tortured prose, on p. 190 regarding Perry's son in law and grandson:

"New York's high society made him "King of Fifth Avenue". (New York Belmont Race Track and the Belmont Stakes are named after him, while in Newport, Rhode Island one of the sumptuous "cottages" was built by Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, the son of "King" and Perry's daughter, together with Alva Vanderbilt previously married to William K. Vanderbilt)".

A grammar example (while you know it's Abe, there are two antecedents for him, not one) is on p. 243 "More than ever, Abe and the roju made the important decisions; with the senior counselors increasinly deferring to him about those concerning Perry..."

While the text was a real drawback (for me), there is a lot of food for thought in the analysis of what it Perry's actions meant for US-Japanese relations for the next 100 years, the unequal treaties, the symbolism of the USS Missouri receiving the Japanese surrender in Uraga Bay and the comparison of China's attitude and policies toward western trade and intervention.

For general readers interested in the seclusion period I recommend Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan and Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald Macdonald and the Opening of Japan.

The first statement I must make is that I am Italian, not Japanese, neither American and for this reason my outlook on history is slightly different from others. George Feifer is an excellent historical author that has specialized mostly in history of the end of World War II and the American Japanese interactions. He is famous for his books on the Battle of Okinawa and it's still lasting consequences. My impression is that this book has been written with a moral principle at its root, that is to demonstrate the negative influence of American diplomatic and military policy on Japan and its culture. One first example of this is the book's title, "The Breaking Open of Japan" that implies a violent penetration with the intention to steal. There are many books on this historical period, but most of them title in some way or other " The Opening of Japan" and not the "Breaking open of Japan". The other example is the constant jump through time from the 1853 Perry venture to WWII and modern Japanese-American relationships. The Author with deep conviction wants to demonstrate that Perry's feat has been the principle never ending cause of this strained relationship.
With this premise the book is excellent historical narrative. It accurately and comprehensively contextualizes the American and the Japanese attitude in 1853, and the opposed protagonists, Commodore Perry and Lord Abe. Lord Abe that was pivotal to Japanese acceptance of Perry' intimidation and that steered the government through the difficult and freighting vicissitude, is described in all his human virtues and defects and his diplomatic enterprise is analyzed in depth. Commodore Perry's figure is reread through modern eyes and debulked of all the rethoric that usually accompanies his description as one of the most important naval officers of the 19th century. The Author is capable of empathizing greatly with his characters, and also with the Japanese population. In some points we can actually feel the anxiety and fear caused by the appearance of the "Black Ships" in the Uraga Bay. Okinawa also, that was used as a base for the incursions in Japan, becomes a protagonist of this work, and its history is recalled in detail. Another interesting characteristic of Feifer's work is the long description of the aftermath of Perry's treaty. Actually the Author brings us to pre-WWII Japan before leaving us with the desire to know more.
The book's style is a little choppy, as noticed also by other reviewers, and there are many logical Pindaric flights. But the Author's evident passion in rewriting this important and often overlooked piece of American Imperialism makes one forgive these slight structural faults.
I really enjoyed reading the book, I learned and contextualized many aspects of Japanese-American relationships, and I consider a fresh breath of air the rewriting of this fundamental episode.
A completely different outlook on how Americans actually appreciated Japan and fell spellbound to its culture can be found in "The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics and the Opening of Old Japan" by Christopher Benfey.

This challenging and deeply researched book on Perry's "opening up" of Japan
has the most painful relevance possible to our current government's colossal
misadventure in allegedly trying to bring "Freedom and Democracy" to a land
of darker-skinned people about whose history we are -- not willfully mis-
informed, which would be bad enough, but wildly, tragically ignorant. And
what kind of reverberations can we expect, decades and even a century down
the road of history? What Pearl Harbors, what Okinawas, what Hiroshimas are
there to come?

Early on in his excellent history of Commodore Perry's deliberate and U.S. sanctioned effort to spread the gospel according to American interests in mid-19th century Japan, George Feifer has this to say: "Like the overwhelming majority of his fellows, the Commodore had a penchant for criticizing other societies while remaining silent about the flaws of his own. The notion of a Japanese squadron sailing into the Chesapeake Bay to demand cessation of slavery or of the obliterating of Native American culture would have seemed preposterous to him and virtually all other Americans."

Sadly, not much has changed since then. From Japan to Vietnam to Central America to Iraq many of our political sages continue to act from hubris and fundamentalist missionary zeal in an effort to expand our spheres of influence, while doing little to understand the consequences of our actions or the societies we set out to plunder and remake in our own image.

While Breaking Open Japan will be read by scholars, it's narrative gifts make it accessible to anyone with an interest in understanding the folly of imperialist attitudes.

This book is a seminal work for anyone interested in Manifest Destiny or the run-up to the American Civil War. Very through and revelatory about what happened and how the events of 1853 affected those of World War II. Breaking Open Japan: Commodore Perry, Lord Abe, and American Imperialism in 1853

The subject is interesting and timely [taking US values to far corners of the world]. But the writing is abismal. Here is a typical sentence: "Anerican newspapers helped swell the numbers who knew little more about Japan than the cruelty they reported." Did you have to read that sentence twice before getting its meaning? Well you will read many sentences twice in this book. Who taught the author how to write?Where was the Smithsonian Books editor?

The book is also chaotically organized. Many chapters do not reflect their titles. The timeline is often hard to find.

Concerning content, Feifer misses completely how "modern" Japan was in its own terms when Commodore Perry arrived. Edo [Tokyo] was a city of one million people and larger than London. It had department stores. Although Perry remained ignorant of such facts, to understand the "breaking open" the reader of this book should get more than just tabloid style exposés of leading Japanese figures like Abe Masahiro, the Shoguns "prime minister".

A book written from note cards that got dropped on the floor and shuffled.

Early on in Breaking Open Japan the theme is set: while Japan took pride in their "divine" heritage, believing that they were descended from the sun goddess, Americans believed that they had a "unique" mission, appointed by a higher power, to "enlighten" people in the rest of the world. The time is 1853, when Commodore Perry's so-called black ships sailed into Edo harbor carrying their singular mission to inform, convert, and civilize the little peoples of the far east. Convert, civilize and conquer is what they meant, with emphasis on the latter.
Reading this book now, while we are still deeply engaged in Irag and possibly about to launch a crusade against Iran, descendants of the ancient and proud Persian empire, is to have a sense of how deep, and deeply disturbing, America's sense of mission in the world has been and continues to be. It is a fascinating, fair, blow-by-blow account of how America descended upon Japan and how the Japanese, proud people humiliated by "conquerors" who appeared to be of a lesser culture, kept their own counsel, nurturing their resentment over decades to finally retaliate nearly 90 years later, at Pearl Harbor.
Not to be missed!