Meanwhile, the Japanese built fortifications outside of their capital city’s port in order to prevent any further American naval incursion. He then left for his ship, which he took to the Chinese coast, and he promised that he would be back for a reply. After the Japanese agreed to receive the letter, Commodore Perry landed at Kurihama to deliver the letter to the delegates who were present. With the Japanese being cut off from the rest of the world, they did not have the technology to combat such an advanced piece of military technology. The American ships were equipped with new naval weapons which could fire shells that would explode on impact. He then demanded that he deliver the letter from President Millard Fillmore to the Shogunate, and that if the Japanese ships surrounding the American squadron did not disperse then he would be forced to attack. This was a show of force to the Japanese that the American ships were a force not to be trifled with. Instead, Commodore Perry ordered his ships to steam past the Japanese lines towards the capital city of Edo and position their guns towards a smaller town nearby. When Commodore Perry and his ships reached Japan, delegates from the Tokugawa Shogunate (the shogun administration which led Japan at the time) who directed Perry to the port of Nagasaki, which was the port open to foreigners at the time. Commodore Perry even researched a German Japanologist who had lived at the Dutch trading post for 8 years. Before his venture to the Land of the Rising Sun, Commodore Perry studied the Japanese from many sources. Commodore Perry was armed with a letter from the President, informing the Japanese of the United States’ desire to have a trade alliance with Japan. The voyage embarked from Norfolk, Virginia for Japan in search of a trade treaty. The talks with the Japanese began with President Millard Fillmore sending Commodore Perry on an expedition to Japan in 1852.
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