ABSTRACT
I THE OPIUM WAR On the morrow of the famines, however, internal reforms were not Mizuno Tadakuni’s only worry. The Bakufu was conscious of the approach of danger from outside. Since 1825, it had upheld the principle of firing at any foreign ship which attempted to land on Japanese coasts; and Torii Yozo unmercifully harried officials who were unofficially studying Dutch.1
