ABSTRACT
In the 1840s Japan and the United States each thought of the other as barbarians. And each of course defined civilization in terms of itself. Japan, like China, had long regarded the Christianizing, colonizing West as a threat to civilized East Asia. The United States considered Japan a heathen country whose refusal to trade threatened America’s “mission of commerce to civilize the world.” Neither knew very much about the other, for there had been no real contact between the ancient secluded island empire and the young expanding American nation.
