The Book Travels of Commodore Perry: Reading and Framing the Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan

Today, Commodore Matthew Perry is best remembered for his Japan expedition of 1852–1854, an event recounted in his three-volume Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan (1856–1857). The Narrative portrays Perry as a bold explorer who had finally revealed Japan to Western observers, giving them a wealth of scientific and anthropological data about the country in the process. While eventually challenged by modern historians, this view remained the orthodox interpretation of the expedition for many decades, one uncritically reliant on the Commodore’s own interpretation of events. In this article, I argue that despite its eventual success, Perry’s contemporaries received his Narrative far more contentiously than is often appreciated, condemning it as poorly written and him for overhyping his claim to have ‘opened’ Japan, as well as for contributing less new information about the country than was expected. By analyzing the Narrative ’s context and reception, I show how America’s self-conscious relationship with Europe in an era of ‘Manifest Destiny’, as well as the West’s surprisingly extensive literary culture about Japan, both contributed to this tepid reception.