Great
Britain and Japan signed a treaty of friendship in Nagasaki just months after
Perry left the Islands. It established the relation between the two countries
and secured the opening of Japan for resupply. Explore the contents of the
convention.
CONVENTION
BETWEEN HER MAJESTY AND THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN, SIGNED AT NAGASAKI IN THE ENLISH
AND JAPANESE LANGUAGE, OCTOBER 14, 1854, RATIFICATIONS EXCHANGED AT NAGASAKI
OCTOBER 9, 1855
It
is agreed between Sir James Sterling, knight, rear admiral, and commander-in-chief
of the ships and vessels of her Britannic Majesty in the East Indies and seas
adjacent, and Mezi-no Chekfusno Kami, Obm yo of Nagasaki, and Nagai Evan Ocho,
Omedski of Nagasaki, ordered by his Imperial Highness the Emperor of Japan to
act herein, that –
1. The ports of Nagasaki (Fisen) and Hakodadi (Matsmai) shall be open to British
ships for the purposes of effecting repairs and obtaining fresh water,
provisions, and other supplies of any sort they may absolutely want for the use
of the ships.
2. Nagasaki shall be open for the purposes aforesaid from and after the present
date, and Hakodadi from and after the end of fifty days from the admiral’s
departure from this port. The rules and regulations of each other these ports
are to be complied with.
3. Only ships in distress from weather, or unmanageable, will be permitted to
enter other ports than those specified in the foregoing articles, without
permission from the Imperial government.
4. British ships in Japanese ports shall conform to the laws of Japan. If high
officers or commanders of ships shall break any such laws, it will lead to the
ports being closed. Should inferior persons break them, they are to be
delivered over to the commanders of their ships for punishment.
5. In the ports of Japan, either now open or which may hereafter be opened to the
ships or subjects of any foreign nation, British ships and subjects shall be
entitled to admission and to the enjoyment of an equality of advantages with
those of the most favored nation, always expecting the advantages accruing to
the Dutch and Chinese from their existing relations with Japan.
6.
This convention shall be ratified, and ratifications shall be exchanged, at
Nagasaki, on behalf of her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, and on behalf of
his Highness the Emperor of Japan, within twelve months from the present date.
7.
When this convention shall be ratified, no high officer coming to Japan shall
alter it.
In
witness whereof we have signed the same, and have affixed our seals thereunto,
at Nagasaki, this 14th day of October, 1854.
JAMES
STIRLING
N.B.
The Japanese text was signed by the Japanese plenipotentiaries.
Source:
Hawks, Francis. Narrative of the Expedition of An American Squadron to The China Seas and Japan, Performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under the Command of Commodore M.C. Perry, United States Navy by Order of the Government of the United States, Volume I. Washington D.C.: A.O.P. Nicholson, Printer, 1856.
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