150 Years Ago This Month - Townsend Harris Enters Japan

Townsend Harris arrived in Japan 150 years ago this month, the first American diplomat to reside in Japan. After two years of negotiations marked by deadlock and cultural clashes, he successfully negotiated the "Treaty of Peace and Commerce," or the so-called Harris Treaty, in 1858, which secured trade between the United States and Japan and opened the ports of Kobe and Yokohama. It also allowed Americans to reside in these ports and at Edo (present day Tokyo).