And to make matters worse for China, during the same period, they have an incredibly bloody civil war where over 20 million people die. Historians think in part due to the lack of confidence in the Qing Dynasty because of the opium wars and the opium itself that is very destructive to society. Now, the Japanese were watching all this, and they also had their own interactions with the West. In 1853, the American commodore Matthew Perry comes in with some of his ships into Edo Harbor, which is modern-day Tokyo, and is able to convince the Japanese to trade with the United States. The term convince should be used very carefully because, once again, this was a form of gunboat diplomacy. The Japanese saw the ships that Commodore Perry traveled with, and they knew what had happened during the First Opium War, and they were in no mood to have the same thing happen to them. Especially when Commodore Perry returned in 1854 with even more ships, the Japanese decided, why fight them, we will open up and allow some trade.