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. And this is a very big deal. Remember, the Tokugawa Shogunate had closed the country for over 200 years, but now they saw the writing on the wall. They could not defend themselves against the American warships.