The shipwrecks and the casting away of sea men gave the United States Government its op portunity to seek a treaty of friendship. and. if possible. of commerce. and Commodore Perry, to whom the task was intrusted. sueeeeded in 1554. Four years later other treaties opened several ports to foreign residence and trade. In IS60 a Japanese embassy visited the United States. and in the following year an embassy was sent to the European courts. Narrow minded patriots protested: but the great clans of the southwest, always detesting the north ern rule of Yedo, gradually gathered around the Court. In 1567 the Shogun was compelled to resign, and when in 1868 he sought to regain power by force of arms, he was driven from the field. Men with new ideas and determined purpose obtained control of the Emperor and the Government, moved the capital to Yedo, had the sovereign swear to rule according to 'the right way between heaven and earth' (in deference to public opinion), and to order the abolition of feudalism. It was virtually a committee of four men, Iwakura, Okubo, Kido. and Saigo, with their far-seeing fellows and helpers, that led the samurai who were able to swing the nation out of ancient routine and, with political motives wholly, made the new Japan. They invited edu cators from the United States to reorganize their educational system, French officers to remodel their army. British seamen to reorganize their navy, and Dutch and other engineers to make internal improvements. These tremendous
changes were not accomplished without protest. In 18S7 Saigo quarreled with his old friends, led an army 'against the Emperor's evil ad visors,' and the Satsuma Rebellion cost Japan 20,000 lives and $50,000,000. In 1879 Loo-ehoo was made an integral part of the Empire, and Sho Tai. the Kiug, brought to Tokio and made marquis. Western laws were in troduced and codified. In pursuance of the Imperial oath, a Parliament was promised. In 1SS4 the nobility was reorganized on the Euro pean idea, and the able men of the Restoration honored also with titles. In 1889 the Constitu tion was proclaimed, and the Diet met in 1891. With many an ebb and flow the great tide of progress has kept on. In 1894 war with China broke out in regard to Korea; this resulted in the utter defeat of China, the cession in IS95 of Formosa to Japan, the payment of a large in demnity. and the independence of Korea. Japan took a prominent part among the Powers in the military events resulting from the Boxer move ment in China in 1900. See CHINESE EMPIRE.
Amid all changes, even those in the last half of the nineteenth century. it has been shown that the deepest and strongest force in Japanese his tory is the universal loyalty to the Mikado. The one now on the throne is the one hundred and twenty-third. See POLITICAL PARTIES, section on Japan.