distinguished themselves are rewarded by grants of land, or else
you attack and seize the enemy's territory and that becomes your own
property; so every man is encouraged to fight his best. But in a war
with foreign countries a man may undergo hardships for years, may
fight as if his life were worth nothing, and, as all the land in this
country already has owners, there will be none to be given away as
rewards; so we shall have to give rewards in words or money. In time
the country would be put to an immense expense and the people be
plunged into misery. Rather than allow this, as we are not the equals
of foreigners in the mechanical arts, let us have intercourse with
foreign countries, learn their drill and tactics, and when we have
made the nation as united as one family, we shall be able to go abroad
and give lands in foreign countries to those who have distinguished
themselves in battle. The soldiers will vie with one another in
displaying their intrepidity, and it will not be too late then to
declare war. Now we shall have to defend ourselves against these
foreign enemies, skilled in the use of mechanical appliances, with
our soldiers whose military skill has considerably diminished during
a long peace of three hundred years, and we certainly could not feel
sure of victory, especially in a naval war.'"[5]

The Kai-Koku party, the party in favor of opening the country,
triumphed, and the treaty was finally concluded between the United
States and Japan on the 31st of March, 1854. After the return of
Commodore Perry to America, Townsend Harris was sent by the United
States Government as Consul-General to Japan. He negotiated the
commercial treaty between the United States and Japan on July 29,
1858.

At the heels of the Americans followed the English, French, Russians,