Their prayers were finally answered in the late 1850s after Commodore Perry's gunboats opened Japan to Westerners.

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When Commodore Perry showed up with his warships back in 1853, he created a crisis that forced Japan to act.

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That was the famous Meiji emperor, and in his case the visiting American was Commodore Matthew Perry , who steamed into Tokyo Bay in 1853 with a powerful squadron and "suggested" that Japan abandon its feudal isolation and open relations with the outside world.

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This defect also is notable in smaller ways, as when the author refers to "Admiral Perry and his American warships off Tokyo" (Matthew Perry was only a commodore), and when we are told (erroneously) in passing that the old New York World gave its name to baseball's World Series.

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