[Our] people are not a warlike nation.  It is a soldierly one, which means it does not want war but does not fear it.  It loves peace, but also its honor and freedom.

—— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf.

       We are not a warlike people.  Quite the opposite.  We always seek to live in peace.  We resort to force infrequently and with great reluctance–and only after we have determined that it is absolutely necessary.

—— Ronald W. Reagan, July 17, 1980.

       Commodore Matthew C. Perry, commanding the East Indies Squadron of the Navy of the united States, under orders from Commander-in-Chief Fillmore, forcibly opens the Empire of Japan to foreign commerce.

       NOTE: This is the first time the United States has invaded Japan.

       [restored 2/11/2022] Thanks to Jim Lorenz for this entry.

       What could President Fillmore have been thinking?  Was it on his oath of office? If so where is sending armed forces to ‘open’ foreign nations that are not engaging in Barbary form piracy found in the Constitution?  One violation of the Golden Rule leads to another. It certainly could be said that sending an armed force to rudely invite one’s self in to a closed culture set a very bad example that told the Japanese that this was the way things were done in the ‘civilized’ West, and that they would do well to build a great navy and emulate the ‘superior’ nations. How many millions of Manchurians, Chinese and others would die to satisfy the ‘liberated’ expansionist Japan by 1945?  Hopefully the Japanese are cured of violent imperialism; but are the Americans?  What kind of a lesson will that take?  What kind of a lesson got the Japanese’ attention?  What are we teaching by example to all nations of the world?  “God is on the side of the larger battalions”? (Voltaire)

       The editors hope that the lesson is the voice of sweet reason, for that is the purpose of this chronology.

       As this is being written in April 2005, there is talk of China rearming with a greater percentage of its newfound capitalist wealth, perhaps to ‘reunify’ Taiwan, formerly Formosa, etc. The U.S. has sent up trial balloons suggesting that Japan be rearmed as a defense against a rising China. Are we going to repeat every error of the 19^th and 20^th centuries until we get it right?  Or we get it so hard that the survivors will remember for generations?  Hard or easy; the choice is ours to make.

       It must also be noted that it is quite probable that Toyota will soon peacefully surpass General Motors as the premier vehicle manufacturer in the world in the number of units sold per year. –– JL