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Members
of the First Japanese Embassy to the United
States Tinted
albumen stereoscopic view (half shown),
1860 The
world-weary expression of the diplomat on the right
was well-earned. The members of the first Japanese
Embassy were feted, celebrated, entertained and
paraded through the streets of Washington,
Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York. The Japanese
retinue included 77 people, from doctors to cooks,
accompanied by tons of baggage. The
three ambassadors and their staff were sent to
Washington to sign and exchange a treaty of
"friendship and commerce" prepared in 1858, four
years after the treaty signed by Commodore Perry.
By the time they arrived, the United States was
just months away from Civil War, and anti-Western
pressures were rocking the government of Japan.
The
ambassadors and their staff were the first Japanese
ever seen by Americans-- aside from some isolated
shipwrecked sailors. The Broadway photographer C.
D. Fredricks made a series of stereoscopic
portraits so that the public could purchase 3-D
photographs of the celebrities, the better to get a
closer look at their distinctive hairstyles and
colorful clothes. Walt
Whitman (who had been a newspaper reporter in
Brooklyn) wrote a poem commemorating the excitement
and nationalistic fervor that greeted the visitors
as they were paraded through Manhattan: When
the façades of the houses are alive with
people—when eyes gaze, riveted, tens of
thousands at a time; When
the guests from the islands advance—when
the pageant moves forward, visible;
When
the summons is made—when the answer that
waited thousands of years, answers; I
too, arising, answering, descend to the
pavements, merge with the crowd, and gaze with
them. Click
here
for the story of the Embassy's first visit to
official Washington, from the White House
Historical Association (opens in a new browser
window) Charles
D. Fredricks (New York) 'Tommy,'
An interpreter for the first Japanese
Embassy to the United
States Tinted
albumen stereoscopic view (half shown),
1860 Tateishi
Onojiro Noriyuki was about 17 years old
when he accompanied his father, a
translator for the first Japanese Embassy
to the United States. 'Tommy,'
as he was known, was especially popular
with American women, treated "like a
present-day rock star." He was the subject
of a brief character sketch in a book
written by Lt. James D. Johnston, Captain
of the U.S. Navy steamship that
transported the diplomats. (click
here or
scroll down to read Lt. Johnston's account
of "Tommy") |
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