The Black Ships shaped Japan's view of American power

The forced opening by Commodore Perry's Black Ships is, in Clarke's interpretation, central to Japan's later fear of American coercion. A museum about their arrival reinforced his view that the encounter inflicted lasting trauma through imposed cultural and economic change. American expectations of a friendly relationship failed, in this account, to acknowledge what that opening had meant to Japan. Japanese attempts to balance foreign powers and protect against another forced transformation help explain the subsequent mistrust. This interpretation provides context for later Japanese conduct without excusing it.