Before Commodore Perry went to Japan in 1853, the Japanese had discouraged the practice of Christian worship in Japan due to problems they had encountered with the Portuguese, who had settled in Japan in the 1500s.  The Japanese leaders were nervous about Christian influence in Japan.  Commodore Perry knew this and would not allow any religious proselytizing during his mission, which upset the chaplain ministers on his ships.  Commodore Perry was a religious man, however, and read his Bible daily and had religious services conducted on board his squadron ships.  He did not, however, try to convert the Japanese during his visit despite national and international fervor for Christian conversion at that time. 

After delivering a friendship letter from President Fillmore in July 1853, Perry left Japan to over-winter and obtain supplies in China.  He returned in early 1854 and on March 8th made his second well-orchestrated landing to negotiate a treaty with Japan.  One of the issues of concern to Perry during negotiations was the burial of a 24-year-old sailor, Robert Williams, who had died on the USSF Mississippi, the Commodore’s flagship.  After negotiating the Treaty, the ruling Japanese (bakufu) offered a place within Zotokuin temple in Yokohama village.  The site had a view overlooking the sea, which had been a special request by Perry. This was how the Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery (gaijin bochi) started on a bluff overlooking the harbor. 

Robert Williams was the first American buried in Japanese soil.  When Perry went to Shimoda after the treaty was negotiated, he requested soil to bury another American, C. W. Parish, who had recently died aboard one of the squadron ships.  A plot of land at the Gyokusenji Temple in Shimoda on the Izu Peninsula was donated for the burial of this sailor in April 1854.  A chaplain aboard Commodore Perry’s flagship conducted the Christian burial in Shimoda with full support of a Japanese Buddhist priest, who also conducted a service for the sailor.  Three months later the grave of Robert Williams, the first man buried at the foreigner's cemetery in Yokohama, was moved to Shimoda.  Other deaths that occurred during the expedition involved the loss of a lieutenant and 14 men, who perished in a typhoon near the Bonin Islands, while they were fishing.  They were not recovered. 

When I was in Yokohama in July 2013, I visited the Foreigners’ Cemetery and learned about foreigners buried there.  I was surprised to see the names of so many British, but did not realize at the time that the American sailor had been moved to Shimoda.  After Perry’s expedition, another sad story of American naval history occurred with the USS Oneida, which was part of the Asian fleet from 1867 to 1870.  The ship sank in 1870 after striking a British merchant ship, Bombay.  The Oneida was responsible for the collision, but the captain of the Bombay was blamed for not staying on the scene to rescue survivors.  Japanese fishing boats saved 61 sailors, but 125 perished in the disaster.  The United States government made no attempt to salvage the ship and sold the rights to the Japanese.  The Japanese raised the ship and buried the bones of the sailors found on board at the Foreigners Cemetery in Yokohama. 

Two friends of mine from Yokohama, Ms. Masae Comber and Ms. Akiko Motegi, visited Shimoda in October 2013. 

They sent me much information and pictures of the gravesites.  I was especially happy to get the names of the men buried there and immediately wondered if their descendants in the United States are aware of these graves.  I also was impressed that the road along the water in Shimoda that starts from Ryosenji Temple is called "Perry Road."  The gravesites are now covered with a canopy and although only two Americans from the Expedition are buried there, other Americans were buried there subsequent to the Perry Expedition.　　

On September 8, 2014, I visited Hakodate with Dr. Shoji Mitarai, a professor at Sapporo University.  One of the sites on my quick tour of this beautiful city was the Cemetery for Foreigners.  Two men aboard the ships in Perry’s fleet had died in Hakodate and buried in this cemetery.  James C. Wolfe was 50 years old and died on May 25, 1854, and C. W. Remick was 19 and died on May 27, 1854.  Both men were seamen and served on the USS Vandalia.  There is a total of 40 graves in the cemetery and, in addition to the two Americans, are men and women from Germany, Denmark, and England.  The sign at the cemetery mentions that there also are some Japanese Christian Citizens entombed there. 

The large stone dedicated to the foreigners in the cemetery was originally erected by Americans for their departed seamen.  Although the words, in English and Japanese, were stained by weather exposure the message was clear and beautiful:

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Sleeping on a foreign soil Rest, sailor,
Rest! thy trial o’er; 

Thy shipmates leave this token here

That some perchance may drop a tear,
For one who braved so long the blast,
And served his country to the last.

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The Japanese were friendly to Perry in 1854 and not only gave him ground for the two burials in Shimoda, and later two in Hakodate, but assisted in the burial using Buddhist rituals.  The cemetery in Shimoda is still a respected memorial to the dead seamen of the Japan expedition led by Perry and represents the improved relations between our two countries.  The cemetery is part of the historic Gyokusenji Temple, and not far from the Ryosenji Temple, which is maintained by chief priest Mr. Daiei Matsui.  Mr. Matsui is very interested in the history of Shimoda and takes special interest in Commodore Perry’s involvement with Shimoda.  I visited the temple in July 2015 and met with Mr. Matsui.  American seamen are remembered in Japan.