America had, however, ventured into the imperialist arena—in Japan, in 1853, when it sent a fleet of steam-powered US Navy warships into Edo Harbor. Japan had coal, and the American government wanted a fueling station for its military vessels. Commodore Matthew Perry offered the Japanese government an ultimatum: open up to Western trade or face withering American cannonfire. The US shipping industry also had a special grudge against the closed, forbidden country: shipwrecked whalers who washed up on Japan’s shores had long been subjected to imprisonment and death. It was a strange echo of the
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