assembled in Japanese waters lay off Yokohama. So it would continue to temporize.
At this time a constructive suggestion was made by the American minister, Robert H. Pruyn. On June 27 he forwarded to Mr. Seward a despatch in which he proposed that a naval demonstration be made at Osaka for the sole purpose of securing the Mikado's approval of the treaties.[1] He had at last perceived the absolute necessity of this sanction. Unhappily Great Britain refused to support this proposal[2] and the suggestion was not carried out until two years later.
As the Shogunate still controlled the administration, it believed that it could use the designated date as the time for opening negotiations, instead of expelling the foreigners. But one of the anti-Shogunate (and hence anti-foreign) daimyos of the west determined to take matters into his own hands, and so on the early morning of June 26, the armed ships at Shimonoseki, at the entrance to the Inland Sea, in the territory of the daimyo of Choshiu, fired upon the first foreign ship to come within range, the little American ship Pembroke.[3]
This opened a new and interesting phase of Japanese foreign relations. In turn, Choshiu fired upon a French and a Dutch ship of war, and then foreign shipping avoided the straits. The American minister sent down the Wyoming to destroy the offending vessels, and the French admiral later destroyed some of the batteries. For over a year the foreign ministers discussed the situation at Shimonoseki. The straits were closed by Choshiu, the Shogun was unable to open them, and Choshiu was actually in open rebellion against him. Most of the ministers and their home governments agreed that the opening of the straits was not worth the effort, and Great Britain especially adopted a policy of moderation, after the criticism aroused by the destruction of Kagoshima, the capital of the Satsuma fief, in August, 1863. Choshiu also overreached himself and, after attempting to secure control of the Mikado's person, was ordered to retire from Kyoto.
The weakening of the anti-foreign party, after the loss of Choshiu's leadership, was at once evidenced by the Shogun's withdrawal of the expulsion edict in November, 1863, although he still wished to discuss the closing of the port of Kanagawa. But Sir Rutherford Alcock, the British minister, who returned to his post in March, 1864, took the position that the only safety for foreigners and their
