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Write a 1250 words paper on the topic Ways in Which Japanese and Americans Viewed Each Other

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Write a 1250 words paper on the topic Ways in Which Japanese and Americans Viewed Each Other. When Townsend Harris first visited Japan in the mid-nineteenth century he was one of the key initiators of a new era in international history. Japan had been closed to all but a few minor trading visitors in the years before this time, and Harris set about building an extensive diplomatic and trade relations between the United States and Japan. There are a number of fascinating documents and images which survive from this period, including &nbsp.Townsend Harris’s own journal, the writings of the first Japanese diplomats to visit America, &nbsp.and many official letters and treaties. Most of these deal with practical issues the time, but beneath the surface of official correspondence, and between the lines of the dry bureaucratic language there are some key indications of the way that the two nations viewed each other.&nbsp.

The very great difference in style of dress and personal adornment must have made a great impression on both parties when they first came into contact with each other. Townsend Harris was received with great splendor by the Japanese emperor and his various officials, and there is an emphasis on public display of wealth and military force in visits on both sides of the ocean. One depiction of Japanese dignitaries being received on the deck of the U.S.S.R. Roanoake, for example, shows the Japanese delegates in the foreground, wearing flowing light-colored robes, while the Americans in their dark tailcoats stand on the right and in the background. A Japanese image of American visitors also draws a sharp contrast between the tall, and very dark Americans wearing trousers, while the Japanese figures are shorter, broader and considerably more colorful in their patterned robes.&nbsp.As a&nbsp. modern observer, looking back at these images, it strikes me that the Japanese figures are depicted in the American pictures almost as if they are women.&nbsp.