Yokosuka Port - Key to the Modernization of Japan- Its past and present
Complete view of Yokosuka Port (Photo courtesy of Ministry of Transport)
Yokosuka is located 50 kilometers south of Tokyo, at the tip of one of the two peninsulas which form the entrance of Tokyo Bay. Its population is 430,000.
The ria coastline along the Tokyo Bay is indented and deep. Blessed with excellent natural ports, foremost of which is the Port of Yokosuka, the city enjoys a strategic location commanding the entrance of Tokyo Bay. Consequently, Yokosuka has always played an important role as a transportation hub. Today, the Port of Yokosuka handles large volumes of both imports and exports, including cars and other industrial products, and is a major product distribution center. Yokosuka also hosts the US Navy Seventh Fleet , and has grown into an international port.
Today, the Port of Yokosuka is closely interlinked with the world in various aspects and has had an interesting history of exposure to foreign influences. Here we will take a glimpse at that past.
During the 16th to 19th century. a unique Japanese culture blossomed under the policy of seclusion of the ruling Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo Period. All ports were closed to foreign trade, and Japan was placed in total isolation, with virtually no contact with foreign cultures.
This period of seclusion lasted for nearly two centuries until in 1853 Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry sailed into Yokosuka with a squadron of four warships and 400 men to forcefully open Japan's ports. During the early years of the 19th century, the US needed Japanese ports to replenish merchant fleets en route to the resource rich and lucrative Chinese market. Japan was rudely awakened from 200 years of peaceful seclusion, and thrown into political and social turmoil by the arrival of foreigner powers.
A peace treaty was signed between Japan and the US in 1854, which allowed US ships to anchor in Hakodate and Shimoda, where they would be replenished with drinking water and fuel. The arrival of Commodore Perry and the peace treaty triggered the modernization of Japan by forcing the Tokugawa Shogunate to abandon their 200 year policy of seclusion. Permission was granted to construct ocean liners, and the first steel manufacturing works was established in Yokosuka.
