Blackships sighted off the coast!

[Taro Toporific]

Stinky aliens attack Nippon, 150yrs ago...
Question: Why commemorate this with pleasure?

Japan commemorates anniversary of ties with the West
08/07/2003 09:49:31 | ABC Radio Australia News
Japan is today commemorating the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the "black ships" - an event that opened up Japan to the West... on July 8, 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry and his fleet of "black ships" sailed into Tokyo Bay and demanded Japan establish diplomatic and commercial relations with the United States...

[Marked Trail]

Stinky aliens attack Nippon, 150yrs ago...
Question: Why commemorate this]/b] with pleasure?

[b]Japan commemorates anniversary of ties with the West
08/07/2003 09:49:31 | ABC Radio Australia News

--The Asahi Shimbun, IHT/Asahi: July 9, 2003

I walked around the Uraga neighborhood recently. A memorial cenotaph stood at Perry's landing place in Kurihama. Erected in 1901, it is a massive stone monument with an inscription in the handwriting of Hirobumi Ito. It says, ``Monument to mark the landing by Commodore Perry of the United States of America.''

Toward the end of World War II, the cenotaph was pulled down as a symbol of ``national humiliation'' and covered with black cloth as in a mock funeral. However, just before the arrival of the postwar U.S. occupation forces, the monument was re-erected. The construction workers reportedly worked stealthily through the night.

On the day I visited the ``birthplace'' of Japan's relations with the United States, the sea was placid as if it remembered none of the turbulent affairs of the past 150 years since the arrival of the Black Ships.

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