The Flight of Commodore Biddle

Commodore Biddle's reception, Edo.

Jordan Berman

 “In the age of new steam-driven vessels, the distance between California and Japan had been reduced to but 18 days. Calculations concerning space, and time, and America’s ‘manifest destiny’ itself had all been dramatically transformed.”[1] Indeed following England’s victory in the Opium War in 1842, newly opened trade with China caused much interest in the “eventual establishment of mutually beneficial trade relations” with the Japanese.[2]

            “The USS Columbus and Vincennes in Japan” depicts the largely uneventful arrival of the first American expedition to Japan as Biddle was “ordered to depart immediately” and “did precisely as he was told – leaving no legacy beyond a few American and Japanese illustrations of his warships.”[3][4]  The lithograph tries to paint this uneventful encounter as “one of the most novel kind” by highlighting the politeness of the American fleet as well as the strangeness of Japanese hospitality.[5] The Japanese are painted as a technologically inferior yet prosperous people; “amiable, and exceedingly jealous of their customs…”[6] Furthermore, the image attempts to give a sense of the Japanese navy by showing the number of ships in the fleet that met Commodore Biddle’s ships, the scale relative to an American ship and a close-up to show the level of Japanese naval technology at the time. The inclusion of a description of the encounter in the lithograph as well as the scientific attention it uses in its portrayal of the Japanese suggests that it was made for historical purposes - either for private collectors or institutions.[7] The uneventful nature of the encounter; however, especially in comparison with Commodore Perry’s famous expedition less than 10 years later, meant that the image would have a small production run. Despite this, the existence of this image is proof of the interest in expanding American influence that permeated American society at such an exciting time.

            This lithograph begs for comparison with those depicting Perry’s voyages to Japan in their depictions of interactions between the two peoples. Where this lithograph seeks to create a sense of mystery around the Japanese, a lithograph about the Perry Expedition would be more focused on notions of American military as well as moral superiority as a result of our being gracious enough to carry the “Gospel of God to the Heathens.”[8]