Last year was the 150th anniversary of the first appearance of U.S. Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry's "Black Ships" in Edo (now Tokyo) Bay. Their mission, by order of President Millard Fillmore, was to demand -- under threat of force if necessary -- that Japan, closed to the world for more than two centuries, should conclude a trade pact with the United States and provide coaling stations and ports for U.S. vessels.