A U.S. Navy officer was strolling down a deserted street in the town of Shimoda, late on the evening of April 24, 1854, when he ran into two well-dressed young Japanese who handed him a letter in Japanese. The previous month, Commodore Matthew Perry had completed his mission to have Japan sign a treaty in Yokohama, and his fleet was now anchored off Shimoda while a port survey was being conducted.
Translated into English, the letter asked the Americans to take its two bearers to the United States, although this act would invite the death penalty under the law of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and might also jeopardize U.S.-Japan relations.
The two -- Yoshida Shoin, a ronin (masterless samurai) from Choshu (present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture), and Kaneko Jusuke, Shoin's junior fellow from the same domain -- rowed out to the Mississippi, one of Perry's squadron, on the night of the following day. Aboard the steamer, S. Wells Williams, Perry's official translator, told them on behalf of the commodore that the Americans could not violate the law of Japan and had therefore rejected their request.