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A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln - Fact Check by ManInBlackHat

ManInBlackHat · 4d · edited 4d A 22-year window is a bit generous, but a case could be made for a smaller 5-to-12 year window. A bit of background to begin. Under the Tokugawa shogunate Japan officially had an isolationist foreign policy (Sakoku) that allowed for an extremely limited amount of foreign trade into the country with China, Korea, the Dutch East India Company, and the Ainu people. With in the zones of trade movement was extremely restricted (on pain of death) and the stranded sailor that ended in Japan during this period was likely to be executed as well. The short answer as to why these policies were enacted in 1633 is that it was an attempt to halt the spread of foreign culture (primarily from Spain and Portugal), and Christianity in particular with the Shimabara Rebellion in 1637 in which Japanese Christian rose up with the aid of rõnin. After 214 years of the sakoku it came to an end with a display of gunboat diplomacy on the part of Commodore Perry's Expedition of 1853 - 1854 in which the black ships (due to the pitch used to paint the hulls) of the expedition steamed into the bay of Edo and threated to attack the city if Japan did not start trading with the West. After negotiations The Treaty of Peace and Amity was signed, but some parts of it were deferred for later diplomatic negotiations. This leads us to the Bakumatsu and the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, opening of Japan, and eventual Meji Restoration. In 1860 the diplomatic mission of the Tokugawa shogunate was dispatched to the United States to negotiate and ratify the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation onboard the warship Kanrin Maru, the first sail and screw-driven steam corvette and signifier of things to come during the Mejin Restoration. If you look at photographs of the exhibition members (e.g., one, two) you will notice that some of them are wearing katana, either in the form of a single katana (indicating official status) or as daishõ (i.e., katana and wakizashi) indicating that they are members of the samurai class. So now we can start checking off questions! Since members of the diplomatic mission were members of the samurai class it is clear they visited the United States. While the delegation was hosted at one point by the White House, they were hosted by James Buchanan as Abraham Lincoln would not take office until March 4, 1861. However, the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Tokugawa shogunate and duration of the Lincoln Administration (1861 - 1865) actually means that Lincoln never actually saw the Meji Restoration in 1868. To return to the 5-to-12 year window, the duration really depends upon where you start counting from. If you start from the Perry Exhibition then you have about 12 years where as if you start with the diplomatic mission you have about five years. However, while transatlantic cables were completed in 1866, it wouldn't be until 1871 that Japan was connected to a cable network. At that point a telegraph could conceivability been sent from the White House to a diplomatic mission in Japan, although the nuance of that question is outside the scope of my knowledge.
ManInBlackHat · 4d · edited 4d A 22-year window is a bit generous, but a case could be made for a smaller 5-to-12 year window. A bit of background to begin. Under the Tokugawa shogunate Japan officially had an isolationist foreign policy (Sakoku) that allowed for an extremely limited amount of foreign trade into the country with China, Korea, the Dutch East India Company, and the Ainu people. With in the zones of trade movement was extremely restricted (on pain of death) and the stranded sailor that ended in Japan during this period was likely to be executed as well. The short answer as to why these policies were enacted in 1633 is that it was an attempt to halt the spread of foreign culture (primarily from Spain and Portugal), and Christianity in particular with the Shimabara Rebellion in 1637 in which Japanese Christian rose up with the aid of rõnin. After 214 years of the sakoku it came to an end with a display of gunboat diplomacy on the part of Commodore Perry's Expedition of 1853 - 1854 in which the black ships (due to the pitch used to paint the hulls) of the expedition steamed into the bay of Edo and threated to attack the city if Japan did not start trading with the West. After negotiations The Treaty of Peace and Amity was signed, but some parts of it were deferred for later diplomatic negotiations. This leads us to the Bakumatsu and the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, opening of Japan, and eventual Meji Restoration. In 1860 the diplomatic mission of the Tokugawa shogunate was dispatched to the United States to negotiate and ratify the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation onboard the warship Kanrin Maru, the first sail and screw-driven steam corvette and signifier of things to come during the Mejin Restoration. If you look at photographs of the exhibition members (e.g., one, two) you will notice that some of them are wearing katana, either in the form of a single katana (indicating official status) or as daishõ (i.e., katana and wakizashi) indicating that they are members of the samurai class. So now we can start checking off questions! Since members of the diplomatic mission were members of the samurai class it is clear they visited the United States. While the delegation was hosted at one point by the White House, they were hosted by James Buchanan as Abraham Lincoln would not take office until March 4, 1861. However, the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Tokugawa shogunate and duration of the Lincoln Administration (1861 - 1865) actually means that Lincoln never actually saw the Meji Restoration in 1868. To return to the 5-to-12 year window, the duration really depends upon where you start counting from. If you start from the Perry Exhibition then you have about 12 years where as if you start with the diplomatic mission you have about five years. However, while transatlantic cables were completed in 1866, it wouldn't be until 1871 that Japan was connected to a cable network. At that point a telegraph could conceivability been sent from the White House to a diplomatic mission in Japan, although the nuance of that question is outside the scope of my knowledge.

A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln
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A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln - Fact Check by demosthenes131

demosthenes131 · 4d · edited 4d S I think I can answer the first question as I had been looking into a similar question. Kaoru Ishiguro for Shukan NY Seikatsu dug into the newspaper clippings at the New York Public Library to find records of the first Japanese mission to the US which occurred in 1860. This was following the 1858 signing of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce signed between the United States and Japan. This occurred after Matthew Perry "opened" the country, though Japan wasn't closed as much as extremely restricted and limited trade to five "gateways" including Nagasaki where the Chinese traded with Japan and the Dutch East India Company also were permitted to operate. But to the point of samurai in America, Masao Miyoshi in As We Saw Them: The First Japanese Embassy to the United States discusses this Japanese envoy coming to the United States to ratify the treaty. It appears they departed from Uraga they first arrived in San Francisco and stayed for a month. The head of the mission was Admiral Kimura Yoshitake. They were accompanied by an American who had been shipwrecked in 1859 in Yokohama, John Mercer Brooke. The Japanese government asked Brooke to accompany the mission aboard the Kanrin Maru, the Japanese corvette that made the trip. Both Miyoshi and Young (journal article cited below) discuss samurai being part of this group. The mission was under the command of Kimura Yoshitake, who Brooke referred to as "admiral." His title in Japanese translated to "Magistrate of Warships." The samurai in charge of the ship was Katsu Rintarõ, who was seasick during the trip. He later became the chief architect of the Imperial Japanese Navy. (Rintarõ was a childhood name he had, and he has several names attributed to him. Katsu Kaishu is another well known name as well as Katsu Yasuyoshi). Another samurai on the trip, Fukuzawa Yukichi, later went on to author several books, including and English to Japanese dictionary and a children's book that become an official textbook, All the Countries of the World, for Children Written in Verse. He also founded Keio University. Edit: I should add that this delegation met with President James Buchanan in DC. The delegation boarded the USS Powhatan and the Kanrin Maru escorted it to DC. Wikipedia has this picture of Fukuzawa Yukichi with Theodora Alice in San Francisco in 1860 while they were there. The Voyage of the Kanrin Maru to San Francisco, 1860. Dana B. Young California History Vol. 61, No. 4 (Winter, 1983), pp. 264-275 1.6k Reply Give Award Share Report Save
demosthenes131 · 4d · edited 4d S I think I can answer the first question as I had been looking into a similar question. Kaoru Ishiguro for Shukan NY Seikatsu dug into the newspaper clippings at the New York Public Library to find records of the first Japanese mission to the US which occurred in 1860. This was following the 1858 signing of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce signed between the United States and Japan. This occurred after Matthew Perry "opened" the country, though Japan wasn't closed as much as extremely restricted and limited trade to five "gateways" including Nagasaki where the Chinese traded with Japan and the Dutch East India Company also were permitted to operate. But to the point of samurai in America, Masao Miyoshi in As We Saw Them: The First Japanese Embassy to the United States discusses this Japanese envoy coming to the United States to ratify the treaty. It appears they departed from Uraga they first arrived in San Francisco and stayed for a month. The head of the mission was Admiral Kimura Yoshitake. They were accompanied by an American who had been shipwrecked in 1859 in Yokohama, John Mercer Brooke. The Japanese government asked Brooke to accompany the mission aboard the Kanrin Maru, the Japanese corvette that made the trip. Both Miyoshi and Young (journal article cited below) discuss samurai being part of this group. The mission was under the command of Kimura Yoshitake, who Brooke referred to as "admiral." His title in Japanese translated to "Magistrate of Warships." The samurai in charge of the ship was Katsu Rintarõ, who was seasick during the trip. He later became the chief architect of the Imperial Japanese Navy. (Rintarõ was a childhood name he had, and he has several names attributed to him. Katsu Kaishu is another well known name as well as Katsu Yasuyoshi). Another samurai on the trip, Fukuzawa Yukichi, later went on to author several books, including and English to Japanese dictionary and a children's book that become an official textbook, All the Countries of the World, for Children Written in Verse. He also founded Keio University. Edit: I should add that this delegation met with President James Buchanan in DC. The delegation boarded the USS Powhatan and the Kanrin Maru escorted it to DC. Wikipedia has this picture of Fukuzawa Yukichi with Theodora Alice in San Francisco in 1860 while they were there. The Voyage of the Kanrin Maru to San Francisco, 1860. Dana B. Young California History Vol. 61, No. 4 (Winter, 1983), pp. 264-275 1.6k Reply Give Award Share Report Save

A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln
samurai abraham lincoln fax machine

it is quite possible that at one point, a samurai used a fax machine (Original Tweet)


A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln
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There Was a 22 Year Window In Which a Samurai Could Have Sent a Fax to Abraham Lincoln

Okay so The samurai were officially abolished as a caste in Japanese society during the Meiji Restoration in 1867 The first ever fax machine, the "printing telegraph", was invented in 1843 And Abraham Lincoln was famously assassinated at Ford's Theatre in 1865 Which means There was a 22 year window in which a samurai could have sent a fax to Abraham Lincoln
Okay so The samurai were officially abolished as a caste in Japanese society during the Meiji Restoration in 1867 The first ever fax machine, the "printing telegraph", was invented in 1843 And Abraham Lincoln was famously assassinated at Ford's Theatre in 1865 Which means There was a 22 year window in which a samurai could have sent a fax to Abraham Lincoln

A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln
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Abraham Lincoln Will Never Forgive the Japanese

Abraham Lincoln after reading and getting offended by a fax sent by some samurais I'll never forgive the Japanese!
Abraham Lincoln after reading and getting offended by a fax sent by some samurais I'll never forgive the Japanese!

A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln
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Men With a Fax Machine

Women with a time machine I am your granddaughter Men with a time machine Really? Send a fax to lincoln Watashi wa shimasu
Women with a time machine I am your granddaughter Men with a time machine Really? Send a fax to lincoln Watashi wa shimasu

A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln
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I Should Send a Fax to Abraham Lincon


A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln
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22 year gap rule

Abraham Lincoln Wednesday at 6:34 PM e F-----' wife dragging me to one of these stupid f------ plays again. Someone shoot me, please! ne Like Comment Share You and 43 others like this. John Wilkes Booth Lmfao Wednesday at 6:35 PM Like Catsumoto Nyangatoro You get my fax bro? Wednesday at 6:53 PM Like ROUGE_WEASEL
Abraham Lincoln Wednesday at 6:34 PM e F-----' wife dragging me to one of these stupid f------ plays again. Someone shoot me, please! ne Like Comment Share You and 43 others like this. John Wilkes Booth Lmfao Wednesday at 6:35 PM Like Catsumoto Nyangatoro You get my fax bro? Wednesday at 6:53 PM Like ROUGE_WEASEL

A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln
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Cheems Samurai Warns Abe About Harambe

I do hope I can get this to my Abe in time! How to Save Harambe: instructions for the future dear friend clack clack click clack
I do hope I can get this to my Abe in time! How to Save Harambe: instructions for the future dear friend clack clack click clack

A Samurai Could Have Faxed Abraham Lincoln
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