Edo Japan Fought Commodore Perry's forces?

CECBC

Banned
What if Japan, instead of opening up to foreign trade decided to fight the American expedition sent to Japan and maintain it's isolationist attitude to the bitter end if need be?


Let's say they get really lucky and win, killing Commodore Perry and destroying/capturing the four ships in his fleet. How would the US respond? As for how they'd do this I was thinking of using frogmen or sabotage. Failing that, an accidental boiler explosion on one of the ships could throw the whole fleet into chaos and give the Japanese the opportunity to win.
 
How will the Japanese capture the four ships? Each were more than a thousand tonnes in weight. The Japanese simply haven't seen ships that size before. Also note that Tokyo, or Japanese cities in general, were completely made of wood - and were very easy to burn; only a couple of artillery would do a great job in throwing entire districts aflame. Furthermore since Tokyo lies directly along the Pacific Ocean(unlike Seoul, which has Kanghwa Island), it's much harder to defend.
 
Agreed with Zep. How would the Japanese take out the four ships?

One scenario is a storm strikes Tokyo suddenly and take out the ships. That scenario is more plausible seems more plausible than the Japanese actually capturing or sinking the American ships.
 

CECBC

Banned
How will the Japanese capture the four ships? Each were more than a thousand tonnes in weight. The Japanese simply haven't seen ships that size before. Also note that Tokyo, or Japanese cities in general, were completely made of wood - and were very easy to burn; only a couple of artillery would do a great job in throwing entire districts aflame. Furthermore since Tokyo lies directly along the Pacific Ocean(unlike Seoul, which has Kanghwa Island), it's much harder to defend.
I was thinking of frogmen to plant explosives on them. They were paddle wheelers so it wouldn't take too much to disable them. Sending a faux diplomatic mission to the ship to capture it or just blow it might work.

An accident like a boiler explosion or storm as okmangeez had mentioned would be most realistic. Anything else would need a lot of luck and unusual tactics.
 
You know, in those days, losing a skirmish to uncivilized yellow primitives makes a nice excuse to bring in the big stick. To put it simply, Japan would be lucky to even get the unequal treaties it had in OTL after such an debacle, if it could even scratch the ships.
 
The most likely outcome is burning Edo and huge prestige hit for the Shogunate. Japanese probably could defeat any landing party Perry might field (but would he?), after all a decade later Shimonoseki affair was not going too rosy for European forces, though they eventually routed Choshuu forces and destroyed their shore fortifications. Japanese did not have means to capture or sink Black Ships I think. They might attempt to zerg rush them on boats in attempt to board, but the most likely result would be a lot of dead samurai.
What happens afterwards depends on how determined were Americans to force Japan to open in case of active resistance. If they decide to go for a punitive expedition, Japan would face something similar to Opium Wars in outcome. British and Russians might join the fun as well. As for immediate consequences inside Japan, if the Shogunate played it hand right it might strengthen its position using external threat (OTL many daimyo were in favor of resisting barbarian demands). But alternatively seeing destruction of Edo as a critical weakness of Shogun many semi-loyal major daimyo may begin to dissent up to the point of Civil War and splitting Japan into dependencies (direct or not) of various European powers (plus America). No modernization as we know in any case.
 
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