The American Legacy US Admiral Matthew Perry forced Japan to open its ports to US goods when he brought a fleet of modern war ships to Japan twice and threatened to bombard Japan’s cities. Japan capitulated, leading to the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854, and the United States-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce (1858). Other European allies also pounced on Japan, forcing her to sign similar unequal treaties with Britain (Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty, October 1854), Tsarist Russia (Treaty of Shimoda, 7 February 1855), and France (Treaty of Amity and Commerce, 9 October 1858). Illegal occupants: U.S. troops raising the American flag at Fort San Antonio de Abad, Malate, Philippines, ca. 1899. (c) Public domain 43