The first diplomatic mission to the United States, numbering seventy-four people, left Japan aboard the USS Powhatan. In Hawaii, they were hosted by King Kamehameha IV at the Iolani Palace. The party left Honolulu on March 18, 1860 and arrived at the Mare Island Naval Base in San Francisco a little over a week later. The embassy then traveled to Washington, D.C. via Panama and concluded its visit in late June 1860. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Chitoshi Yanaga, "The First Japanese Embassy to the United States," in Ellis S. Krauss and Benjamin Nyblade (eds.), Japan and North America: First Contacts to the Pacific War (New York: Routledge, 2004), 40-41.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
US/the World
