The first diplomatic mission to the United States left Japan on February 22, 1860 with a seventy-four person staff aboard the USS Powhatan. They arrived in Hawaii on March 5, 1860 for a two week visit and then sailed for California. The Powhatan, under Commodore Josiah Tatnall, arrived with the group at the Mare Island Naval Base north of San Francisco a little over a week later. The embassy then traveled to Washington, D.C. via the Panama route 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), 42.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
US/the World
