The first diplomatic mission to the United States left Japan with a seventy-four person staff aboard the USS Powhatan. They arrived in Hawaii on March 5, 1860 and were hosted by King Kamehameha IV at the Iolani Palace. The party left the islands on March 18, 1860 and arrived at the Mare Island Naval Base in San Francisco a little over a week later. They then traveled to Washington, D.C. via the Panama route. The embassy concluded its visit in late June 1860 sailing for home aboard the U.S.S. Niagara. (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
