American Missionaries, Christian Oyatoi, and Japan, 1859-73

Japan closed its doors to foreigners for over two hundred years becauseof religious and political instability caused by Christianity. By 1859,foreign residents were once again living in treaty ports in Japan, butedicts banning Christianity remained enforced until 1873. Drawing on animpressive array of English and Japanese sources, Ion investigates acrucial era in the history of Japanese-American relations - theformation of Protestant missions. He reveals that the transmission ofvalues and beliefs was not a simple matter of acceptance or rejection:missionaries and Christian laymen persisted in the face of openhostility and served as important liaisons between East and West.