Who was Matthew Perry?
No, I'm not talking about the actor in American TV show "Friends". I'm talking about the Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, the guy who "opened" Japan in end of 1800. I'm curious about the guy, why he chose his assignment to "negotiate" the trade routes to Japan, under a Dutch flag. Why I use so many quotes is that I don't think that any negotiation can be real negotiation when there are bunch of black ships with cannons around. Perry did demonstrate that his guns are fully functional. Interesting, but rather unknown detail. If Japan would have been locked chest, Perry did not use a key to open it, but rather pried the sucker open with a brute force. Who has time to care about unnecessary formalities when the leaders of super country request RESULTS in certain timeframe?In all the pictures I've seen of Perry, he wears a serious pose, kind of "dontgettooclose or I'll biteya"- look. And I think it is interesting point that the fleet of ships were indeed black. No, they were not indigo or pink. That would have not been appropriate. Or think of white! How could the ships have been white? Nobody would take such commander seriously, painting his ships with such feminine colour!
The same reason as Darth Vader's helmet is shiny black, a fleet those fully armed ships were pitch black, so black that they wouldn't reflect any light at all. More to come from Mr.Perry soon. Too bad it's kind of late to get an interview of him. On the mean while, I'm going to go to watch some Friends.