James Biddle

James Biddle was a United States Navy Commodore who sought to "open" Japan in 1846, prior to Commodore Perry. He arrived at Uraga Bay in July 1846 with two ships, the USS Columbus and USS Vincennes. They spent seven days there before receiving a formal rejection from the Tokugawa shogunate of the request to see Japanese ports opened to American ships. Not desiring armed conflict, the two ships then departed.

References

• Marco Tinello, "The termination of the Ryukyuan embassies to Edo : an investigation of the bakumatsu period through the lens of a tripartite power relationship and its world," PhD thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia (2014), 133-134n241.