contributor
27,126
edits
Changes
no edit summary
The American officers in charge in Perry's absence pressed the Ryukyuan authorities to conduct a proper investigation and trial, which they did. The Americans are said to have done so not out of any desire to see their man acquitted, but out of a desire to show their respect for the rule of law, and their adherence to civilized ideals of following due process (rather than, as they might have believed was done in places they perceived as less civilized, immediate and arbitrary punishment by decree). The kingdom's royal regent and chief treasurer sat in on the trial, along with the American interpreter [[S. Wells Williams]], as six high judges interrogated witnesses and suspects and otherwise oversaw the trial. In the end, the Ryukyuan court put forth a group of men as the culprits, and brought the man they claimed to be the leader directly to Commodore Perry, who had by that time returned. Perry returned the men to Ryukyuan custody, having been assured they would be suitably punished. One of the men was banished to the [[Yaeyama Islands]] for life, while the others were sentenced to an eight-year exile to [[Miyako Island]]. There are suggestions, however, that the men sentenced may have been substitutes for those truly responsible, as East Asian justice at the time was widely believed (at least among Westerners) to often focus more on ensuring that someone was punished, and the matter resolved, than on finding and punishing the true culprits.
The American officers in charge in Perry's absence pressed the Ryukyuan authorities to conduct a proper investigation and trial, which they did. The Americans are said to have done so not out of any desire to see their man acquitted, but out of a desire to show their respect for the rule of law, and their adherence to civilized ideals of following due process (rather than, as they might have believed was done in places they perceived as less civilized, immediate and arbitrary punishment by decree). The kingdom's royal regent and chief treasurer sat in on the trial, along with the American interpreter [[S. Wells Williams]], as six high judges interrogated witnesses and suspects and otherwise oversaw the trial. In the end, the Ryukyuan court put forth a group of men as the culprits, and brought the man they claimed to be the leader directly to Commodore Perry, who had by that time returned. Perry returned the men to Ryukyuan custody, having been assured they would be suitably punished. One of the men was banished to the [[Yaeyama Islands]] for life, while the others were sentenced to an eight-year exile to [[Miyako Island]]. There are suggestions, however, that the men sentenced may have been substitutes for those truly responsible, as East Asian justice at the time was widely believed (at least among Westerners) to often focus more on ensuring that someone was punished, and the matter resolved, than on finding and punishing the true culprits.
In the aftermath of this incident, the Ryukyuan royal government managed to get Perry & his men to agree to a stipulation, in the [[Treaty of Amity (Ryukyu-US)|Ryûkyû-US Treaty of Amity]] signed that year, explicitly banning foreigners (Americans) from committing violence against Ryukyuan women.<ref>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), 199n345.</ref>
The grave of the American sailor William Board can be found in the [[Tomari International Cemetery|Foreign Cemetery at Tomari]] in Naha today.
The grave of the American sailor William Board can be found in the [[Tomari International Cemetery|Foreign Cemetery at Tomari]] in Naha today.