Copy pasta from another source who said this much better than I ever could...
"During the sixteenth century, traders and Jesuit missionaries from Portugal reached Japan for the first time, initiating active commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West. Nagasaki was designated as the only port where foreigners were allowed to dock their ships and trade.
On March 31, 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry and the "Black Ships" of the United States Navy forced the opening of Japan to the outside world with the Convention of Kanagawa. A one-sided agreement that favored the United States.
It was a great humiliation to Japan, and with their Samurai heritage, a grievous dishonor."
Your turn.
"During the sixteenth century, traders and Jesuit missionaries from Portugal reached Japan for the first time, initiating active commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West. Nagasaki was designated as the only port where foreigners were allowed to dock their ships and trade.
On March 31, 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry and the "Black Ships" of the United States Navy forced the opening of Japan to the outside world with the Convention of Kanagawa. A one-sided agreement that favored the United States.
It was a great humiliation to Japan, and with their Samurai heritage, a grievous dishonor."
Your turn.