For untold generations it was a muddy little fishing village on present-day Tokyo Bay. Then the destiny of Yokohama (meaning "broad beach") changed forever when a U.S. naval squadron led by Commodore Matthew Perry dropped anchor there in February 1854.

Under intense pressure from Perry — with a presidential letter in his pocket demanding that the closed country of Japan open itself to the wider world — the ruling feudal Tokugawa Shogunate hastily constructed a building in the village for a "summit" between Perry and shogunate officials.

The Americans were desperate to have coaling and reprovisioning stations in the Northwest Pacific to facilitate the booming China trade, and also to resupply their whalers hunting in those waters. Japan, which had no navy due to its centuries of self-imposed isolation, wanted to avoid any war.