Asia - U.S. Encounters
The American Expedition, under Commodore Perry Landing in Japan, July 14, 1853.
The arrival of the Westerners captivated the Japanese public and many Japanese artists captured their images. Visit the Chadbourne Collection of Japanese Prints at the Library of Congress, a collection that testifies to Japanese interest in Western dress, manners, and technology, emphasizing foreigners in Japan as well as imagined scenes in places outside Japan.
Visualizing Cultures (M.I.T.) website introduces rich visual materials on Japan, 1850s-1930s.
Rutgers Zimmerli Art Museum includes print collection by Japanese artists. Go to Asian Art > Prints and check the "image available" box.
Rutgers Special Collections & University Archives: Foreign Countries and International Relations Subject Guide - Asia lists relevant collections and finding aids. Examples; William Elliot Griffis Collection and Michi Nakao Collection.
Digital Museum of the History of Japanese in NY documents significant moments in Japanese history in New York since 1860 to present. It was inaugurated in 2021.
Early Diplomacy & Encounters
History of Iwakura Mission from Japan Reference. The section "Related links" includes resources on Iwakura mission in Britain, Scandinavia and other resources.
The Iwakura Mission: Japan’s 1871 Voyage to Discover the Western World is an essay by Izumi Saburo.
America's Response to China: a history of Sino-American relations by
America's Response to China has long been the standard resource for a succinct, historically grounded assessment of an increasingly complicated relationship. Written by one of America's leading diplomatic historians, this book analyzes the concerns and conceptions that have shaped U.S.-China policy and examines their far-reaching outcomes. Warren I. Cohen begins with the mercantile interests of the newly independent American colonies and discusses subsequent events up to 2018. For this sixth edition, Cohen adds an analysis of the policies of Barack Obama and extends his discussion of the Chinese-American relationship in the age of potential Chinese ascendance and the shrinking global influence of the United States, including the complications of the presidency of Donald Trump. Trenchant and insightful, America's Response to China is critically important for understanding U.S.-China relations in the twenty-first century.
Call Number: RU onlinePublication Date: 2019
The Japanese Discovery of America by
"This brief documentary history chronicles the nineteenth-century (1837-1871) encounters between Japan and the United States that led to the opening of Japanese society to Western influence. An extensive introduction describes American attempts to overturn Japan's long-standing policy of isolation (culminating in the 1853-1854 Perry Expedition) and considers the lasting effects of Japan's fascination with a culture radically different from its own. Reinforcing the book's double-sided perspective are 43 documents - including poems, broadsheets, newspaper articles, and illustrations - that demonstrate how new views of the "other" were established on both sides of the Pacific. Headnotes to the documents, a brief glossary, a chronology, a bibliography, and an index are also included."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Call Number: RU online & Robeson E183.8.J3J353 1997
Tsuda Umeko & Oyama Sutematsu, Japanese Women in Iwakura Mission, who Received American Education
Rutgers and Japan
Rutgers was one of the first American colleges to host Japanese overseas students. Sending students abroad was a strategy used by Japanese leaders of the Meiji government to modernize the country. Most of these students came for a short stay, but Kusakabe Taro, a young samurai from now Fukui Prefecture, finished his degree with great distinction. Sadly he passed away shortly before graduation. Later, William Elliot Griffis (RC 1865) was invited to teach English and Science in Fukui. Griffis's papers and archives from his time in Japan and the resources documenting the Japanese students who studied at Rutgers constitute the William E. Griffis Collection at Rutgers University Libraries. Some of the digitized photographs of the Japanese students are are available here and included in the New Jersey Digital Highway.
See the section "Japan Through the Western Eyes" in the Area Studies: Japan Database [Rutgers restricted] for additional resources from the William Elliot Griffis Collection.
Image of Kusakabe Taro. He is buried in the Japanese Section of the Willow Grove Cemetery in New Brunswick, NJ.
Rutgers Meets Japan: Revisiting Early U.S.-Japan Encounters is a site that archives the works of students enrolled in the course Interdisciplinary Honors Seminar in Spring 2020. It includes essays by Japanese overseas students, maps, photos of influential individuals, and much more.
U.S. - Japan Relations
Margins and Mainstreams: Asians in American History and Culture by
In this classic book on the meaning of multiculturalism in larger American society, Gary Okihiro explores the significance of Asian American experiences from the perspectives of historical consciousness, race, gender, class, and culture. While exploring anew the meanings of Asian American social history, Okihiro argues that the core values and ideals of the nation emanate today not from the so-called mainstream but from the margins, from among Asian and African Americans, Latinos and American Indians, women, and the gay and lesbian community. Those groups in their struggles for equality, have helped to preserve and advance the founders' ideals and have made America a more democratic place for all.
Call Number: RU-online & Alexander E184.A75O38 2014ISBN: 9780295993560
Rediscovering America: Japanese Perspectives on the American Century by
In this extraordinary collection of writings, covering the period from 1878 to 1989, a wide range of Japanese visitors to the United States offer their vivid, and sometimes surprising perspectives on Americans and American society. Peter Duus and Kenji Hasegawa have selected essays and articles by Japanese from many walks of life: writers and academics, bureaucrats and priests, politicians and journalists, businessmen, philanthropists, artists. Their views often reflect power relations between America and Japan, particularly during the wartime and postwar periods, but all of them dealt with common themes?America's origins, its ethnic diversity, its social conformity, its peculiar gender relations, its vast wealth, and its cultural arrogance?making clear that while Japanese observers often regarded the U.S. as a mentor, they rarely saw it as a role model.
Call Number: RU onlinePublication Date: 2011
Takamine Jokichi, a Pioneer of American Biotechnology
Takamine Jokichi (1854-19220) a pioneer of American biotechnology, isolated adrenaline hormone more than a century ago. A resident of New York City in later years, he was involved in the establishment of Nippon Club in Manhattan. Read the essay Adrenaline and Cheery Trees by Joan W. Bennet, Professor of Plant Biology at Rutgers University to learn about his accomplishments. 
The Jokichi Takamine Website includes extensive list of document on Dr. Takamine. The links Documentation and Takamanga introduce different aspects and manga of the successful scientist and entrepreneur. Resources listed are in English, French and Japanese languages.
More information on Takamine (timeline, photos, and annotated bibliography) is available in Jokichi Takamine (1854-1922) and Caroline Hitch Takamine (1866-1954): Biography and Bibliography