The year 2003 marks the 150th anniversary of United States Navy Commodore Matthew Perry's first visit to Japan. This collection of largely contemporary volumes has been selected by Professor W. G. Beasley, doyen of Bakufu and Meiji Studies, to best reflect the issues, focus and mind-set informing the Mission and its raison d'être, the nature and character of the man who led it - Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry - as well as the experience and logistics of the Mission itself as a US navy project. Care has also been taken to provide input from a Japanese perspective regarding the immediate impact and implications of the Mission within the political and social structure of Japan.