By YUMI NAKAYAMA/ Staff Writer
January 22, 2023 at 07:00 JST
A descendant of Commodore Matthew C. Perry of “Black Ships” fame visited a distant island south of Tokyo carrying a pocket watch that the U.S. naval officer had with him when he dropped anchor there nearly 170 years ago.
The port of Chichijima island in the Ogasawara island chain was in a full celebratory mood when Matthew Calbraith Perry arrived on Nov. 7 and was greeted by Takashi Savory, a descendant of an American whom the commodore appointed as the island’s first chief magistrate in June 1853.
Matthew, 81, and Takashi, 65, shook hands, expressing mutual joy at finally being able to meet.
Matthew then produced the pocket watch, noting that Commodore Perry (1794-1858) carried it with him when he came to the island a month before taking his fleet of “Black Ships” off Uraga, part of today’s Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture, in 1853.
The bottom of the gold case is inscribed “Japan 1852,” marking the year his namesake ancestor left the United States to force Japan to end more than two centuries of self-imposed isolation and open up to foreign trade.
Matthew said he was overjoyed to be able to come to Japan with the watch.
The ornithologist works as a director for the U.S. chapter of the Center for International Exchange and lives in the U.S. state of Maryland. It was his 11th visit to Japan but his first to Chichijima island.
Takashi is a fifth-generation descendant of Nathaniel Savory, one of the first of 20 or so people who settled on Chichijima island, then uninhabited, in June 1830. Other settlers came from Britain, Italy, Denmark and Pacific islands.
Takashi showed his appreciation by taking Matthew on a tour of the island to see a monument that commemorates the commodore’s visit.
He also showed Matthew a copy of a contract that the commodore signed to purchase a tract of land on the island as a site to store coal for use as fuel for steam ships.
The contract is among numerous historical items that have been handed down in the Savory family. Takashi said it felt special walking on that strip of land with Matthew.
The encounter between the two men resulted from an article carried by The Asahi Shimbun last summer.
After Perry appointed Nathaniel as the island’s chief magistrate and gifted him a U.S. flag, the Meiji government in 1876 declared Chichijima to be Japanese territory.
During World War II, members of the Savory family burned the Stars and Stripes relic fearing retribution from the military authorities for having such a symbolic enemy emblem in their possession.
Akira Kondo, a resident of Saijo, Ehime Prefecture, was saddened by this story and gifted Takashi a replica of the flag.
The replica flag bore only 31 stars, representing the number of states in the union at the time Perry handed over the original flag.
An English translation of The Asahi Shimbun article caught Matthew's attention.
He got in touch with Takashi through an acquaintance, as well as the Asahi Shimbun reporter who wrote the original article.
After visiting Chichijima, Matthew went to Saijo with Takashi.
There, they met members of the Iyo-Saijo indirect tax association, a group of business operators in Saijo who worked on the replica flag given by the watch shop owner Kondo, 84.
When Matthew showed him the commodore’s pocket watch, Kondo noted that the commodore often gave gifts, such as table clocks, to people and showed him documents to back this up.
Matthew, too, had been researching gifts of table clocks by his ancestor.
The commodore’s pocket watch is now rusted inside and doesn’t keep time anymore.
“I feel a strong connection with Japan with the pocket watch of Commodore Perry that transcends the long passage of time since Perry's visit,” Matthew said, adding he intends to further develop his friendship with Japan.
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From right, Matthew Calbraith Perry, Takashi Savory, Kyo Nakahama, a fifth-generation descendant of John Manjiro, the first Japanese known to have lived in the United States, and Scott Whitfield, a sixth-generation descendant of Captain Whitfield who rescued Manjiro when he was marooned off Japan’s coast and brought him back with him to the United States (Yumi Nakayama)
