Immediately after the Revolution, America makes its first trade agreement in Asia with China. Attempting to do the same with the closed country of Japan looks to be impossible. A timely opportunity and the right naval officer enables America to do what no other western power could.

Recommended reading: Narrative of the Expedition to the China Seas and Japan by Commodore Matthew Perry

Cited sources:

Opening Japan - https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/opening-to-japan#:~:text=The%20Japanese%20grudgingly%20agreed%20to,American%20ships%3A%20Shimoda%20and%20Hakodate.

Opening Japan - https://www.jstor.org/stable/30209385

Sakoku - http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/tokugawa_edicts_foreigners.pdf

Sakoku - https://users.wfu.edu/watts/w03_Japancl.html 

Christianity in Japan - https://www.historytoday.com/archive/feature/christianitys-bloody-history-japan 

Christianity in Japan - https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00597/a-timeline-of-christianity-in-japan.html 

Trade with China - https://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/history-of-the-u-s-and-china/

Perry bio - https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/research-guides/z-files/zb-files/zb-files-p/perry-matthew-c.html

Perry bio - https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/education/educational-resources/to-the-ends-of-the-earth/commodore-perry-and-japan/biography--matthew-calbraith-perry.html

Perry bio - https://library.brown.edu/cds/perry/people_Perry.html

Hideyoshi - https://www.worldhistory.org/Toyotomi_Hideyoshi/

Warring States - https://www.worldhistory.org/Sengoku_Period/

David Conner - https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/us-people/c/conner-david.html

Mail ships - https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1939/september/navy-and-first-u-s-ocean-mail-ships

John Aulick - https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/aulick-john-h-ca-1791-1873/

Webster quote and other islands - https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1952/march/commodore-perry-and-bonin-islands

Treaty of Kanagawa - https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/treaty-of-kanagawa#:~:text=On%20March%2031%2C%201854%2C%20the,forbidding%20commerce%20with%20foreign%20nations