PlayStation Marketing Mix & Environment & Target Essay Example for Free

PlayStation Marketing Mix Environment Target Essay The PlayStation brand is a progression of computer game consoles made and created by Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation was the possibility of Ken Kutaragi, who known as â€Å"The father of the PlayStation, a Sony official who had recently come out of his equipment designing division around then. The consoles birthplaces go back to 1986 where it was initially a joint venture among Nintendo and Sony to make a CD-ROM for the Super Nintendo. The PlayStation made its introduction at the Consumer Electronics Show in June 1991 when Sony uncovered its support, a Super Famicom/SNES with an implicit CD-ROM drive. In any case, a day after the declaration, Nintendo reported that it would break its organization with Sony. The arrangement was broken by Nintendo after they couldn't go to a concession to how income would be part between the two organizations. The breaking of the organization angered Sony President Norio Ohga, who reacted by designating Kutaragi with the duty of creating of the PlayStation task to equal Nintendo. The first PlayStation discharged in December 1994 was the first of the universal PlayStation arrangement of support and hand-held game gadgets. Target Market They focused at devotees of computer games and adolescent or crowd beginning at 17+ and the attention is more on the male. Obviously the games themselves have limits on who can play them, contingent upon the substance rating on the games spread. Sony built up the PlayStation with the expectation of hitting a more extensive, particularly the more established age of gaming devotees. Promoting Mix * Product: A fruitful showcasing endeavors bring about item that become a piece of regular daily existence, and that what Sony came to by offers rounds of all kinds to coordinate clients gaming inclination. With its item PlayStation they have prevailing with regards to fulfilling the clients wishes by creating it among the time as prerequisites of the clients and their needs. * Distribution Decisions as for conveyance center around making the item accessible in sufficient amounts at places where clients are typically expected to look for them to fulfill their requirements. Choosing the fitting retailers or wholesalers is something critical. PlayStation secured the market. Its conveys it in different channels, client get it from the retailers perceived by Sony, and these retailers purchase the items legitimately from the organization itself. * Promotion is a key component of showcasing program and is worried about successfully and productively imparting the choices of advertising technique. A company’s limited time endeavors are the main controllable intends to make mindfulness among publics about itself, the items and administrations it offers, their highlights and impact their perspectives well. Publicizing effort completed by Sony to advance their item for PlayStation was enormous, they distributed video cuts on the Internet, and they have ads in TV screens, papers and magazines everywhere throughout the world and other limited time media are significant in term of creation mindfulness about it. A portion of the expressions in the advertisements are: Live In Your World. Play In Ours. Any place, Whenever, Forever. The most eminent of ongoing PlayStation ads is the arrangement of It Only Does Everything, these advertisements collected fame among gamers. * Price Pricing choices are quite often made in meeting with advertising the board. Clients straightforwardly relate cost to quality. PlayStation is with value go from modestly high. Here in Saudi Arabia its cost differs from SR 1300 to 1700 first raises the market, and afterward starts slowly decline its. Promoting Environment * Competitive Biggest contenders to PlayStation are Wii of Nintendo and Xbox from Microsoft. The opposition among them is exceptionally solid, PlayStation deals dropped against Wii toward the start of 2008, and one reason is its low cost. *Numbers in thousands * Technological The current entrance of Internet makes the improvement for the expansion utilization of Internet as data. The presentations of new innovations have changed the idea of clients desires, making new zones of resilience. Today, clients anticipate greater adaptability, speed and reliability from retailers, than before the presentation of electronic innovations. * Sociocultural The cost has become the key determinant of procurement decision. Different buyers are continually searching at the best cost chances. Additionally, research shows the huge number of UK purchasers decision of item emphatically relies upon the intrigue of item blend and its compatibility with their self-idea.

Rates of Reaction :: GCSE Chemistry Coursework Investigation

The effect of changing hydrochloric corrosive centralization of on the pace of response with sodium thiosulphate Foundation knowledge:The condition of this response is Na2S2O2+ 2HCl  ± 2NaCl + H2O + SO2+ S A response is a procedure by which a substance or substances change to deliver another substance or substances. Pace of response is the speed at which items are shaped and reactants vanish during a synthetic response. The rate will be estimated by following the creation of sulfur. The pace of response is influenced by temperature, surface territory, fixation and impetuses. These are the influencing factors. In a response, the particles of the reagent must meet up and crash before the response can occur. This is known as the impact hypothesis, particles must crash previously they can respond, and the impacting particles must contain enough vitality to make bonds brake. Mechanical assembly: * Beaker * 'Log its light meter * stand * dark card * syringe * glass conveyance tube * tripod * estimating chamber * stop observe Technique: We chose to utilize a 'loggits' light meter to follow the precipitation of sulfur on the premise that the light going through the arrangement would diminish in force as the response continues. We will initially spread the measuring utencil with card, departing a 2cm hole at the base of the measuring utencil to permit light to go through the arrangement. Besides we would place the 'loggits' light meter legitimately over the measuring glass (the meter will have its base portion secured with the card to forestall any outsider light from influencing the light force of the light passing through the water) Starter: After the main preliminary we needed to change the manner by which we secured the measuring utencil with the dark card since we found that the measure of light going through the arrangement from all points was wild, since we were utilizing a characteristic wellspring of light (the sun). Rather than leaving a 1cm hole from the base of the measuring utencil, our answer was to spread the entire measuring utencil and cut 2 curves, with the goal that we could coordinate the required measure of light into the particular region of the recepticle. Also we will utilize a light, secured with 2 sheets of A4 paper to accomplish a consistent wellspring of light. The Initial light force perusing will be somewhere in the range of 40% and 45%. Method: Stage 1) Set up the remain to hold the log its light meter over the measuring glass (fig I). At that point place the measuring glass underneath the meter. Structure a protecting from the encompassing light by utilizing the dark card, doing as such by framing a cone around the measuring glass and the base portion of the light

Research Proposal Global Warming and Western United States Wildfires Essay Example

Research Proposal: Global Warming and Western United States Wildfires Essay Over the ongoing years out of control fires have been widespread wonders in the Western United States of America. One thing as been noted about the patterns of the out of control fires, that they are increasingly serious during the more sizzling seasons, when the spring temperatures come before and the late spring temperatures get more smoking. The motivation behind this exploration paper is to direct an investigation that will give information demonstrating the connection between increment in temperature because of a dangerous atmospheric devation and the event of atmosphere driven flames. The paper will give deductively sponsored proof from books, prestigious diaries, and other solid sources to show that the expansion in fierce blazes in the Western United States is because of a worldwide temperature alteration. Proclamation of the Problem or Research Questions(s) So as to give a genuinely upheld contention that will bolster the reason articulation the examination will look to address various inquiries that incorporates; Are rapidly spreading fires thought about a cataclysmic event or would they say they are a result of man made calamities? How do the yearly snowmelts influence occasional fierce blazes? Information perception of occasional temperature changes, what is the logical connection among changing and the recurrence and force of out of control fires? What are the noteworthy changes that make conditions good for fierce blazes? What models of expectations exist that causes conditions for out of control fires? What are the conservative misfortunes because of the fierce blazes? How has the fierce blazes influenced nature and are there a negative or a beneficial outcome on the biological systems? So as to give a contention that can be protected, adequate information will be gathered that will be involved crucial data about the exploration c onsiders utilized, for example, the term of time secured by the information gathered, techniques utilized in breaking down the information, and discoveries. We will compose a custom paper test on Research Proposal: Global Warming and Western United States Wildfires explicitly for you for just $16.38 $13.9/page Request now We will compose a custom article test on Research Proposal: Global Warming and Western United States Wildfires explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer We will compose a custom article test on Research Proposal: Global Warming and Western United States Wildfires explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer Hypothetical Framework Hypothetically, this paper will sway inside the limits of the hypothesis of Complex Self-sorting out Systems. As per the hypothesis, things don't occur all alone, they happen on the grounds that a person or thing has made them to occur. This is a marker of an impression of a dream of control over life and the world. The hypothesis holds that most frameworks comprise of associating parts and conduct of the framework overall, and that no part controls the entire or much another part.â Such frameworks are alluded to as â€Å"Self-organizing† and the conduct of the segments alluded to as â€Å"emergent.† [Lemke (n.d.)] Similarly, this exploration study’s theory holds that out of control fires don't simply happen because of dropping of combustible materials in the woods however they happen because of a dangerous atmospheric devation. Theory (Statements of the Hypothesis) Out of control fires might be brought about by both synthetic and regular elements. For example, man can coincidentally light a fire by accidentally tossing combustible articles on dead and dry trees and bushes, crafted by pyro criminals is additionally another synthetic movement. Then again regular factors, for example, helping and a worldwide temperature alteration have been noted to contribute gigantically in the expansion of the recurrence of fierce blazes. For reasons for this paper’s explore study scope, a limited methodology will be received, that: a dangerous atmospheric devation will be talked about as the primary factor behind the successive out of control fires in the Western United States of America. Adequate proof shows that, an unnatural weather change that achieves extraordinary climatic changes is the reason for fierce blazes that have been on the expansion in the Western locale of the United States. As indicated by Running, (2006), the acceleration of rapidly spreading fire movement in the western United States is straightforwardly connected to the expansion in temperatures (a worldwide temperature alteration). He fights that â€Å"Higher temperatures and prior snowmelts are expanding the out of control fire season and expanding the power of out of control fires in the Western United States.† (pp. 927-928) Criticalness of the Study Regular dangers cause several passings and cost billions in a fiasco help, disturbance of business and exchange, decimation of homes and basic infrastructure.â Wildfires are a case of such developing common risks that represents a danger to life and property. In spite of themselves causing various passings and loss of property straightforwardly, they are by implication similarly unfortunate, in that, they increment the potential for flooding and avalanches. The smoke and different vaporous discharges that exude from fierce blazes contain contaminations that can cause critical medical issues. The more the outflow of ozone depleting substances into the climate the more the expansion of the danger of out of control fires events. It is trusted that the study’s discoveries and proposals will help bestow the truly necessary information about the reasons for the rapidly spreading fires that have been a hazard to in the western United States. This information will assist with cleari ng a few thoughts that individuals may have been holding concerning the reasons for out of control fires. All the more critically, on the off chance that individuals get the information on the reasons for the rapidly spreading fires, at that point they will set up measures for battling them. For example, it is realized that the United States of America is probably the best producer of green house gases into the climate which wind up adding to an unnatural weather change; consequently this will be utilized as a valid justification for need to establish strategies that will limit the emanation of the ozone harming substances. Research Design and Methods The idea of this exploration study requests for a methodology that will utilize hypothetical information proposing a speculation between the two key variables.â This methodology will empower the specialist to take a target position to treat the marvels hard and genuine. Considering this, at that point the most proper methodology for the investigation is quantitative methodology. This methodology will take into account the utilization of exact proof accumulated from other related examinations and endeavor to test speculations or proclamations concerning this proof with view to making a speculation between the key factors. Further, this methodology includes the estimating, checking, gathering and dissecting of numerical information and use of factual tests to the gathered information. Research Design and Instrumentation Meaning of key Variables Out of control fires: As indicated by Blaikie et al, risks, for example, storms, tropical storms, quakes, waves, volcanic blasts, flooding, out of control fires must interface with social frameworks and human powerlessness to qualify the status of â€Å"disasters†. The meaning of a cataclysmic event is pegged on the peril defenselessness connection. This is to state that a characteristic danger will never result into a cataclysmic event on the off chance that it happens in territories without defenselessness for example solid quakes occurring in uninhabited grounds. In any case, the most delicate issue is building up the reason for catastrophes. For example, though a few fiascos are legitimately brought about by keeps an eye on exercises others are brought about by characteristic factors, for example, an unnatural weather change, helping, seismic tremor, and so on. Rapidly spreading fires for example, are a case of cataclysmic events that are for the most part brought about by changes in climatic c onditions. An out of control fire, otherwise called, woods fire, vegetation fire, or bramble fire, is an uncontrolled fire in wild land that are brought about by both man exercises and normal factors, for example, a dangerous atmospheric devation and helping. A fire requires three fundamental things to consume: fuel, oxygen, and warmth. On account of fierce blazes the fuel is trees, bushes, and grasses, particularly those that are dead and dry. The air in our environment which is comprised of 21% of oxygen, supplies the oxygen that the out of control fires needs to consume. Then again, the high temperatures flexibly heat. [Blaikie et al (2003)] An Earth-wide temperature boost: An Earth-wide temperature boost is the expansion in the normal temperatures of the earth close surface air and the seas since the mid-twentieth century and its anticipated continuation. It is accepted that the significant reason for an unnatural weather change is the overabundance emanation of ozone depleting substances into the air. This causes the consumption of the ozone layer which secures the overabundance infiltration of solid radiations from the sun. A slight increment in worldwide temperatures can cause ice sheets to soften, streams to dry, deserts to infringe, trees to dry and shed leaves, and different types of desert like circumstances. There exists adequate looked into proof that demonstrates that these desert-like circumstances are answerable for the expansion in the recurrence of out of control fires. [Climate Change (2007)] Research Study Sources This exploration study includes two factors (a worldwide temperature alteration: free and rapidly spreading fires: subordinate) which are legitimately connected to each other. So as to explore the interrelation between these two factors, discoveries of different articles that portray look into considers did by different specialists on the issue will be contemplated. This paper will use discoveries from solid research concentrates as it were. In ‘reliable research studies’ it is alluded to those investigations whose discoveries were distributed in respectable diaries, have been peer audited, or were introduced in worldwide gatherings on atmosphere as aggregated reports. Just those articles that are distributed in diaries, for example, Science Express, Climate Change, National Wildlife, and PNAS will be used. Each article’s discoveries and other pertinent information will be dealt with freely so as to have an autonomous correlation toward the finish of the investiga tion that w

Swot Analysis of Meru

SWOT ANALYSIS Strengths: Meru Cabs was one of the main organizations to dispatch metered â€Å"Radio cabs† in India under its image â€Å"Meru. † Meru has caught the principal mover advantage in this section. Meru is extremely celebrated among its clients so much that when individuals consider cooled taxis they partner it with Meru. Meru taxis offer great preparing to their drivers with the goal that they can keep up the Meru level of shopper administration. They likewise consistently keep up their taxis which make it slick and clean thus workers make the most of their ride.They have computerized altered confirmation meters so there is no possibility cheating. Shortcoming: Meru taxis to a great extent rely upon innovation directly from the second to get clients to drop them. They use GPRS framework to follow the clients and to drop them to their area and furthermore to show them the genuine evaluated time. So if there is any server disappointment or breakdown it gets ha rd for the taxis to work easily. Typically Meru taxis are accessible when clients call for it. So there is time slack between the call time and real ride. They are not as effectively accessible as neighborhood non cooled cabs.People for the most part lean toward meru taxis for significant distance travel. Opportunity: Meru so far is providing food just to significant metro urban areas. They ought to consider after stretching out their administrations to level two urban areas in light of the fact that these urban areas are developing quickly. They can likewise consider after leasing vehicles without escorts. They can likewise refresh their clients with genuine flight time plans through Infotainment administrations. Meru ought to likewise think for key organization with different voyages entries so they can broaden administrations like get and drop to clients to their lodgings, etc. Threats:Although Meru was the main player in this portion; it is presently confronting hardened rivalry from players like Tab Cab, Mega Cabs, etc. There is extremely less degree of separation among every one of these taxis. So this is dissolving the piece of the overall industry of Meru. Cooled transports began by BEST in Mumbai is additionally rivalry to Meru taxis. Driver associations likewise end up being an issue numerous multiple times. Government guidelines and unexpected changes in approaches is likewise a danger. CRM of Meru to hold clients * No extra or concealed charges in view of alter free meters * Printed receipts created toward the finish of each outing if there should be an occurrence of any grievances, input and so forth , travelers can call Customer Service Center at 44224422 * Lost and discovered effects because of reliable drivers * Usage of clean green fuel since it utilizes LPG and CNG vehicles now a days to lessen contamination * Thoroughly prepared Chauffeurs in a savvy MERU uniform, familiar with English and Hindi and local dialects * Users are urged to make p rofiles on the site for quicker and simpler appointments next time * Round the clock accessibility of taxis sponsored by an area following GPS †based dispatch innovation and a 24ãâ€"7 Customer Service Center.This implies a snappier pickup and quicker reaction time to flag down for a taxi. * Tamper-evidence computerized taxi meters, coordinated with the GPS-framework to guarantee that each toll is followed, in this way precluding any chance of cheating by the driver. * Ability to follow the area of the taxi ‘real-time’ through the GPS innovation * Emergency security highlights introduced in the taxi for complete wellbeing, including show of our Customer Service Center numbers inside each taxi †gives security if there should arise an occurrence of a crisis PANIC BUTTON BENEFITS OF CRM * Customer division Market examination like records of client profiles, profile, installment history and so forth * Generation of exact leads and SMS blasts that target just the c orrect clients dependent on their division is conceivable * First time maintenance has expanded from 40 % to more than 90 % * Customized and improved bill designs, installment assortment through cards * Better worth included administrations were given * It encouraged information sharing among workers * Option of booking a taxi in under 60 seconds * Reduced expense of client procurement * Has brought about reserve funds in light of less calls

Chapter 25 The Egg and the Eye

Harry had no clue to what extent a shower he would need to work out the mystery of the brilliant egg, he chose to do it around evening time, when he would have the option to take as much time as he needed. Hesitant however he was to acknowledge more favors from Cedric, he additionally chose to utilize the administrators' restroom; far less individuals were permitted in there, so it was considerably less likely that he would be upset. Harry arranged his trip cautiously, in light of the fact that he had been gotten up and beyond the field of play by Filch the guardian in the night once previously, and wanted to rehash the experience. The Invisibility Cloak would, obviously, be fundamental, and as an additional precautionary measure, Harry figured he would take the Marauders Map, which, close to the shroud, was the most helpful guide to manage breaking Harry claimed. The guide demonstrated the entire of Hogwarts, including its numerous easy routes and mystery ways and, generally significant of all, it uncovered the individuals inside the stronghold as minute, named dabs, moving around the passages, so that Harry would be cautioned in the event that someone was moving toward the washroom. On Thursday night, Harry sneaked up to bed, put on the shroud, crawled back first floor, and, similarly as he had done on the night when Hagrid had demonstrated him the mythical beasts, sat tight for the representation gap to open. This time it was Ron who held up outside to give the Fat Lady the secret phrase (â€Å"banana fritters†), â€Å"Good luck,† Ron murmured, moving into the room as Harry crawled out past him. It was cumbersome moving under the shroud this evening, in light of the fact that Harry had the substantial egg under one arm and the guide held before his nose with the other. Nonetheless, the twilight halls were unfilled and quiet, and by checking the guide at vital interims, Harry had the option to guarantee that he wouldn't run into anybody he needed to maintain a strategic distance from. At the point when he arrived at the sculpture of Boris the Bewildered, a lost-looking wizard with his gloves on an inappropriate hands, he found the correct entryway, inclined near it, and mumbled the secret key, â€Å"Pine fresh,† similarly as Cedric had let him know. The entryway squeaked open. Harry slipped inside, blasted the entryway behind him, and pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, glancing around. His quick response was that it would merit turning into a consul just to have the option to utilize this restroom. It was delicately lit by an amazing flame filled crystal fixture, and everything was made of white marble, including what resembled a vacant, rectangular pool sunk into the center of the floor. Around a hundred brilliant taps stood all around the pools edges, each with a distinctively hued Jewel set into its handle. There was additionally a plunging board. Long white cloth drapes hung at the windows; a huge heap of cushy white towels sat in a corner, and there was a solitary brilliant surrounded work of art on the divider. It included a blonde mermaid who was sleeping soundly on a stone, her long hair over her face. It shuddered each time she wheezed. Harry pushed ahead, glancing around, his strides reverberating off the dividers. Glorious however the restroom was †and very sharp however he was to evaluate a couple of those taps †presently he was here he couldn't exactly smother the inclination that Cedric may have been having him on. How on earth was this expected to help comprehend the riddle of the egg? By and by, he put one of the Huffy towels, the shroud, the guide, and the egg along the edge of the pool-sized shower, at that point bowed down and turned on a couple of the taps. He could tell on the double that they conveyed various sorts of air pocket shower blended in with the water, however it wasn't bubble shower as Harry had ever experienced it. One tap spouted pink and blue air pockets the size of footballs; another poured ice-white froth so thick that Harry figured it would have bolstered his weight on the off chance that he'd wanted to test it; a third sent vigorously perfumed purple mists drifting over the outside of the water. Harry interested himself for some time killing the taps on and, especially getting a charge out of the impact of one whose fly skiped off the outside of the water in enormous curves. At that point, when the profound pool was brimming with high temp water, froth, and air pockets, which took a brief timeframe thinking about its size, Harry killed all the taps, pulled off his night robe, shoes, and robe, and slid into the water. It was profound to such an extent that his feet scarcely contacted the base, and he really did two or three lengths before swimming back to the side and stepping water, gazing at the egg. Profoundly pleasant however it was to swim in hot and frothy water with billows of various hued steam floating surrounding him, no stroke of splendor came to him, no abrupt eruption of comprehension. Harry loosened up his arms, lifted the egg in his wet hands, and opened it. The crying, shrieking sound filled the restroom, resounding and resonating off the marble dividers, yet it sounded similarly as unfathomable as could be, if not more so with all the echoes. He snapped it shut once more, stressed that the sound would pull in Filch, pondering whether that hadn't been Cedric's arrangement †and afterward, making him bounce so gravely that he dropped the egg, which clacked away over the restroom floor, somebody talked. â€Å"I'd have a go at placing it in the water, in the event that I were you.† Harry had gulped a lot of air pockets in stun. He stood up, faltering, and saw the phantom of an extremely gloomy looking young lady sitting leg over leg on one of the taps. It was Moaning Myrtle, who was ordinarily to be heard crying in the S-twist of a latrine three stories beneath. â€Å"Myrtle!† Harry said in shock, â€Å"I'm †I'm not wearing anything!† The froth was thick to such an extent this scarcely made a difference, yet he had a dreadful inclination that Myrtle had been keeping an eye on him from out of one of the taps since the time he had shown up. â€Å"I shut my eyes when you got in,† she stated, squinting at him through her thick scenes. â€Å"You haven't been to see me for ages.† â€Å"Yeah†¦well†¦Ã¢â‚¬  said Harry, twisting his knees somewhat, just to ensure Myrtle couldn't see anything besides his head, â€Å"I'm shouldn't come into your washroom, am I? It's a young ladies' one.† â€Å"You didn't used to care,† said Myrtle pitiably. â€Å"You used to be in there all the time.† This was valid, however simply because Harry, Ron, and Hermione had discovered Myrtle's faulty toilets a helpful spot to blend Polyjuice Potion in mystery †an illegal elixir that had transformed him and Ron into living reproductions of Crabbe and Goyle for 60 minutes, with the goal that they could sneak into the Slytherin basic room. â€Å"I got berated for going in there.† said Harry, which was half-valid; Percy had once discovered him coming out of Myrtles restroom. â€Å"I thought I would be advised to not return after that.† â€Å"Oh†¦I see†¦Ã¢â‚¬  said Myrtle, picking at a spot on her jaw in a gloomy kind of way. â€Å"Well†¦anyway†¦I'd attempt the egg in the water. That is the thing that Cedric Diggory did.† â€Å"Have you been keeping an eye on him too?† said Harry irately. â€Å"What d'you do, sneak up here in the nighttimes to watch the regents take baths?† â€Å"Sometimes,† said Myrtle, rather cleverly, â€Å"but I've never come out to address anybody before.† â€Å"I'm honored,† said Harry obscurely. â€Å"You keep your eyes shut!† He ensured Myrtle had her glasses all around secured before lifting himself out of the shower, wrapping the towel solidly around his midriff, and going to recover the egg. When he was back in the water, Myrtle looked through her fingers and stated, â€Å"Go on, then†¦open it under the water!† Harry brought down the egg underneath the frothy surface and opened it†¦and this time, it didn't howl. A murmuring melody was coming out of it, a tune whose words he couldnt recognize through the water. â€Å"You need to put your head under too,† said Myrtle, who appeared to be completely getting a charge out of bossing him around. â€Å"Go on!† Harry took an extraordinary breath and slid under the surface †and now, sitting on the marble base of the air pocket filled shower, he heard an ensemble of shocking voices singing to him from the open egg in his grasp: â€Å"Come look for us where our voices sound, We can't sing over the ground, And while you re looking, contemplate this: Wove taken what you'll woefully miss, An hour long you'll need to look, And to recoup what we took, But past an hour†the possibility's dark, Too late, it's gone, it wont come back† Harry let himself skim back upward and broke the bubbly surface, shaking his hair out of his eyes. â€Å"Hear it?† said Myrtle. â€Å"Yeah†¦'Come look for us where our voices sound†¦' and on the off chance that I need persuading†¦hang on, I have to listen again†¦.† He sank back underneath the water. It took three increasingly submerged versions of the egg's tune before Harry had it retained; at that point he trod water for some time, considering every option, while Myrtle sat and watched him. €Å"i must proceed to search for individuals who can't utilize their voices over the ground†¦.† he said gradually. â€Å"Er†¦who could that be?† â€Å"Slow, aren't you?† He had never observed Moaning Myrtle so bright, aside from the day when a portion of PolyJuice Potion had given Hermione the shaggy face and tail of a feline. Harry gazed around the washroom, thinking†¦if the voices must be heard submerged, at that point it appeared well and good for them to have a place with submerged animals. He ran this hypothesis past Myrtle, who grinned at him. â€Å"Well, that is the thing that Diggory thought,† she said. â€Å"He lay there conversing with himself for a long time about it. Ages and ages†¦nearly all the air pockets had gone†¦.† â€Å"Underwater†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry said gradually. â€Å"Myrtle†¦what lives in the lake, aside from the monster squid?† â€Å"Oh all sorts,† she said. â€Å"I here and there go down there†¦sometimes don't have any decision, on the off chance that somebody flushes

Sample TOEFL Essay Should We Always Tell the Truth

Sample TOEFL Essay Should We Always Tell the Truth The QuestionDo you agree or disagree with the following statement? Sometimes it is better to be dishonest with people than to always tell them the truth. Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.Special Offer: TOEFL Essay Evaluation and ScoringYou can now sign up to have your practice essays evaluated and scored by the author of this web page. Its a great way to learn how you will do before test day and how you can best prepare for the test. Sign up today.The Sample EssayMaintaining healthy relationships can be very difficult in today’s world, and there are many aspects of our interactions with others that we need to worry about. In my opinion, there are times when it is better to not tell the truth to others. I feel this way for two reasons, which I will explore in the following essay.First of all, telling small lies can sometimes motivate the people we care about to excel. Humans are very competitive and want to be the best at whatever task they have been assigned. Whether they are involved in an athletic event or taking a test at school, they feel more motivated if they think it is possible that they will achieve an impressive result. In cases like these, sometimes lying about their potential can encourage them to perform well. My own experience is a compelling example of this. Last year, my husband signed up for a marathon in our city. I knew that he would struggle to even finish the event, but I wanted him to feel confident about his ability. Accordingly, when he asked me for my opinion, I lied and said that he had a chance of finishing in the top ten. This gave him a lot of confidence and he dedicated himself to training for the marathon. Even though he did not win the race, my small lie was enough to maintain his motivation both before and during the race. Had I told him what I really thought, he might have given up altogether.Secondly, being honest all of the time can lead to high levels of anxiety. If we tell unpleasant truths, we may spend days or hours worrying about the possible consequences of what we have revealed. For instance, last week a colleague asked me what I thought of her new hairstyle. I was honest, and said that I thought it looked terrible. Though she did not express any anger at my remarks, I could see that she was really hurt by what I said. As a result of this, I spent the rest of the day worrying that I had jeopardized our friendship. My emotional state greatly reduced my productivity that day, and I am still a bit nervous that my colleague will hold a grudge against me. Had I simply said that her hair looked wonderful, I could have avoided all of these feelings.In conclusion, I believe that there are times when it is best to not tell the truth to others. This is because lies can motivate people to perform well, and because always being honest can sometimes cause personal turmoil. (438 words)

Satows perception of the Meiji revolution

Between 1853 and 1868, Japanese society underwent a profound and violent societal, economic, and cultural upheaval, the likes of which it had not seen in over 200 years. The ruling military government of Japan, the clan-pure Tokugawa Shogunate and its ancient feudal system of governance, disintegrated under internal pressure to reform to meet the challenges of the Industrial Age, embodied by foreign interests, particularly that of the United States and England, which used the threat of their military and technological superiority to force the Japanese to accept trade agreements. In doing so, the Shogunate wrote its final chapter and setthe state for a return to power of the Emperor, a quasi-religiousposition which since the 1600s had been relegated to ceremonial dutiesas the spiritual godfather of Japan, while the Shogunate and itssamurai warrior culture administered the country’s affairs. TheBritish Empire of the time was preoccupied initially with wars withRussia and Chin a, but observed with keen interest the initial rumblingsof discontent and reform within Japan, precipitated by the bold movesof the United States to establish relations with Japan. Once theBritish wars had been concluded and Americans had done the proverbialdirty advance work of opening Japan up, the British established theirown presence within Japan as it underwent a rapid societalmetamorphosis. Over time, various representatives of foreigngovernments, most notably the eminent British interpreter and diplomatErnest Satow, went beyond active interest to active involvement in theinternal affairs of the Japanese transformation from Tokugawa Shogunaterule to restoration of the power of the Emperor, known as the MeijiRevolution. Some of this involvement was self-serving and destructive;some of it was noble, altruistic, and reflected a genuine appreciationand compassion for the Japanese and their unique, noble, andastonishingly complex culture. As with most chapters in history, it isofte n difficult to discern in retrospect where altruism andself-interest intersected and diverged; the history of Japan’swrenching introduction into the modern age is particularly messy, butonly more fascinating for being as such. In order to explore this era, some chronological narrative is ofcourse required, but a strictly linear structure is not necessarily themost effective way to approach the issues. Therefore, thisdissertation will alternate between historical narrative and culturalexplication, sometimes moving backwards and forwards in time, andindulging in anecdotal tangents as well as delvings into the personalhistories of some of the players in question, all in hopes of paintinga full and complex picture of the interlocking forces – Japanese,American, and British, which turned this tiny country upside down inthe short space of 15 years and set the stage for its rise to globalpower. (A full investigation of the Japanese relations with Russia,China, and the Dutc h could easily comprise a dissertation of its own,but we will limit most of our focus here to the often tragic, but oftenedifying interaction of the Japanese with the two aforementionedWestern powers.) Lastly, it is important to note that no explorationof Japan’s relations with the West during the Tokugama Shogunate /Meiji Revolution era, or any era for that matter, is complete withoutdwelling occasionally in details of Japanese culture, which arealternately arcane and compelling. Such moments will be interwovenwith the historical narratives and observations as required. In 1854, the United States and Japan signed the Treaty of Kanagawa,which opened up Japan economically and culturally to the West for thefirst time. Up until this point in time, ancient Japanese law forbadetrade with any foreign nations other than China and the Dutch, thelatter of which were allowed to visit Japan twice a year to do businesssolely at the port of Nagasaki; even then, the foreigners’ p resence wasconfined to the small island of Deshima. The signing of the treaty wasa momentous occasion for both the United States and Japan, but it wasnot necessarily an egalitarian or mutually beneficial agreement, nordid both parties come to the signing ceremony of their own free will.Commodore Matthew Perry, representing the United States, essentiallyforced the Japanese into signing the treaty by virtue of the threat ofhis heavily armed four-warship fleet which arrived in Edo Bay (Tokyo’sharbor; Tokyo was known as Edo during Tokugawa Shogunate dynasty) – aport forbidden to foreigners in July 1853 and refused to departuntil the Japanese consented to enter into a trade and peace agreementbetween the two nations. Perry was acting under orders from thehighest authority in the United States, his Commander in Chief,President Millard Fillmore. Perry arrived bearing a letter fromPresident Fillmore to Emperor K?mei (who reigned from 1831-1867 and wasthe 121st imperial ruler of Japan). The letter was an eager one, andcontained several passages full of obsequious language: I entertain the kindest feelings toward your majestys person andgovernment, and that I have no other object in sending [CommodorePerry] to Japan but to propose to your imperial majesty that the UnitedStates and Japan should live in friendship and have cornmercialintercourse with each other†¦ The Constitution and laws of the UnitedStates forbid all interference with the religious or political concernsof other nations. I have particularly charged Commodore Perry toabstain from every act which could possibly disturb the tranquility ofyour imperial majestys dominions†¦ We have directed Commodore Perry tobeg your imperial majestys acceptance of a few presents. They are ofno great value in themselves; but some of them may serve as specimensof the articles manufactured in the United States, and they areintended as tokens of our sincere and respectful friendship.(Fillmore, 1852) However, the letter also contained notable amounts of braggadocioregarding the economic and technological might at the disposal of theUnited States: The [territories of the United States of America reach from ocean toocean, and our Territory of Oregon and State of California lie directlyopposite to the dominions of your imperial majesty. Our steamships cango from California to Japan in eighteen days†¦ Our great State ofCalifornia produces about sixty millions of dollars in gold every year,besides silver, quicksilver, precious stones, and many other valuablearticles†¦ America, which is sometimes called the New World, was firstdiscovered and settled by the Europeans. For a long time there were buta few people, and they were poor. They have now become quite numerous;their commerce is very extensive. (Fillmore, 1852) The subtext was clear. Though polite and solicitous to almost acomic fault, Fillmore made it clear that it was in Japan’s bestinterests to cooperate with the United States in opening itself up toforeign trade, or Japan might meet the same fate as Mexico, which theUnited States had obliterated and territorially eviscerated in a warending just four years prior to Perry’s visit to Japan. To punctuatethe subtext of his letter, Fillmore did not send Perry across thePacific Ocean in a yacht armed only with flowers; Perry sailed intoYedo Bay with an unmistakable symbol of United States might, hisstate-of-the-art mini-fleet. Why the particular interest in Japan, a relatively small nation? Itwas strategically located, a gateway to the Far East, and influenceover/in, and/or control of Japan would greatly expand American’smilitary and economic power. Japan was also a nation of importantnatural resources that could be used to feed the hungry monster of theWest’s burgeoning Industrial Revolution. As samurai scholar MarcelThach notes, â€Å"after the colonization of China, the Western Powers America in particular tur ned their eye towards Japan and saw acountry rich with coal deposits, one which they could colonize andexploit as they had China and other East Asian nations such as India.†(Thach, 2002) The Japanese were initially unmoved by President Fillmore’s letter,leaving Commodore Perry to stew in the harbor with the expectation thathe would simply tire and go home. This was not to be the case,however, as Perry quickly saw fit to turn up the proverbial heat on theJapanese by sending a letter of his own to the Emperor. In it, Perryreiterated some of the niceties expressed by President Fillmore, butthen delivered some language of a level of candor to which the Japanesewere not accustomed: [I] hope that the Japanese government will see the necessity ofaverting unfriendly collision between the two nations, by respondingfavourably to the propositions of amity, which are now made in allsincerity†¦ Many of the large ships-of-war destined to visit Japan havenot yet arrived in these seas, though they are hourly expected; and theundersigned, as an evidence of his friendly intentions, has brought butfour of the smaller ones, designing, should it become necessary, toreturn to Edo in the ensuing spring with a much larger force. (Perry, 7July 1853) The Japanese remained unmoved, provoking Commodore Perry’s temper.Diplomatic subtleties were abandoned, and on July 14, 1853, hedelivered an imperious admonishment accusing the Japanese of a sinagainst God, in effect, and threatened to fire upon the harbor: You have †¦ acted against divine principles and your sin cannot begreater than it is†¦ If you are still to disagree we would then take uparms and inquire into the sin against the divine principles†¦When oneconsiders such an occasion†¦ one will realize the victory will naturallybe ours. (Perry, 14 July 1853) At this juncture, the virulent and ingrained xenophobia of theJapanese culture was forced to yield to common sense. The Japa nese hadno navy to speak of, and though Perry’s four ships were unlikely tocomprise enough force to cause the Japanese to comply, the threat of animminent arrival of a bona fide armada induced the Japanese tocapitulate and sign the treaty of Kanagawa. (In the wake of thecapitulation, the Japanese dispatched an order to their Dutch tradingpartners to commission the building of a warship, which was named theKanrin-maru and was 49 meters in length, with 12 canons and threemasts. It was delivered somewhat belatedly in 1857, but was put togood use as a military training vessel.) It is important to pause here to explicate the amorphous term â€Å"theJapanese.† At the time of Perry’s arrival in Tokyo, Japan was indeedtechnically ruled by an Emperor, but he was largely a spiritual andtraditional figurehead who wielded minimal political power. The locusof decision-making was controlled by a chief shà ´gun (which in Japanesemeans â€Å"great general†), a direct descendent of Tokugawa leyasu, who in1603 defeated rival warlords to bring a semblance of organizationalcoherence to a Japanese society dominated by the fractious conflictsbetween feudal warlords. (In fact, the Tokugawa Shogunate, as theorganization came to be known, ruled in relative peace for the next 250 years in what was called the Edo Period, after the ancient name for thecity of Tokyo.) From 1603 on, the chief shà ´gun henceforth alwayscarried the Tokugawa clan title, and maintained power by executingrivals and replacing them with family members and trusted allies, whowere forbidden to marry outside the Tokugawa clan and allowed to ruletheir individual local dominions with a relatively free and arbitraryhand as long as they loyally served the chief shà ´gun. Furthermore, allother shà ´guns and feudal lords were forced to attend a grand gatheringin Tokyo / Edo every other year under the watchful eye of the Tokugawashà ´gun, where loyalties were reinforced and tested, an d suspectedtraitors ferreted out. Additionally, other lords were required to keepheirs or wives in Tokyo while they were administering to their dutiesin their respective feudal domains, which was another powerful tool ofthe Tokugawa clan to maintain its control. A strict hierarchical castesystem had also established by the Tokugawa Shogunate; atop thispyramid was the infamous warrior class of the samurai, the subjects ofmuch awe and reverence among Western cultures. Below the samurai werefarmers, artisans, and traders. Meanwhile, the Emperor himselfresided in Kyoto, accompanied by a few servants and bureaucrats to tendto his ceremonial needs, but he exercised virtually no governing powerat all. It was under this repressive cloak that the xenophobic culture ofJapan was cultivated and its restrictive trade policies enacted intolaw. The third in the Tokugawa shà ´gun lineage, Tokugawa Iemitsu,established the rules forbidding almost all foreign trade andinteraction. Only inbound tra ding ships were permitted, and of thesevisitors the Dutch and the Chinese were the only ones allowed. Thiswas not merely an exercise in preserving Japanese culture purity,however. Tokugawa Iemitsu was keenly concerned with maintaining hisclan’s power over the opposing feudal warlords, and he knew thatcultural, religious, military, and economic influences from othercountries could destabilize the already precarious balance of power.The economic and cultural modernization and maturation within the largecities was, by the 19th century, starting to create conflict within thecaste system, which began to teeter under the weight of its ownstubborn antiquity. This was the complex environment into whichCommodore Perry sailed his four ships in July 1853: a paranoid,secretive, and warlike culture steeped in Byzantine traditions but alsomilitarily and technologically steeped in the past, and thus unable todefend its sovereignty. The forced signing of the treaty was thebeginning of a long road of resentment towards the United States andthe West that culminated in Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December7, 1941. In the immediate meantime, however, the Treaty of Kanagawa wasfinally signed on March 31, 1854 after Commodore Perry’s return toJapan. It stipulated that the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate would beopened to American ships seeking supplies, that American sailors whohad been shipwrecked would be rescued and well-treated, and agreed thatan American consulate would be established in Shimoda for the purposesof negotiating a further and more comprehensive trade agreement. Thistreaty was the beginning of a succession of agreements forced upon theJapanese that brought about a great influx of foreign investment,trade, and business into Japan, but the economic effects of thisphenomenon were not all salutary. One such deleterious effect wasmassive inflation of the Japanese currency. The caste system under theTokugawa Shogunate mandated a rigid system o f taxation on thepeasantry; the taxes were fixed and not fairly tied to inflation orother economic vagaries, and thus the taxes gathered by the rulingshà ´guns fell steeply in the wake of the Treaty of Kanagawa, causingironic clashes between the well-to-do working class and their rulers.Arguably better warriors than macro-economists, the shà ´gun were unableto curtail this inflation, and the resultant economic instability andhardships inflicted on the Japanese people caused a popular unrest thatcould not be quelled for very long, and fact led to civil war. By1867, the Shogunate had been overthrown in what became known as theMeiji Rebellion, which restored the Emperor to true power beyond theceremonial, and brought about a thorough reform of the organization ofJapanese government and society. One of the intermediary steps on the way to the weakening of theShogunate and the restoration of the Emperor’s rule was another treatybetween the United States, The Treaty of Amity a nd Commerce Between theUnited States and Japan, better known historically as the Treaty ofTownsend Harris, named after the persistent American diplomat whopersuaded the Japanese to sign it. As alluded to previously, theTreaty of Kanagawa had stipulated the creation of an American Consulatein Japan, which would open up negotiations on the specifics of tradenegotiation. President Franklin Pierce, who had replaced PresidentFillmore in March 1853, dispatched Townsend Harris from New York inNovember 1855 to establish the Consulate and coax the Japanese intoactual trade, not simply the intent to trade. Harris arrived inShimoda in August 1856, having cannily brought along a Dutch-speakingsecretary and interpreter named Henry Heuksen to facilitate thedifficult and delicate nuances of discourse with the Japanese.However, the Japanese, in a typical stalling maneuver, asked Harris toleave and return in a year. He refused; the Japanese asked him toproceed to Nagasaki, which he declined to do; t hen, in a final – andrather creative – attempt to rid themselves of Harris, they asked himto write a letter back to the President James Buchanan (who hadsucceeded Pierce in the November 1856 election) requesting acancellation of his diplomatic mission. The indefatigable Harrisrefused this request as well, and eventually the Japanese allowed himto set up an office at the port of Shimoda. Nonetheless, theycontinued to stonewall Harris by referring any request or question,whether trivial or consequential, to the Emperor’s palace in Edo.Harris demanded an audience with the shà ´gun in the capital, but over ayear passed before Harris received permission to travel to Edo. Harris did not sit idly by, however; he used the intervening time tocultivate favor and good will with the powers-that-were in Shimoda, thelocal members of theTokugawa bafuku. (Bafuku is a Japanese wordloosely translated to mean â€Å"tent government† and is an arm, during thishistorical p eriod, of the Tokugawa Shogunate) Harris was well awarethat the British had paid a visit to the Japanese in 1854 that did notgo well and left a bitter taste in the proverbial mouths of bothparties. The British, mired in a conflict with the Russians that ledto the Crimean War (1854-1856) had dispatched Sir James Stirling fromChina in 1855 to request that the Japanese deny Russian ships access totheir ports and attempt to secure some sort of initial tradeunderstanding with the Japanese. Stirling did conclude a treaty, butit was hopelessly vague and of limited utlity, in part because of anincompetent translator (a hitch keenly noted by Harris) and was sent onhis way. The British lurched from the Crimean War to the Second OpiumWar with China in 1856, distracting them from immediate focus on Japan,but Harris correctly surmised it would only be a matter of time beforethe British turned their attention to Japan again, and used it, albeitwith some fictional license, as leverage in his negot iations againstthe Japanese. Despite managing to offend the chief shogun, the aged TokugawaIesada, and his Court by wearing shoes during his visit to the Palacein Edo in December 1857, Harris’ otherwise impeccable statesmanshipimpressed the Shogunate sufficiently that they gave their blessing forthe treaty negotiations, and they gave permission for Bakufu GrandCouncillor Hotta Masayoshi, with whom Harris had been negotiating, tocontinue working with Harris to complete the treaty. Harrisimmediately set to work convincing Masayoshi with a combination ofexaltations of American good intentions and fears of an inevitableBritish arrival on Japanese soil which would demand treaty terms farless generous than that ‘suggested’ by the American. Specifically,Harris preyed on the fears of the Japanese that the only thing standingbetween Japan and the imperial pressure of the British was theirsoon-to-be-concluded war against China. The Japanese had long heldChina in a place of cultural reverence in the Far East and had beenprofoundly shocked at the relative ease with which the French andBritish were defeating the Chinese in the Second Opium War. Aware ofthis, naturally, Harris used it to his advantage. In his December 12,1857 audience with Masayoshi, Harris had this to say: On my way to Japan I met the English governor of Hong-Kong, JohnBowring, who told me that he was about to be appointed an ambassador togo to Japan, and I have received four letters from him since my arrivalin Japan. Our conversation was of course private, but in his letters hediscusses Japanese Government matters. He says he intends to bring withhim a larger fleet than the Japanese have ever seen, and anchor atYedo, {Edo] where the discussions will be carried on. He says also thatYedo is the only place to hold consultation with the Japanese; that hisobject is, first, to get permission for a minister or agent of Englandto reside in Yedo, and, secondly, to get permission to carry on freetrade at several places in Japan. If these two things are not grantedwar will be declared at once. The sending of this ambassador he says isdelayed by the war in China. He said he would be in Yedo in the thirdmonth, but he has been detained by the war. (Harris, 1857) In another dramatic touch, Harris also asserted that the Britishintended to addict the entirety of the Japanese population to opium: It appears that the English think the Japanese are fond ofopium, and they want to bring it here also. If a man use opium once hecannot stop it, and it becomes a life-long habit to use opium; hencethe English want to introduce it into Japan. The President of theUnited States thinks that for the Japanese opium is more dangerous thanwar. (Harris, 1857) What Harris neglected to mention was that in truth, the British wereloathe to try to force an opening into Japan at this particularjuncture in time. They had squandered vast military and politicalcapital in pursuit of their war with China, and there was domesticunrest to contend with as well: Despite popular perceptions of British imperialism at this period,official British policy was in fact against the use of force in openingup Japan and British Ministers were mindful of humanitarianconsiderations that might lead to criticism in Parliament. Theyinstructed British representatives to avoid provocative acts and thethreat or use of force. (Cortazzi, 1999) Nonetheless, Harris then went on to claim that the United States hadstudiously avoided joining Britain in the war against China, despitethe fact that newly elected President Buchanan was a veteran diplomatand former Secretary of State who, in his former diplomatic position,and now, as President-elect, was actively working towards mending oldgrievances with Britain. Harris suggested that if the Japanese come tomutually satisfactory terms with the United States, particularly withrespect to the issue of opium trade – Harris suggested that theJapa nese could burn any opium which American traders might bring toports in the future – then in effect, the United States would form a defacto protective buffer between Japan and the European powers, and atthe very least, treaty terms with Britain or France could be no worsefor the Japanese than the benevolent terms of a treaty with the UnitedStates. In fact, the treaty proposed (in Article II) that in anydispute between Japan and European powers, the United States presidentwould serve as mediator. Hotta Masayoshi was no fool, and despite the fact that the Shogunatehad responded to Commodore Perry’s presence by commissioning militaryvessels from its Dutch trading partners, Masayoshi knew the Japanesehad little choice at this particular juncture in time but to accede toHarris’ terms. Negotiations on Treaty of Townsend Harris wereconcluded in February 1858 and the treaty was signed on July 29, 1858.(Ironically, Commodore Perry died in New York City the same day.)H arris, never one to miss an opportunity for some patriotic publicrelations, ensured that the treaty was stipulated to take effect onJuly 4, 1859, on American Independence Day. Little did the Japaneseknow that they had taken another ominous step towards the erosion oftheir own cultural-economic independence. The treaty provided for the opening of four additional ports toAmerican trading ships: Kanagawa and Nagasaki, on July 4, 1859;Niigata, on the January 1, 1860; and Hyogo, on the January 1, 1863; theport of Shimoda would be closed to American beginning in January 1860.Starting on July 4, 1862, Americans would also be allowed to take upresidence in Edo. It provided for tariffs to be applied to Americangoods imported into Japan and exported to the United States, andforbade the trade of opium between the Unites States and Japan. Thetariffs – unsurprisingly favored imported American products with afive percent tax on most goods and raw materials. The treatystipulated that th is tariff was fixed until the treaty came up forrevision and renegotiation in 1872, sowing the seeds for the economicinstability, alluded to above, that led to the downfall of theShogunate. In particularly surprising concession, the treatystipulated that Americans in Japan would be allowed free exercise oftheir religious beliefs, which extended to permission to constructplaces of worship. This was a significant break with Japanesetradition, which had long been steeped with animosity towardsChristianity. In fact, Christianity was essentially forbidden, andHarris had taken a considerable personal risk by making a show of hisChristian beliefs when he visited the Shogunate in Edo in 1858.Despite a clause in the treaty that seemed to forbid Christianproselytizing (â€Å"The Americans and Japanese shall not do anything thatmay be calculated to excite religious animosity† (Article VII), theinflux of Christianity into the Japanese homeland was deeply offensiveto many traditionalist a nd contributed to the erosion of support forthe Shogunate. Another interesting stipulation of the treaty is that diplomaticenvoys from Japan would be sent to the United States for the purposesof cultural exchange and for a ‘formal’ treaty-signing ceremony. ThreeJapanese were selected for the journey: Shimmi Masaoki, the seniorambassador, who was only 35 years of age; Oguri Tadamasu, who carriedthe title of ‘official inspector’ for the diplomatic mission; andMurgaki Norimasa, who kept a detailed diary of the delegation’s visit.Each were samurai warriors, consistent with the ruling class from whichthey came, and knew next to nothing of American culture or thepeculiarities of Western culture, much less the American government;for example, the Japanese found it bizarre that the Americans had gonethrough three elected leaders in a peaceful transition of power betweenthe time Commodore Perry had paid his infamous visit and the Japanesedelegation left to visit the United States. In an attempt to showstrength and regal power, the three Japanese did not travel alone –their party numbered 77, including six cooks, 51 guards and servants,three doctors, and three interpreters. It was quite a showcase: On February 13, 1860, the ambassadors and their staff sailed fromYokohama with 50 tons of Japanese baggage (including the treaty in itsspecial box), 100,000 readily negotiable Mexican dollars, and a largesupply of Japanese food. Appropriately, perhaps, the vessel thatcarried them from Japan to San Francisco was the navy frigate Powhatan,one of the steam-powered paddle-wheelers Perry had employed inopening Japan. (Finn, 2002) The America into which the Japanese were received in May 1860, wasteetering on the precipice of a civil war which would forever alter itsdestiny, mirroring the dark seeds of revolution which were germinatingback home in Japan. To say that the Japanese experienced culture shockwas an understatement; it was a precursor to the shocks that wouldreverberate through Japanese culture in their homeland due to thefloodgates of external Western cultural influence that were beingopened by the Harris Townsend Treaty that the Japanese envoys signedwith President Buchanan on May 18. Upon their return home in November 1860, the Japanese delegation wasgreeted coolly, as the elements in the Shogunate that had approved thetreaty had begun to fall from favor. Murgaki Norimasa and ShimmiMasaoki received promotions but were soon forced into retirement.Oguri Tadamasu went on to become a powerful military leader for theShogunate, but he refused to accept their downfall and the eventualre-ascension of the Emperor; he and and his son were executed in 1868. The interior map of Japanese political and cultural power was atumultuous mess by the time the delegation returned to Japan. TheTokugawa Shogunate had splintered into two warring factions due to thecontroversy regarding the signings of the two treatie s with the UnitedStates and fears of imminent meddling by the British into Japaneseaffairs. Tokugawa Iesada had become an old and infirm man and wasbarely able to carry out his duties during the negotiations over theTownsend Harris Treaty. Compounding the fractious debate over whetheror not to agree to the treaty was a struggle brewing over who wouldsucceed Iesada, as Iesada had no natural heir. The two leadingcontenders were Tokugawa Yoshinobu (aka Keiki), and a 12-year old boy,the Daimyo of Kii. In an attempt to solidify the ebbing power of theTokugawa clan and to end the debate over the the treaty signings, thelatter of which he had brokered, Hotta Masayoshi broke with precedentand traveled to Kyoto to visit Emperor Komei to seek his approval forthe Harris Treaty and for the ascension of the Daimyo of Kii to headthe Shogunate. Unfortunately for Hotta, his gamble backfired. TheEmperor communicated his unhappiness with the treaties and refused tooffer his support for Tokugawa Yoshi nobu / Keiki. Hotta was humiliatedand was replaced in April 1858 by Ii Naosuke, who was appointedTokugawa Regent, making him the effective military leader of Japan andhead of the shogun council. Ii immediately approved the Townsend Harris Treaty, effectivelysnubbing the Emperor, which caused a widespread rebellion amongstImperial Japanese loyalists who literally revered the Emperor as a godand who viewed action against his wishes to be a mortal sin.Undaunted, Ii then proceeded to arbitrarily appointed the boy Daimyo ofKii as the Shogunate heir, spawning a massive rebellion. Those whoopposed his sanctioning of the Treaty and/or his appointment of theShogunate heir were executed en masse, in a bloodbath dubbed the AnseiPurge. Being of tender age, naturally, the Daimyo of Kii – who assumedthe name Tokugawa Iemochi was unable to assert his sovereign will orassume his duties, leaving Ii firmly entrenched in power, or so hethought. His rule did not last long; he was beheaded by anti-foreigner, pro-Emperor elements in March 1860. After Ii wasassassinated, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, who had been Tokugawa Iemochi’searlier rival for the position of Shogun, assumed effective control ofthe Shogunate by assuming a position of power similar to the one heldby Ii and Hotta before him. After Tokugawa Iemochi’s death in 1866,Tokugawa Yoshinobu assumed the official ceremonial title and power ofShogun. He was to be the fifteenth and last Shogun in Japanesehistory. Certainly, the arrival of the Americans and the treaties they forcedupon the Shogunate were a leading cause of their downfall, but theShogunate was already weakening under its own antiquated weight by thetime Commodore Perry arrived in Japan in 1853. Though very stable andconsistent, the philosophy and structure of the Shogunate governmentwas change-averse to a fault; it was 200 years old, and had simplyoutlived its usefulness: The simple concept of the division of classes into rulers, warriors an dcommoners had little relation to Japan of the 19th century with itsteeming cities, rich merchants, restless samurai and discontentpeasantry†¦ Despite the division of the land into a large number offeudal fiefs, the people had developed a strong sense of nationalconsciousness. The growth of nationalism and the development of amodern commercial economy had made Japan ready for the more efficientpolitical forms of the modern nation. (Norman, 1940) To some degree, the nationalism of the Japanese was reflective ofthe psychology of isolation, i.e., the Japanese, knowing nothing otherthan their own culture, naturally viewed it as superior. Theappearance and encroachment of a culture, such as Americans’, which wastechnologically superior, was a profound shock to the Japanese. TheShogunate, at a time when putting forth a unified and strong front waskey, blundered initially by putting Commodore Perry’s initial treatyproposal up for public debate, which was an unusual mo ve for theJapanese, signaling to the population that it was weak. Hotto’sill-fated attempt to persuade the Emperor to support the treaty, and toinvolve him in the family succession issue within the Tokugama clan,was also a nail in the proverbial coffin, furthering the perceptionthat the Shogunate was weak. Slowly, an unlikely coalition of anti-bafuku entities coalesced toundermine the power of the Shogunate. Not all parties were necessarilyadvocates of the ending of the Tokugawa dynasty, but all agreed thatthe Shogunate’s indecisiveness, stalling, and inconsistent policymakingsince 1853 had greatly weakened Japan’s strength as a nation bothinternally and externally. The coalition, over time, came to includemiddle-to-lower class samurai, mostly from the western clans of Tosa,Hizen, Satsuma, and Choshu; the kuge, or the Emperor and his court, whoafter centuries of staying out of the mechanics of governance, had cometo believe that the Shogunate had not only usu rped the power of theEmperor, but stained its dignity and divinity; merchants, from citiessuch as Osaka and Kyoto, whose support went beyond the moral and helpedfund revolutionary forces; and lastly, the peasants, whose economicdiscontent led them to provide moral support and also, quite literally,bodies – towards the end of the Shogunate dynasty, they were enlistedas soldiers to fight in the revolution, a break from Japanese traditionwhich relied on the samurai class to engage in Japan’s wars. It is important to note here that the socio-cultural and economicforces that led to the disintegration and overthrow of the Shogunatedid not resemble those of other notable modern revolutions, such as theFrench or American. The Meiji Revolution, as it came to be known(after the name of the Emperor who assumed rule over Japan after the15th Shogun), was not revolution for democracy, or a revolution inwhich the lower classes bound together to overthrow the repressive yolkof an i ndolent and tyrannical ruling class: In studying Japanese social history, it becomes apparent that one mustdismiss all preconceptions based on a class-struggle interpretation†¦[The Meiji Revolution] was not the story of a rising business classthat destroyed the structure of feudalism and established its supremacyin a mercantile state. Still less was it a democratic revolttransferring political power to representative of the mass of thepeasants and workers. (Norman, 1940) Nor was the discontent with the Shogunate necessarily an issue ofhatred of foreigners; many within the Imperial Court and otheranti-Shogunate forces (and even within the Shogunate itself), despitetheir loathing of the ‘barbarians,’ as many termed foreigners, reasonedthat the best way for Japan to ensure its survival was to embraceuseful Western technologies and military tactics; the temporarydistaste for Western influences the majority of Japanese may have hadto endure for a time would be ame liorated by the Japanese eventuallyco-opting the Westerners’ own superiority and using it against them.This is in fact exactly what eventually occurred. Having obtained word of the favorable outcome, at least from theBritish perspective, of Townsend Harris’ negotiations with theJapanese, James Bruce, the 8th British Earl of Elgin, included in hisFar East trip to China a diplomatic stop in Edo on August 17, 1858.He had little idea of what his chances would be to make any tradeheadway with the Japanese. He was personally loathe to engage in anyhardball tactics against the Japanese, having grown weary of thebrutality utilized against the Chinese: â€Å"Elgin had no desire to transfer to Japan the methods he had foundnecessary in China†¦ Hewanted to like the Japanese†¦He sometimes wonderedwhether Japan might not be better without treaty relations, whether, indeed, treaties might not bring her only ‘misery and ruin.’† (Cortazi, 1999) However , the Japanese were in acooperative frame of mind, and had abandoned their stalling tactics.In his favor, the Earl also had been given use by Townsend Harris ofhis Dutch interpreter-secretary, Mr. Heusken; in addition, he hadbrought with him a steam yacht that Sir James Stirling had promised togive as a gift to the Shogun in 1855. Astonishingly, the Earl wasable to conclude, on August 26, 1858, a treaty of his own with theJapanese that was inspired by and, in its final incarnation., largelymirrored the agreement which Townsend Harris had made, right down tothe treaty’s title. The Earl secured similar port-opening privilegesfor the British as the Americans had obtained, and also was able toobtain permission for the opening of a diplomatic office in Edo. Thesame inequitable tariff structure was agreed upon, unfortunately, whichwould only compound the instability and resentment against theShogunate as alluded to previously. Sir Rutherford Alcock arrived in Edo in 1859, to ass ume the positionof British consul to Japan; he was soon promoted to the title ofMinister. Alcock began his career as a doctor, then joined themilitary to serve as a surgeon for the marines in the First Carlist Warwith Spain. He was later appointed deputy inspector-general forhospitals, a position from which he retired in 1837. In 1842, however,he responded to his government’s call and went to Fuchow, China, tobecome consul there. He distinguished himself under difficultcircumstances, mastering the intricacies of a culture as ancient andcomplex as that of the Japanese, and was hence awarded his assignmentto Japan in 1858. However, given the fact that the British positionin Japan was not one of inherent power, as de facto conquerors, as itwas in China – the British were at best uneasily tolerated guests –Alcock quickly found himself struggling to execute hisresponsibilities. â€Å"His biggest problems arose from the weakness,vacillations, prevarications and decep tions of the Japanese authoritieswith whom he had to deal, but he was also not helped by the greed of,and sleaze prevailing among, the first British merchants who came toJapan.† (Cortazi, 1999) Many of the merchants were unfamiliar with anduninterested in the Japanese culture, and focused primarily onmaximizing their trading profits and exiting. This did not help theircause with the local Japanese who regarded the British as rude,uncouth, and lacking in civility. As the power of the Shogunate overits local principalities began to disintegrate during their internecinesquabble, British diplomatic personnel in Edo and in the local portsbecame increasingly unsafe. None of the treaties signed with the Westcontained any stipulations for protection of the foreign diplomats ortraders; either this was naively overlooked, or the provisions in thetreaties regarding prosecution of Japanese or British/American criminalactivities were thought to adequate. They were not. On July 5, 1861,the British Legation at Shinagawa was attacked by a large party ofronin, or renegade samurai warriors. Alcock narrowly escaped with hislife, and members of his party were wounded. Another attack occurredthe following year while Alcock was vacationing back home in England.It was widely believed that the would-be assassins were rebelliousmembers of the Satsuma clan. It is worth pausing here to explain the concept of the ronin. Theywere samurai who had lost their masters – princes or other dignitarieshigher up on the Shogunate food chain either because their mastershad been killed or fallen into disrepute. Under Japanese cultural codeat the time, samurai could not enter into the employ of a new masterwithout permission from the previous one, which in the case of anuntimely master’s death made it difficult to secure such permission.These ronin often committed suicide or became seedy, ruthlessmercenaries desperate for survival. The increasing instability andinfighting of th e Tokugawa Shogunate during the American and British‘opening’ of Japan resulted in many samurai being forced into roninstatus, and many blamed the influx of foreigners for their unfortunatefates. Henry Heusken, Harris Townsend’s secretary and interpreter,made a prophetic observation about them: The ronin, although they are rogues, always wear two swords because oftheir noble birth, even though their hearts are depraved. Having losttheir reputations as honorable men, they wish to regain respect bygaining an evil reputation. They wish to demonstrate everywhere thatthey are brave and the man who has the most scars is looked upon astheir chief and is honored accordingly. (Van Der Corput, 1964, p. 182) Heusken was immensely popular amongst many Japanese for his kindnessand respect of them, and his willingness to learn their language andimmerse himself in their culture. He enjoyed spending his free timemingling with common Japanese citizens. For this reason he ma de aneasy target, both symbolically and literally, for those elements wholoathed the foreigners’ presence on Japanese soil. Huesken was warnedon January 7, 1861, by Oguri Tadamasu, the inspector general who hadvisited the United States the previous year, of rumours of an imminent,large-scale attack on the American Legation by rogue forces. On thenight of January 15, Heusken was attacked by seven ronin whilereturning from the Prussian embassy, and mortally wounded. He managedto survive for a day, despite laying on the road without medicalattention for almost 90 minutes in the aftermath of the attack.Townsend Harris was so shocked and distraught by Heusken’s murder thatit was rumoured that he went temporarily insane. He submitted hisresignation to President Lincoln on July 10, 1861, and shortly beforeyear’s end, he left Japan forever despite pro-American factions in theShogunate’s entreaties to President Lincoln that he stay on asambassador. In the after math of Huesken’s murder and the first attack on theBritish Legation, Alcock made the decision to withdraw the bulk of theBritish diplomatic corps to Yokohama. Within months, the British senttroops to Yokohama, as did the French (who had signed their own treatywith the Japanese in 1858) – an action not sanctioned by Lord Elgin’streaty and a move which, though reasonable in terms of self-defense,did little to endear the British to the Japanese. Alcock was becomingprogressively disillusioned with the situation in Japan after havingbeen initially entranced and possessing charitable and respectfulfeelings for the Japanese: ..although the original negotiators were received with smiles, andtheir path strewn with flowers, their successors had only the poisonedchalice held to their lips, thorns in their path, and the scowl of thetwo-sworded samurai to welcome them, whenever they ventured to leavetheir gates, while the assassin haunted their steps, and broke theirrest i n the still hours of the night with fell intent to massacred thewhole Legation. (Williams, 1963, p. 58) The British were to find themselves taking the military and diplomaticlead in Japan during this time period. Heusken’s murder and theincreasing attacks on the British had dimmed Harris’ interest inJapanese affairs; both he and Alcock had concluded that the Shogunatewas becoming too weak a political entity to either maintain internalstability or safeguard the foreign diplomats and traders. Also, theAmerican Civil War, which had been fomenting for some time, violentlycommenced in April 1861 and soon commanded virtually all the attentionand military resources of the U.S. government. Immediately precedinghis decision to resign, Harris wrote his Secretary of State, WilliamSeward, informing him of the attacks on the British Legation.Unsurprisingly, given the matters compelling his attention, Seward didnot respond until October, but the content of his reply was telling: The assaults committed upon the minister of Great Britain and the othermembers of that legation, in violation of express treaty, of the lawsof nations, and of the principles of common humanity, have excited adeep concern on the part of the President. Your prompt, earnest, anddecided proceedings in aid of the just desire of her BritannicMajestys minister to obtain adequate satisfaction for that out ragemeet his emphatic approval. I have lost no time in assuring the Britishgovernment directly of the willingness of the United States toco-operate with it in any judicious measure it may suggest to insuresafety hereafter to diplomatic and consular representatives of thewestern powers in Japan. (Seward, 1861) These were no mere diplomatic niceties. Seward was keenly awarethat the Confederacy, the rebel South which had seceded from the Union(the North) to prompt the Civil War, had been actively soliciting thesupport of England and France in the war, to such an extent that theentreatie s went beyond simple economic and military assistance toformal requests that England and France enter the war on the side ofthe Confederacy. Cotton, which was the number one export of theAmerican South, was also a lucrative source of revenue for Europe, andthe British and French were loathe to consider the economicconsequences of a potential disruption or outright loss of thiscommodity. The first 18 months of the war had gone disastrously forthe Union, and such intervention on the part of either England orFrance would have likely tipped the scales fatally in favor of theConfederacy. Seeking to shore up Union support with the British,Seward essentially was signaling his approval, on behalf of PresidentLincoln, for the British to take the lead in Japan and sort the matterout as they saw fit, with enthusiastic Union support. Beyond that, theUnion simply did not have the military resources to send additionalships and men to Japan to attend to the problem. Harris was surelyaware of this, and between his grief for the murder of Heusken and thedeteriorating internal Japanese situation – not incidentally, hepersonally disliked Alcock he elected to end his diplomatic careerat its zenith and return to the United States, effectively cedingcontrol of diplomatic leadership to Alcock and the British. In 1862, Alcock accompanied a group of Japanese dubbed the JapaneseMission, to Europe and to England as part of the original treatystipulations signed by Lord Elgin. One of the official purposes of theportion of the visit to London was to make progress in further tradenegotiations with the Japanese. An agreement was signed there on June6, 1862, which came to be known as the London Protocol. Given thesecurity concerns, and as a gesture of help to the ever-falteringTokugawa Shogunate to modulate British influx into Japan, Alcock andthe British Foreign Secretary agreed that the opening of the ports ofNiigata and Hyogo (also known as Kobe), as well as the establishment o fBritish residences in Edo and Osaka, would be deferred for five years.In exchange, and perhaps under duress due guilt over the violenceagainst the British, the Japanese agreed to: abolish ‘all restrictions, as regards quantity or price, on the sale byJapanese to foreigners of all kinds of merchandise’. Other articlesabolished restrictions on the hire of Japanese labour and otherrestrictions limiting trade in the Treaty Ports as well as‘restrictions imposed on free intercourse of a social kind betweenforeigners and the people of Japan’. (Cortazzi, 1999) The penalty for failure to comply with any of these treatyprovisions was that the delays on opening of ports and residences wouldbe negated. This, particularly combined with the language facilitatingcultural interchange, set up an impossible Catch-22 that only served toexacerbate the steadily deteriorating situation in Japan. Unsurprisingly, then, it was not long after Alcock had returned toJapan that the violence resurfaced in dramatic fashion. On September14, 1862, a British merchant from Shanghai named Charles LennoxRichardson was murdered in Yokohama by Satsuma samurai. Richardson andtwo comrades happened to be passing a 1,000-man procession of theSatsuma daimyo (feudal leader/clan warlord) Shimazu Hisamitsu on theTokaido road in Yokohoma. It was Japanese custom to dismount one’shorse out of respect to a daimyo if one happened to pass by; Richardsonand his party failed to do after being ordered to do so. Whether thistranspired out of intrasigence or out of ignorance is still a matter ofdebate. In any case, they were attacked by samurai from Shimazu’sprocession in this gruesome event that became known as the NamanugiIncident. (In what was doubtlessly not a coincidence, the particularsamurai who killed Richardson turned out to be the older brother of thesamurai who had assassinated Ii Naosuke two years earlier.) Alcock wasshocked, and demanded that the Shogunate p ay the an indemnification sumof 100,000 pounds – a staggering amount of money in 1862 – and that theSatsuma daimyo pay 25,000 additional pounds, in addition to executingthe samurais who had attacked Richardson’s party. The Shogunate paidtheir portion, but by this point, the Bakufu were in no position ofauthority whatsoever to reign in rebellions forces, particularly theincreasingly powerful Satsuma. The daimyo flatly refused to complywith Alcock’s demands and the Shogunate was unable to compel theSatsuma to obey their orders. Alcock was enraged, and finally reactingunder pressure from other foreign powers to take action, the Britishnaval fleet shelled the city of Kagoshima in August 1863, destroying asubstantial portion of the city as well as three of the Satsuma clan’sships, though miraculously, only a few Japanese were killed. This wasan immensely unpopular move back home in England, and Alcock was one ofthe individuals blamed for the debacle. He was eventually replaced in1865 by Sir Harry Parkes. One of the most important Western figures in all of modern Japanesehistory happened to arrive, by coincidence or synchronicity, one weekbefore the Namanugi Incident. He was a 19-year old student interpreternamed Ernest Satow. Mr. Satow was cut from the same mold as HenryHeusken, in the sense that he did not possess condescending, pitying,or superioristic attitudes towards the Japanese, personality flaws thatplagued the vast majority of Westerners who had lived and worked inJapan in the years before Satow arrived. He took an active interest inthe intricacies of Japanese culture and mastered the immenselydifficult Japanese language (no small feat given that at the time ofhis arrival in 1862, there was no such thing as a Japanese-Englishdictionary!); he was arguably the first serious Western scholar ofJapanese literature, and amassed a stunning collection Japanese books.He more than intermingled with the Japanese people – h e took acommon-law Japanese wife, Takeda Kane, with whom he had two sons, namedEitaro and Hisayoshi. He became an intimate confidant of the keypower players who engineered the transition from the Tokugama Shogunateto the restoration of the rule of the Emperor, and in fact became amajor power player himself in this process, as we will explore later.To this day, he is still a celebrity in Japan, though ironically, he isby comparison largely forgotten in England. Satow was on board one of the British warships that bombed theSatsuma city of Kagoshima, and memorialized the occasion in his widelyadmired 1921 book A Diplomat in Japan: A Diplomat in Japan: The InnerHistory of the Critical Years in the Evolution of Japan. (Though notpresent during the Namanugi Incident, Satow was of the opinion thatRichardson and his party were not at fault, as he narrates in the book:â€Å"They were now ordered to turn back, and as they were wheeling theirhorses in obedience, were suddenly set upon by s everal armed menbelonging to the train, who hacked at them with the sharp-edged heavyswords.† (Satow, 1921, p. 48)) Even at this early juncture in hisdiplomatic career, Satow’s personal feelings about the disproportionalsavagery of the British punishment were indicative of his sympathy forthe Japanese. Satow claims that during the bombardment, Vice AdmiralKuper knew exactly how much damage was being inflicted on Kagoshima andseemed to almost be enjoying himself. â€Å"†¦rockets were fired with theobject of burning the town†¦ Admiral Kuper took credit for thedestruction.† (Satow, 1921, p. 84) Satow then goes on, in the book. tomake a specific point of agreeing in retrospect with Lord Bright fromthe British House of Commons, saying he â€Å"called attention to thisunnecessary act of severity.† (p. 85) Details of Final collapse of the shogunate †¦ Satow’s role in shogunate collapse, as pseudonymous author ofeditorials in Japanese n ewspapers in which he boldy asserts that theshogunate was never the rightful heir to the rulership of japan andthat it is time for the emperor to step back in. †¦1867 as the Shogunate was about to collapse, people took to thestreets across the nation in a massive, collective expression of relieftinged with exhaustion. â€Å"Some difficulty was experienced in making ourway through the crowds of people in flaming red garments dancing andshouting over and over ‘ii ja nai ka.’ [loosely translated as, ‘oh,what the hell!’] They were so much taken up with their dancing that wepassed along almost unnoticed.† (Satow, 1921, p. 252) Meiji restoration, Satow’s relationship with the new imperial court / government. Changes in Japanese society. Satow’s departure from japan. Historical ramifications into war with Russia and into aggressive Japanese behavior in the 20th century.