In 1860 the Tokugawa government in Japan sent ambassadors to the United States of America to exchange of ratifications covered in the Treaty of Peace and Amity negotiated with U.S. Consul Townsend Harris, and to formalize relations between the U.S. and Japan. Two ships carrying Americans and the Japanese ambassadorial delegation embarked on a journey that would change history. One of the ships, the U.S.S. Powhatan, stopped in Hawaii with the Japanese Embassy for about ten days.
