The late Edo Period intellectual Yoshida Shoin (1830-1859), featured in an ongoing historical drama series on NHK television, tried to stow away on one of the "black ships" in U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry's fleet. His attempt was unsuccessful, but he instead became part of a legend surrounding Perry and a white flag.

Perry is said to have presented Japanese officials with a white flag along with a note that accused Japan of using its policy of isolation as an excuse to turn down requests from various countries over the years to engage in trade, and that if it continued to do so, the Americans would use military force. If that occurred, the United States would win, Perry is said to have written, and ordered Japan to raise the white flag as a sign of surrender and wish for reconciliation.

Many intellectuals since the late Edo Period referred to this "white flag letter," despite there being no record of it in the U.S. Shoin, however, said that he didn't believe in the veracity of such a letter. In a recently published book, "Yoshida Shoin," author Kenshin Kirihara explains how Shoin came to believe that the story surrounding the letter was fake based on his own experiences and philosophy.

Shoin found it doubtful, judging from the Japanese language ability of the interpreter he interacted with on a U.S. ship off the shores of Shimoda, that the Americans had the linguistic ability to write such a letter in classical Japanese. He had also seen an American survey vessel raise a white flag, and knew that in the international community, white flags were a sign of truce.

Perry's white flag episode appeared as a historical fact in a Japanese junior high school history textbook in 2001. The incident was criticized for fomenting anti-American sentiment by placing an emphasis on gunboat diplomacy, and led to a broader debate about historical understanding. Subsequent research has largely suggested that while a white flag was indeed presented to Japan, the accompanying letter was a fake.

Shoin tapped his own wisdom to understand how to deal with the international community. Through his travels he was able to accept the West, and as an educator, passionately advocated the importance of creating relationships with foreign powers based on equality. He came face to face with cultures different from his own and left behind a legacy from which people today have much to learn. ("Yoroku," a front-page column in the Mainichi Shimbun)