Whoa, a normal chapter? Is the world ending?
Anyway, I'm surprised author know about Perry's Black Ship
Yeah Perry and his battleship threatening a barrage if Japan didn't put an end to their isolationist policy and let them in is a major historical milestone in Japanese history lol its taught in history class and in history textbooks.
There's no way they wouldn't know about it lol if anything, it's actually more of a footnote in American history books and classes compared to being a major moment in Japan.
It was the reason Japan ended their isolationist policy. Legally. But collectively, all the people hated it and still acted like it was still in effect, because they were threatened into dropping it. Before then, only Dutch merchants had permission, and even then, they were only allowed on one specific port that they were allowed to land on, but couldn't go beyond, and even then, they were only tolerated and not welcomed because they brought new everything from the rest of the world, from trinkets to culture and fads lol
As for America, it's just a drop in the bucket of the many times the US bullied/threatened to use force for the sake of gaining something from another country with inferior technological/military might.
From what I remember, "Perry appearing off the coast of Japan in his battleship, resulting in the opening of Japan's borders, and an end to their isolationist policy" was literally only that one line somewhere in my high school history textbook, and nothing more.
You pretty much had to seek out more details yourself in other books or something to find out more cause the textbooks didn't see it as important enough to even memorize the date or even the names or year/era lol