Point of View

The author of Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun is Rhoda Blumberg, an award winning children's book writer and historian. She has written a number of similar books, such as one covering the history of Lewis and Clark's expedition and a book about Captain Cook. The point of view of the book is entirely third-person. Blumberg writes about historical event in as detached a manner as she seems able. The challenge of writing such a book for children is that historical interpretation is unavoidable when doing history of any kind. As a result, Blumberg's biases fill the text. The book is clearly written from an American perspective and seems to take a particularly pro-American approach to Commodore Perry.

It must be remarked that many historians have regarded Perry as a representative of American Imperialism who forced radical social change upon the Japanese, who were...