Japan closed its doors to foreigners for over two hundred years due to fears of religious and political instability, and the prohibition of Christianity was enforced until 1873. Drawing on an impressive array of English and Japanese sources, Ion investigates a crucial era in the history of Japanese-American relations--the formation of Protestant missions. He reveals that the transmission of values and beliefs was not a simple matter: missionaries and Christian laymen persisted in the face of open hostility and served as important liasons between East and West.