Lee,
the small man-made island in the harbor of Nagasaki is called Dejima or Deshima. It was constructed in 1634 as ordered by the Shogunate, and was first occupied by Portugese. In 1637 there was a uprising of Japanese converted by the Spanish and Portugese to Catholicism. The areas inhabited by the Japanese Catholics were pockets of resistance, and fearfull that they would obay to the pope instead of him, the shogun ordered that all foreigners should burn their own houses. The dutch were the only ones that did burn their houses, and helped crush the uprising. They were rewarded by becoming the only nation, next to the Chinese, to be allowed to trade with the Japanese. In 1641 the Shogun ordered all dutch to stay exclusively at Dejima. Dejima was a small man-made island, and therefore not considered to be Japanese soil. The Dutch had to adhere to stringent rules, were not allowed to go to the mainland (except for a yearly visit to the Shogun in Edo), and had to pay for all the Japanese guards and government officials. The Dutch were known for their science, and Rangaku, or study of the Dutch, was a way for the japanese to get to know the western world.
Because of the 400 year anniversary of the connection between Japan and Holland, there was a plan to restore Dejima to it's former glory. I believe that nowadays it's a sort of amusementpark, with all kind of Dutch history, like houses, street organs and even a real size replica of a VOC ship. Funny aint it
