I was amazed how similar the Ainu (formerly indigenous people} people of Japan and the Native American people were treated by their governments. Both attempted to assimilate their indigenous people into their societies by forcing them to give up their land and to be forced into different labor markets. Both cultures had to deal with high rate of alcoholism and poverty that was the result of the actions carried out by Japan and America. I find it interesting how different cultures have to deal with similar results of programs they attempt to enforce.

After reading about the atrocities committed by the Japanese to the civilians at Nanjing, China. I could not believe that they murdered thousands of Chinese civilians and then were not satisfied with their victory so the Japanese officers encouraged their soldiers to rape the women from China.  Then when they feared their reputation would be tarnished if this continued. They enslaved women from their colonies to act as sex slaves. No wonder Japan did not want to admit to these claims for so many years

This excerpt on women in Korean education is useful in anaylyzing gender relationships throughout history. This reading and a previous reading we completed on China, "the Bad Habits" could be incorporated in a Document Based Question. I think I would use Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women, Olympia De Gouge's Declaration of the Rights of Women, from the Enlightenment and French Revolution respsctively. I then would ask students to tie a commmon thread between the four readings and to analyze women's issues over time. Wollstonecraft, De Gouge's and Yim all challenged traditional notions of women as inferior, and incapable of learning.

I was unfamiliar with the events in Japan immediately World War 2, so it was insightful to read about the fate of Japanese people in the years after the war. Some were greeted with slavery and others were greeted with addiction. One of the most insightful aspects of the events that followed in Japan was certainly how Britain and the United States began to plot against the spread of communism in the East. It seems as though much of the policies aimed to destroy the influence of socialism and communism in particular rather truly restore stability to Japan.

There is also a documented account of Japanese officers having a head chopping contest.

Japan in the 1950’s promoted expansion and looked the other way when it can to polluting their natural resources. I did not know that they would become the most polluted nation on Earth. But I was impressed that they realized early through protests that they needed to enact laws and change their attitude to pollution.

By the late 70’s they were able to reduce a large amount of pollution that the generated and would become a much cleaner nation. I was impressed on how fast they were able to turn around their bad policies and become a much cleaner nation. It is not to late to work together to contain climate control.

I really appreciated these readings because of the lack of (any) Asian history in WWI and WWII in "traditional" and dominant history texts.  It's quite unfortunate how Eurocentric history education is in schools.  There are so many missed connections students can make about history due to the missing perspectives of the story.  

With that being said, chapter 21 discusses the influence of Western powers, white supremacy, and imperialism in Japan in the 20th century, and I could not stop contemplating about how I could incorporate these readings with future units about the Middle East.  I'm currently using texts from James Gelvin, a Middle Eastern historian at UCLA with my IB students, and I assigned them a reading that gives them a framework of understanding the development of "modernity" in the area during this same time period.  It would be interesting to engage students in a discussion about comparing and contrasting the development of Japan and a country from the Middle East during this time period.  

What role did white supremacy play in their development?  How did countries respond to "modernization"?  How did countries respond and interpret the "success" of European colonization and imperialism?  What role did academia, women, and media have in pushing new ideology?  

How exciting!