Not only was Japan engrossed in world affairs involving unrest with everyday lives of their citizens during the early twentieth century, but United States was, as well.  The early 1920s ushered in European immigrants including Irish and Germans, with Southern Europeans coming a little later.  Simiar to Japan's modern rise, Americans were experencing growing pains.  Ebrey discusses that workers were growing dissent among the working class.  One of the examples he used was the miners in Manchuria.  As an American History teacher, an assigned read is Upton Sinclair's, "The Jungle" which chronicles an immigrant family living in a tenement, a single room housing twelve to fifteen members of multi-generations doing their best to "survive".  Japan experienced similar issues involving overcrowding and increasing population.  Sinclair's protagonist works in a meat packing and processing slaughterhouse (an image is above)where he experiences long hour work days, usually around 15 and poor, dangerous, and unsanitary conditions.  The Japanese miner had a similar existance.  In my class, I will be asking students to draw parallels with Japan and the US during the beginning of the 20th century to highlight the rise of Japan and America.

According to tge handout titled, 20th century Japan, the United States substantially trumped Japan's warship tonnage by a significant number. For instance, in 1880 the US produced 169,000 tons of warships, where as Japan only produced 15,000. However, by looking ahead at the year 1914, we are able to see the rise of Japan's economy fueled by the manufacturing sector. According to the chart, by 1914 Japan rivaled the US's production by 700,000 tons to that of the United States--679,000 tons. 
The question then arises - WHY did Japan have to modernize, jumpstart their economy and lead a mass overhaul on their societal stratification? Part of the answer to that question can be found in the chart found in the same handout. In the year 1868, Japan's deficit was at $69 million, and in the span of 12 years skyrocketed to $380 million. 

Saturday's session on the shaping of modern Japan taught me much about the country's complicated history with imperialism. For centuries, Japan experienced a very closed-border policy (with the exception of China, Korea, and Holland) under the rule of a warrior elite. Everything about Japanese government would change when several Western steam-powered battle ships arrived on Japan's east coast. The bewildering display of power and innovation humbled this nation to the advancements of an industrialized world beyond that of Asia. Decades of reflection would follow as citizens wrestled with the embrace of modernity at the cost of traditional values. Generations of leaders would soon adopt Western philosophy, science, and culture in various symbolic displays of power. By the 20th century, Japan would become the imperialist animal it was originally intimidated by. Japan upset the Western world by defeating the Soviet Union for control of Korea. It would later expand into Nanjing in a furious and inhumane spurt of force that would leave scars on the Asian world for decades to come. In an infamous and audacious plot, the Japanese military would launch a surprise attack on the "Sleeping Giant" of the global conflict of World War 2. In an astoundingly successful ambush, the Japanese managed to devastate the U.S. navy on its own Western front. The fury of the Japanese military would end 4 years later with 2 bombs that would re-settle the Western dominance of the globe with the first nuclear weapons. Although battlecries were still printed some time after the devestation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the capitualing governement would quickly align with the U.S in hopes of one day returning to the world stage as a significant influencer. As we consume Japanese-engineered products and culture as never before, the relatively small island in South East Asia continues to manifest its power and ideas in the story of humanity. 

I found the overarching theme of imperialism--its reasons and effects--interesting, especially the fact that one group of people came to see another as more barbaric or less human than the other. I would like to know if in Europe, imperialism had the same effect on how a group of nationalists saw the ones they dominated. Japan's treatment of Koreans and Chinese as inferior is unusual in that within the same continent, there was more contention about which culture was greater. Although without a doubt, Japan was definitely more industrialized and technologically advanced, the treatment of another's traditions and culture as more civilized seems to be a trait of imperialism that I have not seen within Europe--but of course, this is coming from my limited knowledge of European history. 

Another takeaway is that this session parallels the current unit of hysteria in my ELA classroom: Sprouting from a fear of communism, people were beaten, interrogated, and sometimes killed for their affiliation with communism. This relates to The Crucible, hysteria, McCarthyism, and the Red Scare. It would be interesting to see how my students compare and contrast these events in America with the events in Asia. 

I am amazed at the resilience of the Japanese people despite what theyve gone through in history. They've managed to rise from the rables of the conflict- both internally and extenrally. They even managed to have their imperialism somewhat welcomed by some leaders of asia- the alleged collaborators in their country. Their geographical size and it topoggraphy did not stop them from emerging as an economic giant. On the contrary, they learned and enhance scinece and technology even from the west and managed to be on the top of it. Even now after being considered a formidable foe by the US, it is considered as a important economic ally. Even Japanese americans who were persecuted in the US during the WWII were able to rise in upper echelons of the american society. 

I would attribute this to the values and discipline of the Japanese people. Most Japanese people I met would not even attempt learn english. If you want to deal with them you have to learn and communicate with them in their language. Their "harakiri" is another evidence of how they value honor.

I could not agree more to the overwhelmingly resiliency of the Japanese people during the 19th century.  As it was shown on Dr. Dube's presentation slide the first session, Japan was featured as an overlay on top of the Eastern United States, in particular, the east coast.  As he explained, our two countries, eastern region of the US is laterally and longitutely the same as Japan.  This being said, the climate is relatively the same throughout the year.  Having said this, right now we are having snow in Pennsylvania where my family hails, and it is difficult to get around with the inclement and snowy weather and all the things one must do to live and work.  One must resiliency to manage in these circumstances, but the Japanese went far above basic survival measures during this highly tumultuous time in their history.  Persecution was highly evident throughout WWII, and this Asian country persisted and now, considered one of our top allies in the twenty-first century.