Session 4 readings, 9/25

[cgao]

Below are the readings for session 4 on Japan: War, Defeat, and Occupation. The presenter is Professor Samuel Yamashita from Pomona College. 

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Rick Steil]

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.

[Rick Steil]

I was blown away when reading about despair of the soldiers and people of Japan after the war. I did not think about all the soldiers stranded all over the world. Some people were sent to camps in Russia where they were raped and killed. The damage did not stop when the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. The people scarred from the bombing were considered pariahs. The economy was at a standstill and supplies short. This article really opened my eyes to the devastation that occurs to the losing side in modern warfare.

[Rick Steil]

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

[Amir Osterweil]

Could you please post the sources where are readings are coming from? It would be helpful to know the sources if I use excerpts in my classes. Thanks

[Amir Osterweil]

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.

[Amir Osterweil]

I gained a new perspective on Korean occupation in this reading. It is useful as a case study in explaining imperialism especially since it involves Japan, the non-Western imperial power. It helped me to undeststand in greater detail, Russia'a and Japan's interest in Korea before the Russo-Japanses War. The reading provided a more detailed explanation of outside influence in Korea which helped me better understanding the outbreak of the war. I also thought it was intersting to read that some think of the Japanese occupation in a positive light. Generally my experience in Korea has been, that Koreans view the occupation as largely a negative occurance ad demonize the Japanese.

[Jonathan Tam]

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.

[Amir Osterweil]

One thing that struck me in the Empire and War reading was the hypocrisy of the League of Nations. The reading mentions that Japan was censured when it invaded Manchuria, yet nothing happened to Italy when it invaded Ethiopia in 1936, one year prior. The pleas of Halle Salasian, the emperor of Ethiopia where ignored.  One could interpret  this a racist double standard, it’s OK for a European nation to take over another nation, but not as Asian nation. I would expect this to have been used as a justification for the Pan-Asian Asian vision the Japanese militarists held, since the reading states that one of the goals was to overcome racism.

[Amir Osterweil]

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

[Rick Steil]

It was really fascinating to read about how the Japanese Imperialism movement was heavily influenced by the Western collapse of the stock market in 1929. Japan believed that they could overcome the dysfunctional west and become a leader for the Eastern Bloc to assume a prominent place on the world theatre. Japan then made a major mistake in siding with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, which led to their defeat in WWII and years of economic despair. It is interesting on how the failure of ones enemy can lead to mistakes, attempting to benefit from these failures. Human nature leads us to try to take advantage of the failures of others. 

[Rick Steil]

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.

[Jasmine Wang]

I haven't seen this, but might be of some interest to you. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3843282/

[Jasmine Wang]

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! 

[Cindy Nguyen]

Ebrey "Rise of Modern" gives light to the long and complicating history between Japan and Korea. High school history books rarely mentions Japan's planned alliance with Great Britain to achieve dominance in Asia and to be on parity with these great Western powers.  I agree with Amir about using excerpts and presenting to the class as an example that not all imperializing countries were Westerners.  These excerpts will provide students with a clearer picture of Japan and their attitude towards imperialism.

[Author]

Posts