teaching about the recent past

[Anonymous]

Thank you - I will get this book!

Which reminds me, if there are any books that anyone has read/seen/purchased that have a good solid historical account of Asian history, I would truly appreciate a reference. As an English teacher, most of my resources have to be in some form of literature. An excellent history book will be a wonderful thing for cross-content teaching. For instance, "King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild is an incredible account of Belgium's role in the colonizing of the Congo.

So, taking any and all suggestions at [email protected]

Thanks,
Susie

[Anonymous]

The August 14, 2008 issue of The New York Review of Books includes an article by Christian Caryl entitled “The Other North Korea” that surveys five books recently published about North Korea. The article itself attempts to create a concise picture of North Korean society, drawing on the images from these books of government censorship (and its inability to sway perceptive citizens), famine, and defectors. Since North Korea shares such a long, remote border with China, many dissidents attempt to flea into that neighboring country. Unfortunately, “countless numbers of North Koreans [are] … summarily deported by the Chinese authorities to certain punishment back home.” Sounds a bit like the southern border of the United States.

The url for the article will only allow you to see the opening paragraph of the article; however, that opening does list the novels Caryl discusses:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=21713

As a postcript, Caryl recommends a newly released film, Crossing directed by the South Korean filmmaker Kim Tae-kyun, that "depicts in heartrending detail the desperate eforts of ordinary North Koreans to grasp at the straw of a better life by risking the trip to China." I tried, unsuccessfully, to find a source to purchase this on DVD.

[Anonymous]

I agree that textbooks are designed to lie to our students. Some of the lies are mere distortions while others are bold faced. I like to challenge the textbook in class and active ask my students to challenge even what have to say. Last year I taught about fifteen minutes of a totally made up history lesson on Abraham Lincoln before one of my students raised his hand and asked me when I was going to stop lying to them. After that they real lesson began and we had a class discussion about authority and believe what one is told and how to respectfully question authority and the status quo.

[Anonymous]

There are many people who still remember clearly about Japan's brutal colonization of Korea and the unspeakable Japanese atrocities throughout Asia during the pre and post WWII era. The horrific cases of the Rape of Nanjing and the enslavement of 250,000 "comfort women" as sex slaves for the Japanese imperial army before and during WWII are just two of the most infamous examples.

Japan to this date has not set the history straight. They have distorted many historical facts in their textbooks. They have not put much effort at all in reconciling with their Asian neibhbors in part because they have become the economic power in Asia and in a world in which they don't have to face the uncomfortable truth. As a result, the historical hostility against Japan throughout Asia has not come to an end yet, especially for the peoples of older generations.

It is true that colonization and war are ugly and no nation can apologize for everything that happened in the past. But what would make a difference is that they make a sincere effort by setting their history straight in their textbooks. Until then, Japan will continue to be seen by many Asian countries, and others, equal to those who deny that the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust ever happened.

[clay dube]

Michael Kort. The Columbia Guide to Hiroshima and the Bomb.
Columbia Guides to American History and Cultures Series. New York Columbia University Press, 2007. 464 pp. $46.50 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-231-13016-5.

This sounds like an invaluable resource for anyone who teaches modern world or American history. Here's a review that was posted to the History of Diplomacy discussion list:

http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=15573

Here's a portion of the review:
Most innovative of the three is the reference work, Michael Kort's Columbia Guide to Hiroshima and the Bomb. It joins at least a half-dozen other titles in the same series on a wide variety of historical topics. Other reference works and document readers of course exist, but none tries to do what the Columbia Guide does.[1] It begins with a seventy-five-page "Historical Narrative," accessible to the lay reader, which briefly describes the debate over Hiroshima and then traces events from the launching of the Manhattan Project through the Japanese surrender. Part 2 devotes thirty-five pages to ten "Key Questions and Interpretations," such as "Was the Policy of Unconditional Surrender Justified?" Part 3, "Resources," uses thirty pages to provide a chronology, glossaries of terms and names, and a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. The last section presents over two hundred pages of primary documents arranged in seven sections: American civilian documents; American military documents; summaries of Japanese diplomatic cable traffic obtained via MAGIC codebreaking; Japanese government and military documents and diary entries; Japanese surrender documents; key sections of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, including portions of interrogations of Japanese officials; and postwar statements by Japanese officials collected by the U.S. Army historical division.

[clay dube]

Chinese, Japanese, and Korean scholars tried to put together a joint textbook.

The Associated Press reported on the results of the effort:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/01/AR2010020101131.html

The article begins:
"Japan acknowledged its wartime military caused tremendous damage to China in the "Rape of Nanking" massacre, but the two sides failed again to agree on the death toll."

Here's an LA Times opinion piece about the effort while it was still underway:

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct/30/world/fg-textbook30

Here's a scholarly article in History and Memory about a 2002 effort:
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/history_and_memory/v021/21.1.wang.html
53 members from the three countries. A section of the article looks at victim/victor narratives vs. reflective narratives.

Here's a 2005 Danwei report on this effort:
http://www.danwei.org/books/a_joint_approach_to_history.php
Here's a 2006 article by a Korean scholar on the China/Korea textbook battle:
http://hnn.us/articles/21617.html

Here's the Northeast Asia History Foundation's page on the Korea/Japan issues:
http://english.historyfoundation.or.kr/?sub_num=141

Here's an out of date, but still interesting Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs page on historical representation/debate.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/POLICY/postwar/index.html

Japan Times report on the release of reports in December:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100121f1.html

[Anonymous]

KUNMING: Six children have died and another injured after they inhaled toxic gas while playing in a deserted mining cave in Zhenxiong County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, a local official confirmed Tuesday.

Zhang Jin, the county government chief, told Xinhua Tuesday seven children, all aged around 10, ventured into the cave at about 6:30 p.m. Monday.

Zhang said three died on the spot. Four others were sent immediately to hospital, but three of them failed to be revived.

The only survivor, an 11-year-old girl, has come around. She told rescuers the seven had taken a flashlight to explore inside the cave. She did not go far into the cave before she fainted.

"The cave had been deserted for dozens of years. It is full of poisonous gas," said Zhang.

The county has provided 20,000 yuan (US$2,926) compensation to the families of the dead each and covered the injured girl's medical costs, the country government chief added.

He said the county government has ordered all deserted mining caves be sealed off in response to the tragedy.

The county's police and safety authorities are still investigating the accident.

[Anonymous]

I just added this to my Amazon.com Wishlist, up to $55 now.. It sounds like THE authority on the decision to drop the bombs. I am hoping it is as "lay" as the review says so I can use excerpts in class. Sounds like the discussion topics in Part 2 are great writing prompts or debate topics.[Edit by="agalloway on Feb 24, 12:36:26 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Is this a future lesson for us as a country? Would we possess the humility to admit we were or might have been wrong? Could we, the United States, both government and the people (or at least "public opinion") bring ourselves to accept responsibility for a mistake?

[Anonymous]

we can always focus on the highlights of late.. Olympics.. Beijing, Seoul... and compare these two to the recent Vancouver games.. apples/oranges... summer/winter....

Demilitarized zone and American journalists and the subsequent negotiations... dig deeper into the concept of fair press, censorship, and freedom to seek truth

plenty of current events to tie in on a regular basis to share with students...javascript:insertsmilie('%20%20')

[clay dube]

The Japan Society has many wonderful web resources available. Later this week, they offer a live webcast that teachers and students are invited to participate in. You can submit questions as well. Details are below and a beautiful flyer is attached.

A-Bomb Survivor Panel Discussion & Live Webcast: Share Your Voice with Panelists from Hiroshima
Friday, May 21, 2010, 1:30–3 pm EST

Live Webcast at http://www.japansociety.org/hibakusha

Co-organized by Japan Society Education Programs, Hibakusha Stories & United Nations Cyberschoolbus

Students have the rare opportunity to hear a select group of survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima, called hibakusha in Japanese, give first-hand accounts of their experiences. Select local school groups will attend the program in person, which will also be broadcast live on the web and available free of charge to schools nationwide. There will be an opportunity for students to e-mail questions for the hibakusha ahead of time and during the event via http://www.japansociety.org/hibakusha.

Only school groups may reserve seats at the Japan Society auditorium. Space is limited. For more information, e-mail [email protected] or call (212) 715-1275.

Teachers interested in teaching about the atomic bomb will also find useful our webcast of Mr. Masahiro Sasaki, whose sister has been immortalized in the story of Sadako and 1000 cranes, and Mr. Tsugio Ito, who had the misfortune of losing his brother at Hiroshima and his son at 9/11. The subtitles webcasts is of them speaking to American high school and middle school teachers last July, and is also described on the attached PDF. It can be found here:
http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/content.cfm/from_hiroshima_to_new_york

Robert Fish, the Japan Society's education director, shared this info. I highly recommend checking out this opportunity and other Japan Society resources.

[clay dube]

The 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War is a month away. Here in the US, it's Memorial Day weekend, a time to remember the sacrifices made by soldiers and others during wartime. More than 36,000 US soldiers died in the war (33,000 in battle). South Korean forces suffered 58,000 combat deaths. Also on the UN side, the UK, Turkey, Canada, Australia, France, the Philippines, and South Africa suffered combat deaths. North Korean combat deaths were estimated at 215,000, while Chinese deaths were put at 114,000 by the Chinese authorities and over 400,000 by the US. Total casualties (dead, wounded) were over 1.1 million. Civilian casualties may be twice that many.

An international investigation has concluded that a North Korean submarine used a torpedo to sink a South Korean naval vessel. Some 46 were killed when the ship went down. The six party talks over the North Korean nuclear program are at a standstill. The two Koreas are exchanging charges and suspending various ties.

Have you been talking with students about any of these developments? What questions have students raised? Please share your thoughts and experiences.

References/Resources:
NCTA partner Stanford Program on Intercultural Education unit, Uncovering North Korea, includes a dvd copy of the outstanding documentary State of Mind, focusing on preparations for the mass games. http://spice.stanford.edu/catalog/uncovering_north_korea/ (table of contents available for download, unit package is $70)

Congressional Research Service report on American wartime casualties:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf

Korea Society, Korean-US Relations as Seen Through Documents (lesson plan for high school)
http://www.koreasociety.org/download_document/397_bohs_10_korean-u.s._relations_through_documents.pdf.html

Asia Society Jan. 2010 discussion with Barbara Demick (LA Times reporter) on her book, Nothing to Envy about life in North Korea (video and a text summary):http://www.asiasociety.org/policy-politics/international-relations/us-asia/barbara-demick-nothing-envy

Columbia University list of Asia Society/Korea Society units on the Korean War for download:
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/tps/1950_ko.htm#war

[clay dube]

Many Americans know of the "rape of Nanjing" from the work of Iris Chang. She and other writers drew heavily on the diaries of foreign residents in Nanjing for their descriptions of the atrocities committed by invading Japanese soldiers.

John Rabe, host of the KPCC program "Off Ramp," delighted in speaking this week with Florian Gallenberger, the German filmmaker who has produced a new film, entitled "John Rabe," on this tragedy. That film is based on the journals and letters of Rabe. Rabe was a Siemens executive and a Nazi party member, who wound up doing much to save many Chinese lives in winter 1937.

We screened a wonderful documentary, Nanking, last January (click here for details). That film mixed dramatic readings from Rabe and others with film and interviews with survivors and - remarkably - some of the soldiers.

The new film features Ulrich Tukur as Rabe and Steve Buscemi as an American doctor. Rabe was a Siemens executive long resident in China.

The KPCC page has a playable/downloadable audio story and the film's trailer. Check it out at:
http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2010/06/05/john-rabe-on-john-rabe-with-florian-gallenberger/

[clay dube]

Mongolia is not a big country, population-wise, but I guess it is big enough to have the full range of craziness:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/02/mongolia-far-right

Mongolian neo-nazis , yes, salute and swastika, and all, hate Chinese. One of the believers is quoted as saying, "We have to make sure that as a nation our blood is pure. That's about our independence."

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