[Cynthia Stults]

One thing that struck me during both the readings and the lecture was that of the Japanese government's relationship with Japanese businesses. During WWII, both the U.S. and Japan had much more governmental involvement with business, in order to better support the war effort. However, the U.S. changed that relationship pretty soon after the war ended, but Japan continued, and even strengthened the governmental influence and involvement with businesses. The government determined which industries they wanted/needed to be successful (electronics, construction, automobiles)and gave them an unfair advantage. The Japanese government gave lots of capital to its banks, who then lent out that money to preferred companies and industries, even if they weren't creditworthy. This strategy definitely helped Japan become a major exporter to the United States and an economic powerhouse, but these practices could not be sustained and then they experienced the "bubble economy" and as we experienced, bubbles always burst and Japan has only started to again grow economically. I suspect that those raging capitalists would argue that this makes the case for the government to stay out of business. What do you all think?

[Cynthia Stults]

One of many things that struck me during Dr. Yamashita's lecture was that the architects of the Pearl Harbor attacks had been educated and spent a great deal of time in the United States. This was incrediby surprising to me, as I would assume (you know what they say about assuming things...), that once you had spent time with a group of people, it would humanize them as a group, and to go back and design an attack meant to destroy and kill would be morally impossible. It is always easier to hate and demonize a group that you have never had personal contact with. This makes me wonder if this is just part of the compartmentalization that many military personnel do on a regular basis, or was their experience in the States so distasteful or negative that they had no problems attacking the country where they received a portion of their education?

[Cynthia Stults]

Sara, I thought your observation and questions about the role of the United States in Japan's economic rebuilding were spot on and I found myself having similar questions. I suspect, that as with most things, it may be a combination of all of those ideas. WWII exhausted the world and it would make sense that the United States would use any influence they had to avoid the issues that contributed to WWII, and the spread of Communism. I think as well that the greater exposure to Japanese culture and goods, the greater the desire for these goods and cultural practices. We saw that this was reciprocal as Japan was incorporating military technology, architecture, style, and food from Western culture, while at the same time, Western society was excited about aspects of Japanese culture and we incorporated aspects of their culture.  

[Cynthia Stults]

I thought that the afternoon activity was a fantastic example of how we can truly make learning "come alive" and make history experiential for our students. The idea that students will need to be prepared to defend their position within a group setting is a fantastic way to get some of those students who loathe to do any sort of preparation for classes better engaged. There is definitely peer pressure underlying this activity- if I'm not prepared, my team will not perform as well as they could have and we might look foolish and then it's my fault and then they'll blame me. Even as adults, I do not think that we did enough preparation as a team outside of class. This was evident when individuals within groups seemed to be promoting totally opposite ideas for "saving China". When I implement this into my classroom, I think at least at first, to give groups some class time to discuss and plan, but eventually, after students become more familiar with the process, see if students are able to gain sufficient understanding of the given problem that they would be able to engage as an individul without the benefit of a team. In preparing for this experience, students need to research not only their perspective, but have enough knowledge of the other perspective in order to know how to combat possible arguments from those other perspectives. Another possible extension activity would be to have students shift perspectives and defend an opposing point of view. Not only does this help develop deeper understanding of content, but also (hopefully) help them to develop the idea that they need to understand all sides of an issue.

[Cynthia Stults]

Confession time (I feel like there are more and more of those with every course session and every reading): when I had learned about Japan's role in WWII and especially the kamikaze pilots, I had wrongfully assumed that these pilots were truly devoted to the Japanese cause for entering and continuing the war. I had in my mind, hate-filled, vengeful pilots just aching to cause casualties, proud and grateful to die for their country. Through the readings and the lecture, I now realize that is NOT the case. Many in Japan were against the war, and, worse, that these kamikaze pilots had not volunteered for this task, but were conscripted out of universities and were more than likely not wanting to participate. Reading the diary of the pilot and seeing how they were doing anything to take their minds off of what they had to do, as well as hearing about the fights these pilots would get into while waiting for their one and only flight, was incredibly enlightening, but also incredibly sad to me. I am also reminded that I need to view historical events and their players through multiple perspectives before I assign motives and even judgments about events and their players. Even more important is that I teach my students to view all events through multiple perspectives, not just through their own experiences. 

[Cynthia Stults]

I was entirely ignorant of Japan's occupation of Korea. When the Japanese teacher in Lost Names apologizes and says that the British didn't even ask that those they ruled over in India to change their names, and how the children were physically punished if they used the wrong name was striking. The closest connection I could make was that of slaves in the Southern United states, in which the slaves were given names by their masters and took on their last name. This really made me question as to why it was so important to the Japanese that the Koreans change their names. Our name defines who we are. When Dr. Jung-Kim revealed that Koreans don't change their name even when they marry, it made even more sense. I suspect that the Japanese thought that if they were able to take away the Koreans' names, that eventually they would entirely submit to the will of the Japanese.

In When my Name was Keoko, the uncle goes to change the flag and name of the Korean gold medal marathon finisher on the newspapers. When he appears very willing to suffer the violent consequences of his actions, it very much reminded me of John Proctor in The Crucible, when he admits that he cannot falsely confess to his supposed crimes, because he must sign his name to the confession and his name is all he has, it made me realize that the connection to our names is a universal theme.  

[Cynthia Stults]

Reading the two primary sources that outlined the missive to King George III and then the treaty after the Opium Wars was incredibly insightful, but led to some questions. In the first document, the emperor was incredibly prideful about the greatness of his country and how there was no need for British people to exist there and possibly taint it with their culture. The sense one gets reading it, is that he is a kindly grandfather, giving the little grandchildren only tiny little sweets, because he's so nice, instead of the larger, more substantial meal that they are asking for. It is apparent that the emperor, having not sent his own emissaries abroad, is unaware of British military might and influence. This led me to wonder, if he had been more accepting to the requests of King George III, would he have learned more about Britain's place as a world power, and possibly have given them more trading benefits? Could the Opium Wars, and the huge losses China incurred (including Hong Kong), have been avoided. 

When one isolates themselves from the rest of the world (either physically, or in this case, culturally), it is easy to assume that your country is stronger and mightier than all the rest and that all of your cultural, religious, and political practices are the ideal. Everyone knows the old saying about assumptions.......

[Cynthia Stults]

Dennis, I am totally onboard with your ideas. In 4th grade, it's all about California and I LOVED the idea of comparing both the size of the East Asian countries to California, along with their populations. I think it would be enlightening for the students to try the exercise where they stand on the newspaper to get a feel for how crowded some of the larger cities are too. 

[Cynthia Stults]

This article definitely shed some light into some of my Chinese students' behaviors in class. They are much more comfortable in math where typically there is a right answer and a wrong answer, but even if I offer them options as for how to solve the problems, they are uncomfortable and ask me which is the right one for them to use. In language arts, when discussing (simple) texts and making inferences about characters and themes and giving opinions, it definitely takes them longer to develop answers, than if I ask them to sequence events from the story. Their behaviors make a lot more sense now.

[Cynthia Stults]

I second all that has been said above, but I would also like to add how surprising it was that people whose families have been living in Japan for nearly a century are still considered foreigners without voting rights. I would hope that more and more people would speak up as I would find it maddening to live in an area where "foreigners" like myself make up a significant portion of the population, but yet have no say as to how my community was run or governed. I almost hate to say it about the United States' own immigration and naturalization policy, but if born here, you are instantly a citizen and granted the right to vote. "Foreigners" born on Japanese soil are not afforded such a right. It gives a bit of comfort knowing we aren't the worst about voting rights.

[Cynthia Stults]

Hello new Saturday/Monday Night Friends!

I'm Cynthia Stults and I currently teach 4th grade at Warner Avenue Elementary, just east of UCLA (lots of Bruin fans out there). Before teaching I worked in the performing arts, so I'm always looking for opportunities to integrate arts into the curriculum. Social studies and cultural learning are great opportunities for arts integration. In the last 3 years, all of my English Learners have been from China and Korea, as their parents come as visiting professors at UCLA or USC or come for advanced training from either school. I adore these kiddos, but I don't know a lot about their culture, and cultural norms, so I'm hoping that learning about their culture and heritage will help me find better ways to connect with them, and also bring some history and culture from their homelands into my classroom, so their classmates can get to know them better too.

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