Reflection: Session 5 with Dr Yamashita – (March 20)
We were introduced to second country in this seminar on East Asian region. It was done by Samuel Yamashita, originally from Japan and currently professor at Pomona College. He peppered the presentation with many personal anecdotes. It those stories like how his mother, who was highly educated and later introduced him to the things of interest in the American mainstream.
Most of the first part of this two- session was about the Meiji Revolution. We learned some interesting facts about Japan in early days. These include:
* In the early days, Japan was closed to the world, except the Dutch, Chinese, and Korea.
* They were allowed to do trade only from Nagasaki port area
* Till 1603, Japan was made up of about 300 feudal lords; the Tokugawa Regime, with establishment at Edo (? present day Tokyo) was head of the country. Each feudal lord had a castle and local responsibility and contributed for the general fund as required by the Tokugawa Regime.
DO YOU KNOW THAT:
* Shogun – means ‘general’ in short – in full it means ‘barbaric, dueling, general’
*In 1753, the first American ships were arrived at Japanese coast, headed by Commodore Matthew Perry.
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