If you teach about World War II or want a primary resource from the Japanese perspective, check out Professor Sam Yamashita's book, "Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies: Selections from the Wartime Diaries of Ordinary Japanese." It is a collection of diaries and letters written by ordinary Japanese servicemen, civilians, women and children during the war that was translated by Professor Yamashita.

Professor Yamashita's lecture was very insightful regarding the beliefs and practices of the Shogunate.
His book entitled, "Leaves of Autumn...," as well as the other books he recommended, have
just been added to my list of new books to purchase.
In addition, the slides helped to connect the country of Japan to the reading passages.
Now, I am more excited than ever to visit this country!

What an exciting lecture! I particularly enjoyed the more gruesome details that we got into towards the end. The comparison he made to the Nihongi Kofun/mound being as grand a project as the Egyptian Pyramids was insightful.

I too was intrigued by clarifying the image of the bushido code to my students. I will have to read the "Women of Mito Domain" since my wife from Mito this would interesting and the Samurai house code book. I will see the movie Twilight Samurai soon too and watch Kurasawa movies again soon.

The part of the lecture on hilltop castles and flatland castles was excellent. Yamashita lectures were entertaining and his knowledge was very extensive.

This was a very excited and interesting lecture for me. I only know about this period of Japan from what I have seen in the movies. We are so eager in our culture to choose bits and pieces of other cultures to glorify in movies that we often miss the larger picture of these aspects to the whole culture of a society. Since most of our knowledge and thought processes are influenced by what we watch it is critical that we inform our students of misconceptions and try to get at the truth of some of these legends. Even though this is not part of my history course I can't wait to bring in this topic with my students. I can always use more ways to reach the boys in my class and this would be a topic they could sink their teeth into.

I also loved the comparisons of the castles. It solidifies in a clear way how the society was changing.

Up until now I have enjoyed all of the knowlegde we have recieved about China, however, it was fascinating to learn about Japan. It was interesting to learn about it from an account written by the Chinese. That small account did seem like a put down, but that probably was because there were some things the Chinese did not understand. The one thing that stands out is the equality between husband, wife, son, daughter, etc. I am fasinated by how women in Japan played a greater role in their culture. I am looking forward to reading the first novel ever written "The tale of Genji". (I'm waiting for my copy to come in).
This past week or so...I have found myself telling others all about the beginnings of the Japanese. It's just one of those history lessons that always gets pushed to the back. Therefore, most of us don't even understand how complex their language, culture, etc is...in fact, I see the resembles of their beginnings with America and how the culture becomes an extension of many cultures fused into one.

I liked the comparisons of blood types and finger prints as well. I had some idea of the importance of the “native Japanese” imperial family, but I didn’t really understand how much it shaded the reading of the country’s history. It seems that persistent myths are always difficult to shake. Weather it is mythology surrounding the Samurai, European Knights or Pocahontas, people believe the stories over the facts all the time.

Coincidentally, Prof. Yamashita's class was at the same time as alot of fodder for East Asia was going around water coolers and tea dispensers. everywhere. On the sports front, Japan defeated South Korea to win the World Baseball Classic tournament (again) in front of a raucous crowd at Dodger Stadium. Japan's baseball poster boy, Ichiro Suzuki (usually stoic, reserved, and disciplined...to samurai lengths?), opened up during the tournament and shared his feelings freely to the surprise of his teammates. I couldn't help notice the parallel between the idealized Ichiro and the idealized samuari. Perhaps they are both human after all.

On the political/military front, we had missile testing in North Korea (again). This was "the" news in Japan for a couple weeks (well, after celebrating their baseball victory). And I was reminded of asking my Japanese students during one of the last go-rounds with North Korea what they thought should be done to counter act proliferation of weapons there. The overwhelming majority of my students said that Japan should strike first to make sure North Korea doesn't have military leverage over Japan. This was a blow to my stereotype of the passive peace-loving Japanese. Perhaps they have more in common with America than meets the eye.