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AnonymousI was able to incorporate this in my classroom recently; we are learning about the "Age of Exploration" and I was able to discuss the Dutch and their preferential treatment by Japan due to their agreement not to attempt to convert the Japanese...ironically enough, on the TE of the textbook, they even mentioned the Japanese having to step on the picture of Jesus Christ (in my 3 years of teaching, I never noticed this information!)...
AnonymousI agree with our classmate above-- one of the most interesting part of this session was the discussion of the Japanese government's tour to help them model their government-- there's so much to be learned by visiting others and adapting different models to your own situation! I wish our school administrators would utilize this model a little bit more to get some good ideas from others about how to make our sites better!
-Karen
AnonymousAnother aspect of this session that I thought was really interesting was the fact that Professor Pitelka argued that cheap labor, mainly through women, was the key to Japan's industrial success.
While I think exploiting workers is an egregious practice, it sometimes seems like such a double-standard for industrialized countries such as the US to chastise developing countries for exploiting their workers, when our industrialization, and that of many other developed countries like Britain and Japan, was built on the backs of mistreated workers...
-Karen
AnonymousSpent an illuminating hour exploring and thinking of ways to use the MIT Black Ships web site. It just barely fits in to the 7th grade history curriculum, so it's not that easy to use for my purposes. However, I am going to try to incorporate it into the end of the Samurai chapter to illustrate the attitude of the Shogunate against western influence. In particular the paintings and prints will be an excellent basis for a Power Point showing the demonization of the people from the west. That and the photograph of the the samurai and his wife will provide additional insight into the thinking of that social structure.
I was impressed by the number of illustrations that still exist of the ships and of the controversy that surrounded them. The creators of this site did such an imaginative presentation that I'm inspired to incorporate as much of the style as I can into my power point presentation.[Edit by="mseeger on Jun 23, 12:20:01 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousWow what a lecture.... in my opinion Japan is the asian country that you really love to hate. On one hand I am astonished by their heritage and development, and on the other, I am totally apalled by their ruthless behavior. Aside from that, Japan's story is one of great ideas. Why not close ourselved up? It made sense until Admiral Perry showed up, but even then the massive social change that ensued was incredible. Long story short, in 1894, Japan is the most powerful non-western power period. Fights with Russia, Korea, China, you name it. So perhaps the most interesting point that Prof Pitelka makes is that they are simply excercises practices modeled by europeans..... WOW....never thought of it in that way.. Great hisotry and even better insight! (a)
AnonymousHere's a really good article on the samurai. It actually an excerpt of a book entitled Warriors of Japan by Paul Varley - Warriors of Japan as portrayed in the war tales. Very good preview at this site. Gives a great deal of the book at no cost. It has very detailed information, well organized, and student accessable. This site is in Google Books which has been an enormous help to me in the last year. I'm sure I'm the last to know of it, but if anyone else is as remiss as me check it out. Here's the address:
AnonymousBoth session were well worth it. Once again the book The Women of Mito Domain was recommended, also recommended by Prof Yamashita, possibly summer reading for me. I particularly enjoyed Prof Pitelka analysis of family structures in China, Korea, and Japan as well illustrated with the example of the word "uncle" usage in Chinese.
The website is great and the information he gave about the exploitation of women as key to Japan's industrial growth. I didn't know about the research mission that Japan made.
AnonymousJapan was most definitley mimicking Western powers when it undertook to colonize East Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. The way I see it is that Japan wanted a larger sphere of influence, and more importantly, felt as if they were entitled to it. Deplorable?-- yes. Unique to Japan?-- of course not. Much of East Asia was already colonized by the British, the Dutch, the French, and the Americans. Japan upset the apple cart and paid a heavy price for it, only to reap the rewards of defeat at the hands of the US during the second half of the 20th century.
But to dwell on Japan's agression (love to hate) is to hold Japan to a higher standard than all these other countries. Empire building through conquest has been with us for thousands of years. So let's not excuse Japan's actions, but let's not pretend they (or Europeans) started it all either. This stuff has run in our veins for a long time.
AnonymousThanks to mlloyd on the background information about why/how Japan choose sides during WWII. I recently tought the novel Night, and prior to beginning the book my students were brainstorming all the information they remembered about WWII, and we were mapping it on the board. While listing the "sides", the question came up about how and why Japan wished to be connected to Italy and Germany. Honesty, I did not have a good answer then, but the posting to this site helped clarify things!
AnonymousI took a ton of notes on this session. Morgan Pitelka is a great speaker and I learned a great deal about the Tokugawa Shongunate. I learned about Tokugawa Layasu (1542-1616) and Shogun (1603). During the Yedo Era, the warlord dispersed his families in military check points to block access to the Yedo domain. This politically savvy warlord tried to keep the peace by giving his enemies (other warlords) huge domains that are very far from Tokugawa.
One of my favorite parts of Pitelka's lecture was about the status system. Prior to the Tokugawa, citizens could escape their caste, but under Tokugawa rule, they had to stay in the same village they were born in for their entire lives unless they received special permission from the ruler. I found it interesting that the Samurai were among those of the highest status, but in the peaceful age of the Tokugawa, they acted as bureaucrats. Beneath them in status (in descending order) were agriculturalists, artisans, merchants, followed by the Hinin and Eta. Generally people were born into a grouping and had to stay in it their entire life. There were various "gaps" in the caste system that included monks and doctors.
Also of great interest was the notion of sakoku, "closed country." Japan closed its borders to the outside world. They were vehemently against foreign intrusion during the Tokugawa era while earlier in the 16th century, foreigners were allowed to roam freely about Japan.
Anonymousmlloyd's response embodies a message that comes up when my 10th graders read Julius Caesar. Caesar sought to take over the world and was cruel in his conquests. But when my students read about him, it is important to realize that his military endeavor, although agonizing to much of the world, is certainly not unique. By incorporating the study of East Asian conquests into my future lessons, I can give my students a more holistic view of history. As they read farther into Caesar, they will get a sense of the huge price he paid. As I incorporate the history of Japan into the unit, they will see how history repeats itself and how the themes associated with Caesar's tragedy echoed in history throughout the eras of many warlords on a worldwide scale.
As you point out, I too will try to help my students understand that to dwell on the aggression of a warlord is to hold that individual to a higher standard that the warlords of many other countries and empires throughout history. As is the case with Japan, Caesar didn't create violent military takeovers. Such violence has run through the veins of humanity since the beginning of time. As the presocratic philosopher Heraclitus states:
We must recognize that war is common and strife is justice, and all things happen according to strife and necessity. (DK22B80)
War is the father of all and king of all, who manifested some as gods and some as men, who made some slaves and some freemen. (DK22B53)
For more on Heraclitus, visit: http://www.iep.utm.edu/h/heraclit.htm#H3
AnonymousIn response to sgregg's post, I am in the same boat. I had very little knowledge of Japan's history prior to attending this seminar. The readings in our resource notebook along with tonight's lecture are very valuable to me. I also agree with sgregg that students have much to gain from making the connection between accepting what they have to do to succeed and realizing the even strong nations have to analyze and adjust their ways so they they can remain competitive in an ever-changing world.
AnonymousThis is a wonderful site that I will definitely use in the future. One of the standards for 9th and 10th grade English/Language arts is to evaluate the tone of a passage. In the future, I might begin the teaching of this standard with the lesson from the MIT Visualizing Cultures website entitled:
Black Ships & Samurai, Lesson 01
Introduction to Reading the Visual Images
in Black Ships & Samurai
In this lesson, students are asked to interpret the artists choice of imagery in their portrayal of the Black Ships. This will be useful as students learn about symbolism and how symbols can affect the tone of a work of art. Students are then asked what they can infer about the artists attitudes toward Matthew Perry and his fleet. This is very similar to what students are asked to do when they analyze the tone of a passage, so the lessons contained in this website will be very useful in my future curriculum planning.
AnonymousMy 6th grade students liked looking at the pictures on this website. It was necessary to fill in the gaps of their knowledge about why the Japanese drawings looked the way they did. Once this was cleared up, we were able to have a rich discussion about the motives and messages really being depicted.
AnonymousI have finally been able to thoroughly read/study the MIT website...this is a great resource for teachers to use...the scrolling is a bit non-traditional, but the information is very useful and great for visual learners. Many great illustrations and art that can be incorporated!