Thoughts about session 7

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Hi everyone,

Please reply to this message and share your thoughts about May 18 session by Dr. Morgan Pitelka on Japan.

-Xin

[Anonymous]

I feel so much better equiped to teach about the events that led to the decision to attack Pearl Harbor. With my students who have grown up watching war movies like Pear Harbor and not necessarily like Letters from Iwo Jima, it is always easier to see the world as good guys vs. bad guys with America always being one of the good guys (or always being the bad guys) that looking beyond the actual events and studying motivations and perspective is a difficult task to ask them to do. But being able to see that there were multiple reasons why events transpired the way they did is a necessary skill that they need notonly for the study of history but in the story of life.
I also have a difficult time explaining the "positives" of colonialization from any nation. As Professor Pitelka had to address the "positives" of Japanese presence in Korea, I could see the connection to American presence in the Philipines. It did seem to me that the U.S. was a bit more racist in its treatment and view of the "savages" found in the Filipino people. But, education was expanded and under William Howard Taft, the government spent millions on infrastructure, sanitation and they too began to see life expectancy improve. But it was a forced effort and the U.S. only had eyes to improve th Philipines as an outpost to push our Open Door policy in China.
The study of History is so incredibly interesting to me. I can't wait to see everyone next Tuesday!!

[Anonymous]

That was an excellent class on Japan. I am understanding better the Japanese mindset of "putting down the white man". 😀 All kidding aside. There is a definite issue where all things are permissible for the Westerner, but not for the non-westerner. As a Korean-American, I was raised with a strong anti-Japanese rhetoric from my family. There were lots of hurts and misunderstandings. My Aunt resents having to learn Japanese growing up in Korea. I don't share her sentiments, but there are wounds that go deep.

[Anonymous]

Yes, as usual, the readings are fascinating too. (finally finishing "Nationalism Readings from Sources of Japanese Tradition".) I've been thinking about all these through the eyes of my deceased father who was at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. He happened to be ashore in his bed when it happened, but he lost a lot of friends and comrades-in-arms. He was also involved with some top secret doings at Los Alamos. He spoke almost never of these things.
Later, when I was growing up and receiving a very liberal, pc, public school education and coming home talking about the horrible things we did to Japan, he only made several statements about having to understand the tenacity of the Japanese fighters. It's funny, when you're a kid- you hear, but you don't listen. But then, you still REMEMBER. And later, you can still have the opportunity to LISTEN again later as you replay the words....
Later still, in college, I received free trips to Japan to compete in athletics- all expenses paid. I only SLIGHTLY- at the time- wondered what my father might feel or think to know that Japan was rising again in her own economic and cultural right and in a position to so generously host his own daughter, flying me half way around the world, to eat, drink, sleep and soak in the Japanese ways....did it hurt him? cause only mild discomfort? Alarm? or perhaps some small healing- to think there might be hope of understanding- a coming full circle (partial circle?) and a kind of reconciliation, if only very, very small? A hope for the future?
When we are young we are so stupid. I hope I remember to have understanding and compassion for the stupidity of my young charges.

[Anonymous]

My 6th grade theatre class is performing the Chinese Cinderella. There is a part that we would like to bring in some music and do a little dance, but we are struggling to find the right piece. We will be performing for the rest of the 6th grade, so the music needs to have a certain recognizable quality to it. My students have suggested "Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting" and "Turning Japanese." I said no to both, because of the purpose of us doing this play is to honor a different culture not to make fun of it. Well, there is another part of the play where the stage directions say "The happy cow begins to eat the grass and do a dance." This doesn't give me much to go on, so I decided this could be another place where we add some music. I suggested Wierd Al Jancovich's spoof of Michael Jackson's "Beat it", "Eat it." So a child brings the lyrics in and I noticed the lyric "People are starving in Japan" is used in the first verse. Is this offensive? If we are trying to honor Chinese culture, would it be wrong for there to be a silly little lyric about Japan? And would it be wrong for that lyric to be somewhat derogatory due to the relationship between China and Japan over the last 100 years? Is is it accurate to say that the typical person from China, feels some sort of animosity to a person from Japan because of their past? And is it wrong to talk about these feelings with 12 year olds who may see it as being racism? Is it not racism? I have a lot of questions.

Chris

[Anonymous]

Excellent class! Even though I teach science, I love learning about history. The information that was provided about the events leading up to Pearl Harbor was interesting. I always love to hear other sides of a story. I'm looking forward to the next class on Japan and Korea. See everyone on Tuesday

[Anonymous]

I thought it was really interesting how Japan saw themselves as the "white man of Asia". I could really see the comparisons between Japan and Western Europe. In 7th grade one of the chapters in our textbook compares England/Europe during the middle ages and Japan during the middle ages. 7th grade Japanese history ends with the middle ages, so I never really thought about Japan as a developing nation into modern times. However, because of this class I can now see that comparison lasts even longer than the middle ages. I never realized that Japan was basically the only nonwestern country that had colonies. How powerful it must have felt to be the only country in your part of the world that had it's own colonies. I liked how the Japanese felt they had to rule over other areas so that the "
white man" didn't rule over those areas.

[Anonymous]

I have really enjoyed our sessions on Japan. As I begin to teach the end of my course, I emphasize China, Japan, and Korea. This semester I feel so much better equipped to create thoughtful lessons offering depth rather than a text book summary. Teaching all the sides of imperialism is such an important aspect of history and understanding current international relationships; this is a huge area of focus in my course. Teaching from an non western, or shall I say less western-centric point of view is a goal. Japan was easily and often demonized in the west as a result of the 19th century views about race, and the attack on Pearl Harbor. As I attempt to share as much as possible about Japan, I would like to learn more about the details of Japan's transformation to a totalitarian state. Was this a result of it's "second class" membership to the allies at the Treaty of Versailles, and in the League of Nations?

[Anonymous]

Chris - I was very impressed that your class is doing a Chinese version of Cinderella. What script did you use? I wish I could see the performance. Will you have evening shows? Any chance it will be videoed? [Edit by="nstansbury on May 25, 7:34:43 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

To think of Japan as the colonizer like the European countries was a new concept for me. Of course, it makes so much sense as Morgan tells the story of the history of Japan from the modern period. I certainly know how to incorporate east Asia in my classroom, as a ceramics teacher, but I am much more familiar with ancient ceramic techniques and styles. To incorporate east asia from the 1800's becomes a conceptual rather than stylistic problem. Looking forward to tonight's Morgan finale!

[Anonymous]

As a Korean-American, I was raised with a strong anti-Japanese rhetoric from my family. There were lots of hurts and misunderstandings. My Aunt resents having to learn Japanese growing up in Korea. I don't share her sentiments, but there are wounds that go deep.

This is really interesting because my best friend is Korean and she loves to do things that are "Japanese." I may be wrong, but my feeling is that some Koreans feel that Japanese are more "superior" than them, thus they want to become more Japanese so that they too could become "superior." Again, I may be wrong. When I talked to my friend, there was a lot of pride in her whenever she talked about the Japanese things that she did, including Japanese rolls that have Korean ingredients in there. She was really proud of learning Japanese even though she didn't know much Korean. Could this be the fact that she is American born Korean? Speaking from an Asian perspective, I find it interesting that there is such a difference between the Korea, Japan, and China. Usually, people would just categorize every Asian as "Chinese."

On session 7: It was interesting that Japan was such a small country, but SO powerful. They were not afraid of anyone, including the Giant US because it beat every other country. No wonder they were gutsy enough to do what they did. I thought it was ironic that they wanted to stop the war by making the Giant mad. Couldn't they just sit down and talk? Was that arrogance or ignorance?

[Anonymous]

One more note: it is interesting to compare the relationship between China, Korea, and Japan during 1800 to the relationship they are having right now. Japan is somewhat worried that North Korea will affect them if it decides go to to war with South Korea. China has relation with North Korea but does not want them to interfere the economic ties of the four countries. Everyone gets a long except North Korea is making problems--but it is interesting that China is doing whatever it takes to calm everyone down. The US is depending on China to calm North Korea too for everyone's sake.

[Anonymous]

I also thought that it was very interesting to look at Japan as a "colonizer" of Asia. For what was going on in the world at the time, they really were not out of their place. They were just doing what every other established country was doing and they were defending their status as a developed nation.

[Anonymous]

I love the material on Japan. My wife's family is Japanese so this part of the course is of particular interest to me.
I commented to my neighbor during the last session that the session was not quite as intrigueing as the previous because the powerpoint slides did not contain as many photos. Photos really make the material come alive. When the slides onyl contain words wuch as this one, I tend to take less notes and retain less.

[Anonymous]

I read several of the stories from Japan at War – An Oral History by Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook. It was interesting to realize that the Japanese had the same kind of rationing that we had in this country, even using coupons for staples. In “Life Goes On,” the narrator is a woman who ran a bakery. She talks about wha the war was like for civilians. One interesting thing she mentioned was that, since the men were gone, the women took over the businesses. It reminded me of “Rosie the Riveter” in this country and I wondered if the war had an effect on women’s rights in Japan after the war was over.

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