We'll wrap up this week with a look at Japan's modernization of
the 19th century. I've found some new resources that are very visual
and pretty interesting.
The "Red-Haired Barbarians" - Japanese woodblock prints
Homework for next session - Monday, January 9th
Your Blog-a-Thon entry should be posted on Lesson #32 by the end of the weekend.
Your
China: Learning by Doing assignments are due by the end of next Tuesday.
The Unit #6 Exam information is posted on a separate entry. We'll do the multiple choice portion on Thursday and the Identifications on Friday. (Your Unit #6 essay will also be due on Friday.)
As
you might remember, Japan was largely isolated (by choice) from the
industrializing world. The Dutch were the only Europeans allowed access
to Japan for trade, and that was restricted to the port of Nagasaki.
Here's a collection of 40 Japanese woodblock prints depicting Dutch traders and the perceptions of the Japanese of foreigners.
Do this:
Take a few minutes and browse the collection, looking for interesting
images. Following that, we can talk about what you've seen.
The West Arrives - Commodore Perry
In 1853, a US naval fleet entered Japan's main harbor with a letter from US President Millard Fillmore for the Japanese emperor.
- President Fillmore's Letter to the Japanese Emperor, 1852
- Commodore Matthew Perry: When We Landed in Japan, 1854
- Treaty of Kanagawa, March 31, 1854
Do this: Read
the President's letter. Put yourself in the position of Japan's emperor
and/or the shogun and briefly outline your response. We'll talk about
that a bit. After that, take a look at the Treaty of Kanagawa to see
what was decided.
Browse around this very cool site from MIT's "Visualizing Cultures" project: Black Ships and Samurai. Be sure you look at the "Visual Narratives" and watch the "Black Ship Scroll" unfold.
The Meiji Restoration
In
1868, the Tokugawa Shogunate ended when Emperor Mutsuhito began his
45-year reign known as the Meiji era, or the Meiji Restoration.
Do this: Read
through the Charter Oath of the Meiji. What role do citizens play in
this new vision of government? Does this strike you as democratic? Why
or why not?
Now,
skim through the Meiji Constitution of 1889. How well were the promises
of the oath fulfilled? To what degree are these documents influenced by
the Enlightenment? Are they democratic? Why or why not?
MIT's "Visualizing Cultures"
I'd
never seen this site before the night before my first class on this topic, and I have to say that it is pretty cool.
It aims to "wed images and scholarly commentary in innovative ways to
illuminate social and cultural history." By coincidence, their first
units focus on the time period in Japanese history that we are
studying. This is the kind of resource that makes the laptop program
worthwhile.
Do this: You'll
work with a couple others to look more closely at one of the following
"units" and give us a short recap of what you found most interesting.
Definitely do the "visual narratives" section.
Continue
your reading in Chapter 28 with Section 3, "U.S. Economic Imperialism."
(pp. 816 - 821) The quiz format will be fill-in-the-blank.
Your Blog-a-Thon entry should be posted on Lesson #32 by the end of the weekend.
The Unit #6 Exam information is posted on a separate entry. We'll do the multiple choice portion on Thursday and the Identifications on Friday. (Your Unit #6 essay will also be due on Friday.)
