Workshop in World History--East Asia

Constantine N. Vaporis, Department of History, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)

SITE INDEX
General Information
Session 1 (Monday 6/25)
Session 2 (Tuesday 6/26)
Session 3 (Thursday 6/28)
 

GENERAL INFORMATION

I. Sources of on-line and printed information about Asia for teachers:
    A. Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS)
            Double-click on "K-12 Resource List"
    B. Ask Asia--on-line resource of the Asia Society (New York)--click on "Teachers--Resources and Development"
    C. Education About Asia--published three times a year by the Association for Asian Studies. Subscription: $18 (Subscription Dept.,
            Education About Asia, 1021 East Huron St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104)
    D. Chinese cultural studies web sites
    E. Chinese culture on-line course at Brooklyn College
     F. Stanford Program on Intercultural and Cross-Cultural Education

II. Museum on-line resources:
    A. Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
          learn about Asian art in general
          view 50 highlights of the museum's collection
   B.  Freer-Sackler Gallery (Washington)
    C. Hackerman House (Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore)
    D. The Virtual Museum of Traditional Japanese Arts
    E. Kyoto National Museum

III. Japanese On-line Newspapers (in English)
    A. Asahi shimbun (a major Japanese newspaper)
    B. Japan Times (Japan's major English-language daily)
    C. Kyodo News Service (an independent Japanese news agency)
    D. Mainichi shimbun (a major Japanese newspaper)
    E. Japan Echo (translations of Japanese opinion pieces--back issues available on-line)

IV. Major on-line readers and curriculum guides for teachers
    A. Asia for Educators--a major resource for this workshop
    B. Reading About the World--two-volume primary source reader
    C. Internet East Asian Sourcebook--Fordham University professor's site
    D. Internet Women's History Sourcebook
    E. Five College Center for East Asian Studies Resource Catalogue--see especially their Curriculum outlines
    F. World Civilizations--Washington State University professor's site--some primary source materials and maps

V. Some Printed Documentary and Reference Collections on East Asian History
    A. W. de Bary, Sources of Chinese Tradition (Columbia)
    B. W. de Bary, Sources of Japanese Tradition (Columbia)
    C. David J. Lu, Japan. A Documentary History (M.E. Sharpe)
    D. Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia (Kodansha)--2-vol. or 8-vol. versions
    E. Peter Duus, The Japanese Discovery of America (Bedford)
 
 

CONTENT AND HISTORIOGRAPHY
SESSION 1

I. Changing Interpretations of Japanese Society

II. Historiographical Overview of the Tokugawa Period

III. Emergence of the First Global Age, 1450-1770
    A. Jesuits in Japan--letters (1), (2)
    B. Japanese screens depicting the "southern barbarians" (nambanjin) in Japan
    C. Emergence of Daimyo--house codes (late 15th-16th c.)  (incomplete)
    D. Curriculum Unit on Castles in Europe and Japan

IV. Traditional East Asian Society
     A. Tokugawa Japan ("Age of the Shoguns"),  1603-1868
           1. East Asia in World History Site --click on "curriculum materials"-use the four primary sources
                listed under "Tokugawa History Materials"; also, be sure to click on and to read the "Teacher's
                Notes" and "Key Points"--see "List of Topics" for other periods
           2. Historiographical Overview and Selected Issues
                    a Tokugawa state? (Diagram of Government During the Tokugawa period); the issue of feudalism
                               in Japan--a comparative perspective (teacher unit)
                    the nature of Tokugawa society
                    Japan, a "closed country"?

        B. Other Selected Web Sites
               1. Photographic Images of late Tokugawa-early Meiji Japan
               2.  The Dutch in Nagasaki (in part "how China and Japan limited impact"--from National Standards
                    in World History)
                a) Restoration Work Dejima  -- uses woodblock prints and text to recreate the life of the Dutch on
                        their island outpost in Japan
                b) The Dutch on Dejima, 1800-1865 --collection of 40 Japanese prints from the Netherlands
                    Economic-Historical Archive
               3. For general information on the Edo period
               4. Web-based educational video on Tokugawa period
               5. Women and Gender-Morals text of Kaibara Ekken
               6. "Edo Japan, A Virtual Tour"--take a virtual tour through the 18th-century's largest city, Edo, and
                    then journey down some of the period's major
                     highways. To learn more about the story of the 47 Masterless Samurai (Ronin), click here.
              7. Honda Toshiaki--A Secret Plan of Government (1798)
              8. The Arts (also refer to II. D., the Virtua Museum of Traditional Japanese Arts)
                  a) Art in Edo, 1615-1868--National Gallery of Art exhibition catalogue available as PDF (portable
                        document format) file
                 b)Woodblock prints (ukiyo-e)--Introduction to woodblock prints --click on "Introduction" for
                    background information, then click on individual  artists like Sharaku and Harunobu to see their
                    works and to learn more about them. Click on "selected topics" to learn more about their
                    production and aesthetic value.
             9. Samurai and Bushido--the "way of the warrior"; on samurai in general; Samurai Archives
             10. Historical Architecture--Cities/Buildings Archive (click on "Japan" and "China")

       C. Ming-Qing China
            1. Columbia Asia for Educators site, Teaching Aids; Workbook on China   (click on "Traditional
                    History" and "Modern History")--see section on Ming voyages of Zheng He
            2. Internet Guide for China Studies
            3. Internet East Asian History Sourcebook--Section on Imperial China
            4. The "Great Wall" of China: (1), (2)
            5. women--footbinding, reading guide to Ning Lao T'ai t'ai, Daughter of Han
            6. Christianity--the Rites Controversy, 1715
 
 

SESSION 2--Western Imperialism and East Asian Responses

I. China
    A. Asia for Educator's Site on Qing China and Western imperialism (see "Traditional History" and "Modern History")
    B.The Western Intrusion and Gov't Efforts at Reform  (Halsall site)
    C. The International Scene--China (CUNY site)--contains the following documents under "The International Scene--China." Repeats some of the  documents in I.A. but many of them also have an accompanying visual image (as in the site hot-linked below, "The Opium War")
                                    The Canton System of Trade
                                    Emperor Ch'-ien lung's letter to King George III
                                    Attempts to Control the Opium Trade, 1810-11
                                    China & Trade with the West: The Napier Affair
                                    The Legalization of Opium: The Case for . . . .
                                    The Legalization of Opium: The Case against . . .
                                    Commissioner Lin and the Opium Merchants
                                 The First Opium War
                                    Commissioner Lin's letter to Queen Victoria
                                    The Treaty of Nanking(GB/China)
                                    The Cushing Mission: Negotiating the U.S.-China treaty (1844)
                                    U.S.-China Relations (1858)
                                    On Managing the Barbarians in time of crisis (1858)
                                    The Treaty of Tientsin(U.S./China)
                                    The Treaty of Tientsin(G.B./China)
                                    Proposals for Self- Strengthening
                                    The Boxer Protocol(1901)
 

II.  Japan--
        A. The Forced Opening--
            1. The International Scene--Japan--contains the following documents under "The International
                Scene--Japan"
                                    A Warning to the Shogun, 1844
                                    President Fillmore's letter to the emperor (1852)
                                    An agressive daimyo response to the American proposals
                                    A conciliatory daimyo response to the American proposals
                                    The Japanese reply and Perry's response
                                    The Treaty of Kanagawa
                                    Townsend Harris and the Bakufu, 1857
                                    The Harris Treaty, 1858
                                    The Charter Oath and Constitution, 1868
            2. Article "The Conclusion of the First Dutch Treaty with Japan" by Herman J. Moeshart.
            3. Hallsall site (accounts by Perry and Harris)
            4. Virtual Japan--click on "Black Ship Scrolls"

    B.The Meiji Restoration in Japan
        1. Iwakura Mission, 1871-73
        2. Imperial Decree Promising a Constitution
        3. General Background on the Meiji period, Charter Oath and Meiji Constitution
        4. The Meiji Constitution , 1889 (cf. with postwar constitution written by Americans), Chart of Meiji
              gov't structure, role of the Diet,Background History of the Japanese Diet
        5. Through the life of a Japanese woman
        6. Other sample curricula for teaching the Meiji Restoration: (1), (2), Asia for Educators' curriculum
        7. Curriculum unit: Women in Meiji, Taisho, and Imperial Japan Tradition and Transition (1868-1945):
            The Roots of the Modern Japanese Woman
        8. Kume Kunitake: Records of My Visits to America and Europe, 1871-1873
        9. Natsume Soseki's novel Kokoro
        10. Foreigners' accounts: Alice M. Bacon: How Japanese Ladies Go Shopping, 1890; Sir Edwin Arnold: A
               Japanese Dinner Party, 1890

        11. The foreign role in the Meiji Restoration--article "Nagasaki and the Meiji Restoration" by Prof.
            Sidney Devere Brown
 

III. Western Imperialism in India, Africa, and the Middle East--Halsall site "Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Imperialism"
 

SESSION 3

Japanese Imperialism and Its Consequences

A. Japanese Imperialism--see Gregory Smits' excellent on-line textbook, Making Japanese, which is full of visual images
    1. "Opening" Korea: Treaty of Kanghwa (1876)
    2. Sino-Japanese War, 1894-95--Treaty of Shimonoseki
        Imperial Rescript on Education  (1890)--cf. with 1868 Charter Oath
        Imperial Precepts to Soldiers and Sailors, 1883
        Fukuzawa Yukichi's "Datsu-A Ron" (Departing from Asia)
    3. Russo-Japanese War, 1904-05
        a) background (1), (2)
        b) Lt. Tadayoshi Sakurai: The Attack upon Port Arthur, 1905
        c) staged film footage of
        d) American public opinion on
        e) Treaty of Portsmouth
    4. Theodore Roosevelt: The Threat of Japan, 1909 [At Mt. Holyoke]
    5. Okuma: Fifty Years of New Japan, 1907-08, excerpts
    6. Sophia University professor's site (primary documents on Japanese imperialism)
        Treaty of Annexation of Korea, 1910
    7. Map of Japanese Colonialism
     8. WWI and the 21 Demands, Versailles Treaty (1919)
    9. Era of Cooperative Diplomacy (1920s) and Threats to It (e.g. 1924 U.S. Exclusion Act)
    10. Japanese notions of a Greater East Asian Coprosperity Sphere

B. The Emperor Before and After WWII--"related web sites" are also valuable

C. Imperial, War and Revolution in East Asia 1900-1945
    1. Japan's Quest for Power--Asia for Educators' readings

D. The Japanese at Home:

E. WWII and its Aftermath
    1. Yasukuni Shrine--exhibition hall
    2. Modern History Sourcebook--Pearl Harbor
    3. WWII Resources--see Japanese monographs
    4. The Atomic Bomb and the End of WWII--webpage designed for previous workshop

E. The Allied ("American") Occupation of Japan
    1. The 1947 Constitution--public opinion on (1)(2)(3) Note: in an appendix to Hugh Borton, Japan's Modern
           Century, the Meiji and Postwar Constitutions are reproduced side-by-side
    2. The Emperor's New Role
    3. Role of Postwar Diet
    4. Occupied Japan--click on "Curriculum materials" and then on "The Occupation: Democratic Reform
           Under the Allies" (Asia for Educators Site)