Assignment: "Underlying Causes of WWII in the Pacific" Medium Group Discussion Questions

WORLD HISTORY-A
2023-11-07T00:37:09Z

Due: Nov 8, 2023 by 11:59pm

Later this class period we will be having a 15-20 minute Socratic Seminar. This Socratic is based off of the documents from yesterday as well as three discussion questions. You can see these discussion questions below.

You have 20 minutes to...

Brainstorm answers these questions on your own either in a textbox, Word/Google Doc, or in your notebook, AND

Think of a thoughtful question to ask during the discussion.

In 20 minutes, you will submit your responses, even if you are not done yet. Then, we will have our medium group Socratic discussions.

Here are the questions:

1. Historians observed that as early as the 1870s, the Japanese identity was based on 1) real or imagined differences between them and people in China and 2) thinking of the Chinese as racially different people

1. To create a “we,” or a group that people belong to, do we need also need to create a “they,” or a group of people who don’t belong?

2. China was traditionally the dominant power in East Asia. A Japanese historian named Marius Jansen has said about the period of Japanese Pan-Asianism that “After decades of [Japanese] weakness, it was good to be a Japanese and to humble the mighty neighbor that had dominated…for so long”

1. What do you think made Japan more confident? How do you think that this confidence impacted the way that the Japanese thought of China?

3. The Former US ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer believed that attitudes in the West influenced Japan’s imperial ambitions: “Westerners, far from condemning the Japanese for their aggressions, applauded them for being [good students]. They also taught the Japanese how ruthless the game of imperialism could be and how unwilling Westerners were to accept other races as full equals.

1. What lessons might Japanese nationalists have learned from Western imperial powers like Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and the United States?

Later this class period we will be having a 15-20 minute Socratic Seminar. This Socratic is based off of the documents from yesterday as well as three discussion questions. You can see these discussion questions below.

You have 20 minutes to...

Brainstorm answers these questions on your own either in a textbox, Word/Google Doc, or in your notebook, AND

Think of a thoughtful question to ask during the discussion.

In 20 minutes, you will submit your responses, even if you are not done yet. Then, we will have our medium group Socratic discussions.

Here are the questions:

1. Historians observed that as early as the 1870s, the Japanese identity was based on 1) real or imagined differences between them and people in China and 2) thinking of the Chinese as racially different people

1. To create a “we,” or a group that people belong to, do we need also need to create a “they,” or a group of people who don’t belong?

2. China was traditionally the dominant power in East Asia. A Japanese historian named Marius Jansen has said about the period of Japanese Pan-Asianism that “After decades of [Japanese] weakness, it was good to be a Japanese and to humble the mighty neighbor that had dominated…for so long”

1. What do you think made Japan more confident? How do you think that this confidence impacted the way that the Japanese thought of China?

3. The Former US ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer believed that attitudes in the West influenced Japan’s imperial ambitions: “Westerners, far from condemning the Japanese for their aggressions, applauded them for being [good students]. They also taught the Japanese how ruthless the game of imperialism could be and how unwilling Westerners were to accept other races as full equals.

1. What lessons might Japanese nationalists have learned from Western imperial powers like Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and the United States?