Assignment:
Instructions:
Watch the video.
Pacific Century No 2: Meiji Revolution
Questions:
1. Facing Western imperialism, what were the different approaches adopted by Qing China and Japan?
2. "Tokugawa divided society into four ranks: at the bottom were the merchants; then came the artisans; just above them were the farmers, who gave up half their rice harvest to those at the top, the Samurai." Discuss the change of roles of the Samurai in Japanese society from Tokugawa shogunate to Meiji period.
3. How did the economic situation transform the samurai's status in Tokugawa period? What are the names of the two regions that were most anti-foreign?
4. Who were the shi-shi's?
5. Who was Yoshida Shoin's major contribution to his country?
6. What were some of the reformist measures that the Meiji Government adopted since 1868?
7. Why was it "paradoxical" that Japan's "restoration of the absolute power itself enabled the democratization of Japan", according to Kuniko Inoguchi, the Tokyo-based Sophia University professor?
8. Who was Ito's idol? Why did we say that Japanese constitution was modeled on German constitution?
9. What were the differences between urban and rural (provincial) Japan during Meiji era? What exports initially paid for Japan's modernization?
10. What is a Zaibatsu?
11. How did Japan's invasion and brutal treatment of its Asian neighbors affect its relationship with Korea and China up to this day?
12. How did China change in Japan's eyes before and after Meiji Restoration (1868)? What territories did Japan obtain after the 1894 war with China? How did the teacher-student complex between Japan and China influence East Asian relationship?
13. How was Japan's victory over Russia in 1904-05 viewed in other parts of Asia regarding modernization?