Part 1-
Iriye
1) When did WWII begin in Asia?
"WWII began when the Kwantung Army known as Manchuria attacked chines forces in Mukden, which was an important city in Manchuria. This all occurred in September 1931."
2) Who governed the Chinese Republic?
"The Chinese Republic was governed since the overthrow of the Ch'ing dynasty in 1911 by Chiang Kai-shek of the Nationalist party."
3) What was the League of Nations?
The League of Nations was an international organization that existed to promote international cooperation and preserve global peace.The League achieved some success, but it ultimately was unable to prevent WWII. By not imposing sanction japan was able to extend its empire and withdrew from the league of nations.
4) What was a rational for the Japanese government to invade Manchuria?
It was rational for Japan to invade Manchuria, to further expand its empire. Japan also possibly seen this as an opportunity to detach Manchuria from the new formed China proper Nationalist under Chiang Kai-shek. Who had domestic opposition to his rule from the Chinese Communist.They possibly seen this as an opportunity to gain social likeability from the Chinese people.
5) What happened in 1937 between China and Japan?
In 1937 skirmishes between Chinese and Japanese troops a few miles outside of Peipng grew into a full scale conflict. That resulted in bitter relationships between the two country's and escalated confidence within the Chinese Nationalist to
6) What was the so-called "Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere?"
7) The "China Problem" had consisted of three issues. What were they?
8) How many proposals Japan submitted to the US in November 1941?
9) How many meetings did Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, summon in November 1941?
10) Who participated in these meetings?
11) According to Usui, what were Japan's concessions?
12) What was Goto's article about?
13) Who was Mohammad Hatta?
14) How did Hatta view WWII?
15) Who was Ahmad Subardjo?
Yoshida
1) Why reading the "acknowledgment" is important?
2) In the 1943 history textbook (pp. 3-4), how was the war and NM described? Whose atrocities were included and excluded?
3) What was the Nanjing government?
4) What does "revisionist" (p. 5) mean?
5) Why Yoshida wrote the book?
6) How does Yoshida define the "Asia-Pacific War"? When did it begin and end?
7) Discuss the views/narratives that challenged the official view of the war with China.
8) What was Living Soldiers? Who wrote it?
9) Who was Yanaihara Tadao?
10) Who was Kaji Wataru?
11) Who was Wellington Koo?
12) What was the so-called Tanaka Memorial?
13) How did the Nationalist gov't saw NM? How did its view differ from that of the foreign humanitarians in Nanjing?
14) Who was Tilman Durdin? What did he do?
15) Who was Archibald Steele? What did he do?
16) Who was Hino Ashihei? What did he do?
17) Who was Henry Luce?
18) Who was Song Meiling?
19) Who was Harold Timperley?
20) Who was James Young?
21) Who was Bradford Smith?
22) What was Amerasia?
23) How did the Nanjing Massacre influence public opinion in the US?
Film:
1) What were the things common between Hitler and Chaplin?
2) Describe childhood of Chaplin and Hitler.
3) Where was Hitler on August 1, 1914?
4) Where was Hitler when Germany was defeated in 1918?
5) According to the film, what contributed most for Hitler to reach power?
6) How well could Chaplin speak German?
7) How did Chaplin evaluate Hitler as an actor?
8) How was Chaplin described in the Nazi propaganda book?
9) How did many Americans perceive Hitler and Germany in the early 1930s?
10) Who was Martin Dies? What did he argue?
11) Who organized rallies in Madison Square Garden?
12) How did Hitler consider about American films?
13) When did Chaplin announce his new film?
14) Which nation did Chaplin think to defeat Nazism?
15) What did Chaplin notice in photographs of Hitler's den?
16) What was Chaplin's original idea about the ending of the film?
17) Fill in the blanks:
I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an ___. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to ___ everyone: Jew, ___, ___, ___. We all want to help one another. ____ ___ are like that. We want to live by each other's ____, not each other's __. We don't want to hate or despise one another. .... ____ has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. .... ___ that gives abundance has left us __ ___. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness, hard and unkind. We ___ too much and __ too little. More than ___ we need ___.
18) Why was Chaplin locked out of the US in 1952?
Part 2-
1. What were the broad causes of the Pacific War?
2. Were these causes open to negotiated solutions?
3. Do the documents indicate that there was a fatal lack of communication between Washington and Tokyo?
4. Do you think that if there had been any ways for the US and the Japanese governments to avoid the war?
5. When did the Japanese government adopt Proposals A and B? Why?
6. Who participated in the imperial conference on Nov 5, 1941?
7. What did the record of the imperial conference indicate?
8. What were the items of the agenda?
9. Why Japan decided to go to war against US and GB?
10. How did Togo view the US attitudes toward Japan since the start of the German-Soviet War?
11. What did Togo expect to Germany and Italy?
12. Summarize the view of Sugiyama. Did he expect easy victory?
13. According to Sugiyama, why Japan should go to war against US and GB sooner?
14. What did US and Japan agreed, and what not?
15. What were the Four Principles proposed by US?
16. Why Nagano was so confident of victory?
17. What was Hara's concern about race?
18. How did the American leaders learn the contents of Plans A and B?
19. According to Hull, what were the three issues that Japan need to accomplish?
20. Based on the reading of the documents (pp. 41-62), do you think that many US leaders thought that it would make any sense to consider accepting part of Plan B as a temporary expedient?
Part 3-
1. Compare the two draft proposals with the final one. What are the similarities and differences? What do these documents suggest?
2. What was Churchill's view regarding the proposed agreement with Japan?
3. Why do you think the US government decided to present the so-called Hull note, instead of the drafted proposal?
4. What was the "Hull note"?
5. From the view point of the Japanese government, which items in Section II were hard to agree? (pp. 75-77)
6. Discuss Japan's view of the Hull note
7. Discuss the Imperial Conference on December 1, 1941.
8. According to Togo, why shouldn't the Japanese empire accept the Hull note?
9. Why do you think that the Conference decided to go to war? If you had participated in the Conference what would have been your position?
10. What role did the emperor seem to play?
11. What was Japan's December 7 note? What did it say?
12. When did the US leaders receive from the Japanese envoys? When did the US leaders learn the contents of the note?
13. Why was the note delivered to the Statement after the Pearl Harbor attack?
14. When did the ambassador and Kurusu arrive at the State Department? What time were they supposed to see Hull? When did they 15. actually see the Secretary?
15. How did the Secretary respond to the note delivered by the Japanese envoys?
16. What document did the Japanese Foreign Ministry draft? What was it about? Was it actually delivered to the US embassy in Tokyo?
17. China had been divided loosely into three segments. What were they?
18.. When did the Soviet Union signed a neutrality treaty with Japan?
19. What was the official Chinese policy regarding US?
20. What were Chiang's tactics to achieve his objectives?
21. Why did the Soviet Union conclude the neutrality pact with Japan?
22. Which countries benefited from the growing crisis in US-Japanese relations?
23. Who was Richard Sorge?
24. What was the Atlantic Charter?
25. Which territories were included in the British Commonwealth?
26. What was the Tydings-McDuffie Act (1934)?
27. What was the Vichy government in Indochina? (1940-3/45)?
Part 4-
1. What was the First Committee?
2. What was an optimistic view prevailed among middle-rank army and navy officers around April 1941?
3. Who was Matsuoka Yosuke?
4. Why didn't the Japanese leaders abrogate the Tripartite Pact?
5. According to Minoru Nomura, what prodded Japan into the war?
6. When did the political party government system cease?
7. According to Nomura, who controlled the government from 1936 to 1945?
8. How did the Japanese leaders expect to end the war?
9. According to Nomura, what was the major reason for adopting the Kamikaze dives in the final stage of the war?
10. Who was Joseph Grew?
11. Why did Grew think that US should not rush into war w/ Japan?
12. What was the purpose of Grew's telegram of Nov 3, 1941?
13. According to Heinrichs, why did the American government back away from the modus vivendi idea?
14. When did Grew meet with Togo? What document did Grew receive? What did Togo do to Grew?
15. Grew believed that war with Japan could have been avoided. Would you agree with Grew?
16. Who was Frank B. Rowlett?
17. When did Rowlett break Purple?
18. Who was Laurance F Safford?
19. Who was William F. Friedman?
20. What did Secretary of State Henry Stimson do as to the department's funds for cryptanalysts? Did he believe that codebreaking was a legitimate function of a diplomatic service?
21. According to David Kahn, what was Japan's intention when it attacked Pearl Harbor?
22. According to Kahn, why did the US gov't failed to forsee the Pearl Harbor attack? What went wrong?
23. According to Wang Xi, what was a major reason that dragged Japan into the Chinese-Japanese and the Pacific Wars?
24. As of September 1939, what was Britain's policy toward Japan?
25. What was the Asaka Maru?
26. Who said "I could not conceal my relief and did not have to try to. I felt that whatever happened now, it was merely a matter of time"?
27. According to Bernd Martin, how close German-Japanese ties were?
28. When did he come up with a basic plan for Operation Barbarossa?
29. What was the central topic of discussion at Liaison Conferences? What was Matsuoka Yosuke's position?
30. According to Martin, what was the influence of the Tripartite Pact on US-Japanese peace negotiations?
31. When did the other Axis Powers agreed in writing to enter an eventual war with the United States?
32. How did the Soviet leaders view US-Japanese relations?
33. According to Filtov, why the Soviet Union decided to sign the Neutrality Treaty with Japan?
34. What was the concern for Soviet diplomacy in the wake of Pearl Harbor?