Friday, April 29, 2016

April 29, 2016 - Communist China

Homework - For Wednesday, use the following source materials about Mao's rule of Communist China to answer the assigned questions. The assignment is available on the class web page and here.

Source # 1 - Video on the end World War Two in China and the Communist victory over the Nationalists (KMT) in the Civil War - click here

Source # 2 - Video Mao's rule of China and the Great Leap Forward - click here

Source # 3 - New York Times article China's Great Shame by Yang Jisheng about his book Tombstone (which is banned in China) - click here

Source # 4 - Video on the Cultural Revolution - click here

Source # 5 - Video on the Opening of Chinese-American relations during the Vietnam War - click here

Sunday, April 24, 2016

April 25, 2016 - Modern Japan & Tigers

Homework - Read the notes "Modern Asia - Japan & Tigers" for Tuesday.  There will be quiz.  The notes are available on the class web page and here.

Homework for Thursday (4/28) - Use the following source materials about Modern Japan and the Vietnam War to answer the assigned questions. The assignment is available on the class web page and here.

Source # 1 - Documentary video about Post World War Two Japan - click here
Note - you will have to be logged into your BHS Google account to watch the video

Source # 2 - Map of economic development and Pacific Trade Flow













Source # 3 - Documentary on reasons Singapore, one of the Tiger Economies, became an economic success - click here



Source# 4 - Documentary video about the Vietnam War - click here
Note - you will have to be logged into your BHS Google account to watch the video

Source # 5 - Video clip on Vietnam as an emerging Tiger Economy - click here




Monday, April 11, 2016

April 11, 2016 - Test Review for Interwar and World War Two in Asia

The class will have a test on Interwar and World War Two in Asia on Thursday, April 14th. The test will have the short answer format that was common in the first part of the year - four questions will be asked and you will answer two of the questions.

Here are past test questions that you can use to study.

1.  How did Sun Yat-sen and Gandhi use idea from other parts of the world in their efforts to build national countries?


2.  Why was it a mistake for Chiang Kai-shek to focus on defeating Mao and his communist army instead of the threat posed by the Japanese?


3.  How was the American island hopping campaign in the Pacific War connected to the use of air power?


4.  How did the Treaty of Versailles and the Bolshevik take-over in Russia affect developments in China?


5.  Why was Gandhi’s campaign of “satyagraha” a successful form of protest against British rule of India?


6.  What issues in Japan led to the Japanese military take-over of Manchuria?


7.  In World War Two, how were the Japanese similar to the Nazi Germans?


8.  How was the ability to survive crucial to Mao’s success as a leader of the Chinese Communists?


9.  How was Gandhi able to use morality as a weapon against British rule of India?


10.  How did the Treaty of Versailles and the Bolshevik take-over in Russia affect developments in China?

April 11, 2016 - Gandhi and Indian Independence Movement

Homework - Use the following source materials about World War Two in Asia to answer the assigned questions. The assignment is available on the class web page and here.


Biography - Mohandas Gandhi

     Mohandas Gandhi was born in 1869 in India to a family of government workers. As a child he was shy, soft-spoken, and only a mediocre student at school. At age 13, Gandhi married his wife in an arranged marriage. They would have four children and stay married until her death in 1944.

    In September 1888, at age 18, Gandhi left India, without his wife and newborn son, in order to study law in England. When he first arrived in England, Gandhi tried to make himself into an English gentleman by buying new suits, fine-tuning his English accent, learning French, and taking violin and dance lessons. However, after a few months, Gandhi decided these things were a waste of time and money. After that, he became a serious student and living a very simple lifestyle. While in England, Gandhi discovered his life-long passion for vegetarianism. In his search for vegetarian restaurants, Gandhi found and joined the London Vegetarian Society. The Society consisted of an intellectual crowd who introduced Gandhi to different authors, such as Henry David Thoreau and Leo Tolstoy, both famous for his writings on civil disobedience.

    Gandhi became a lawyer 1891 and returned to India. After having difficulty practicing law in India, Gandhi left his family in India again to become a lawyer in South Africa. It was his experience in South Africa that transformed Gandhi into a leader against discrimination. Gandhi had only been in South Africa for week when a railroad officials told Gandhi that he could not ride in a first class carriage (even though he had purchased a ticket) because he was not white and that he could only ride in a third-class carriage. When Gandhi refused to move, a policeman came and threw him off the train. Sitting in the cold of the railroad station after being thrown off the train, Gandhi contemplated whether he should go back home to India or to fight the discrimination. After much thought, Gandhi decided that he could not let these injustices continue and that he was going to fight to change these discriminatory practices.

    Gandhi spent the next twenty years working to better the rights of Indians in South Africa. During the first three years, Gandhi learned more about Indian grievances, studied the law, wrote letters to officials, and organized petitions. Gandhi became well-known for his activism and his acts were even covered by newspapers in England and India. In a few short years, Gandhi had become a leader of the Indian community in South Africa.

    It was during his work in South Africa, that Gandhi developed the concept of satyagraha in 1906. In the very simplest sense, satyagraha is passive resistance. Needing a new term for the Indian resistance, Gandhi chose the term "satyagraha," which literally means "truth force." Since Gandhi believed that exploitation was only possible if both the exploited and the exploiter accepted it, if one could see above the current situation and see the universal truth, then one had the power to make change. In practice, satyagraha was a focused and forceful nonviolent resistance to a particular injustice. The goal was not for there to be a winner and loser of the battle, but rather, that all would eventually see and understand the "truth" and agree to rescind the unjust law.

    The first time Gandhi officially used satyagraha was in South Africa beginning in 1907 when he organized opposition to the Asiatic Registration Law (known as the Black Act). In March 1907, the Black Act was passed, requiring all Indians - young and old, men and women - to get fingerprinted and to keep registration documents on them at all times. While using satyagraha, Indians refused to get fingerprinted and picketed the documentation offices. Many of the protesters were beaten and arrested, including Gandhi. (This was the first of Gandhi's many jail sentences.) It took seven years of protest, but in June 1914, the Black Act was repealed. Gandhi had proved that nonviolent protest could be immensely successful.

    Gandhi returned to India in 1914 a national hero. Although he was eager to begin reforms in India, a friend advised him to wait a year and spend the time traveling around India to learn about the lives of average Indians and their problems. In order to travel anonymously, Gandhi began wearing a loincloth (dhoti) and sandals (the average dress of the masses). If it was cold out, he would add a shawl. This became his wardrobe for the rest of his life. It was during his first year back in India that Gandhi was given the honorary title of Mahatma ("Great Soul"). The title represented the feelings of the millions of Indian peasants who viewed Gandhi as a holy man. However, Gandhi never liked the title because it seemed to mean he was special while he viewed himself as ordinary.

    In 1919, the British government in India passed the Rowlatt Act that gave the British the power to break up "revolutionary" organizations and keep Indians in prison indefinitely without trial. In response to this Act, Gandhi organized a general strike. Unfortunately, such a large scale protest quickly got out of hand and in many places it turned violent. The worst violence was in Amritsar, where British soldiers attacked a group of protesting Indians with machine guns, killing more than 300 and injuring more than 1000 in 15 minutes. The violence of the Amritsar Massacre caused Gandhi to begin to advocate for Indian Independence.

    After this, Gandhi spent several years working to make sure his followers understood the ideals of satyagraha and organizing to keep nationwide protests from becoming violent. Gandhi also began advocating self-reliance as a way to gain freedom from the British by making the making the process of maintaining the colony an economic loss. For example, from the time that the British had established India as a colony, the Indians were supplying Britain with raw materials, like cotton, and then importing expensive, woven cloth from England. Thus, Gandhi advocated that Indians spin their own cloth to free themselves from this reliance on the British and hurt the British economically. Gandhi popularized this idea by traveling with his own spinning wheel, often spinning yarn while giving a speech. In this way, the image of the spinning wheel became a symbol for Indian independence.

    In December 1928, Gandhi began the protest against the British salt tax. The British had made it illegal to own salt not sold or produced by the British government. In a tropical environment, salt is an important part of people's daily diets. The tax that Indians paid to buy British salt was used to fund the British rule of India. Gandhi recognized that this tax symbolized the way the British forced the Indians to pay for their own colonization. In 1930, Gandhi lead his followers on the Salt March, a 200 mile march to the sea. When they reached the coast, Gandhi deliberately broke the law by picking up a piece of sea salt that lay on the beach. He then encouraged his followers to do the same and make their own salt. Thousands of people went to the beaches to pick up loose salt while others began to evaporate salt water. Indian-made salt was soon sold across the country. The British responded with mass arrests.

    When Gandhi announced that he planned a march on the government-owned Dharasana Salt Works, the British arrested Gandhi and imprisoned him without trial. Although the British had hoped that Gandhi's arrest would stop the march, they had underestimated his followers. As the group of the 2,500 marchers reached the 400 policemen and 6 British officers who were waiting for them, the marchers approached in a column of 25 at a time. The marchers were beaten with clubs, often being hit on their heads and shoulders. The international press watched as the marchers did not even raise their hands to defend themselves. After the first 25 marchers were beaten to the ground, another column of 25 would approach and be beaten, until all 2,500 had marched forward and been pummeled. The news of the brutal beating by the British of peaceful protesters shocked the world.

    Realizing he had to do something to stop the protests, the British viceroy, Lord Irwin, met with Gandhi. The two men agreed on the Delhi Pact, the first step on a long negotiated path to Indian independence. The outbreak of World War Two complicated this process because the British believed they needed it for their war effort. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had opposed Indian independence, he announced that Britain would free India at the end of World War II. However, this was not enough for Gandhi. He organized a "Quit India" campaign in 1942. In response, the British jailed Gandhi for most of the war.

    When Gandhi was released from prison in 1944, Indian independence seemed in sight. Unfortunately, the reality of independence created conflict between Hindus and Muslims over how a new India would be governed. Specifically, the Muslim population feared living in a Hindu dominated India. The Muslim population wanted to create their own country, Pakistan, in the area of northwest India. Gandhi opposed this plan.

    The argument over the creation of Pakistan caused massive violence to erupt across India. Hindu and Muslim population massacred each other and it seemed like the country was falling into civil war. Gandhi tried to stop this by travelling across India, hoping his presence could end the violence. Although violence did stop where Gandhi visited, he could not be everywhere. In the face of this violence, decided to sped up the process for giving India independence. In 1947, Britain granted independence to India and to the newly formed Muslim country of Pakistan.

    The violence between the Hindus and Muslims continued as millions of Muslim refugees marched out of India on the long trek to Pakistan and millions of Hindus who found themselves in Pakistan packed up their belongings and walked to India. To stop this wide-spread violence, Gandhi started a fast, saying that he would only eat again when he saw clear plans to stop the violence. Realizing that the frail and aged Gandhi could not withstand a long fast, both sides worked together to create a peace.

    Unfortunately, not everyone was happy with this peace plan. In particular, radical Hindu groups blamed Gandhi for the creation of Pakistan. On January 30, 1948, the 78-year-old Gandhi was walking to a prayer meeting, when a young Hindu, who blamed Gandhi for the partition and creation of Pakistan, stopped before him and bowed. Gandhi bowed back. The young man then shot Gandhi and killed him.


Source # 1 - Video clip from the movie Gandhi showing the Salt March and the protest at the Dharasana Saltworks - click here
You will need to be logged into your BHS Google account to watch the video


Source # 2 - Cartoon from the Hindustan Times (Indian newspaper) in 1931. Lord Wellington was the Viceroy (another term for Governor) of the British Colony of India.

Friday, April 8, 2016

April 8, 2014 - World War Two in Asia

Homework - Use the following source materials about World War Two in Asia to answer the assigned questions. The assignment is available on the class web page and here.

Source # 1 - Japan Invasion of China - click here
Note - You will have to be logged into your BHS Google Account to watch the video

Source # 2 - World War II Begins in China - click here
Note - You will have to be logged into your BHS Google Account to watch the video

Source # 3 - Japanese War In China - click here



Source # 4 - Clip from the Chinese movie Back to 1942 - The movie Back to 1942 is about the situation in Henan Province in China during World War Two.  The map below shows the location of Henan Province.  The clip shows the efforts of Governor Li, who was appointed by Chiang Kai-shek, to help the people during the war and the suffering of refugees in the province during the war - click here
Note - You will have to be logged into your BHS Google Account to watch the video





















Source # 5 - Air Raid on Tokyo - click here

Friday, April 1, 2016

April 1, 2016 - Chinese Revolution & Civil War

Homework - On Tuesday, April 5th, there will be a quiz on the notes "Interwar & War in Asia".  On Wednesday, the class will be working on the the Documentary Project.  For Friday, April 8th, you need to answer the assigned questions on the Chinese Revolution & Civil War. The assignment is available on the class web page and here.

Biography - Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-Sen was born in southern China in 1866 to a peasant family. He started school in China, but moved to live with his brother in Hawaii in 1876 where he finished high school and developed an interest in Christianity. When he was 17 he returned to China, but he rebelled against the traditional ways in rural China and went to Hong Kong to study medicine and became a Christian. Sun was interest in Christianity because it represents Western ideas and was a way of rebelling against the government of Emperor of China.

In 1891, Sun began to work to organize Chinese people outside of China to rebel against the Emperor of China. After China was defeated by Japan in 1895, Sun returned to China to lead a rebellion against the Emperor with the goal of making China a democratic republic. The rebellion was defeated and Sun had to flee to Japan. Working from Japan, Sun organized eight more rebellions against the Emperor – they all failed.

In 1907, Sun declared the Three People’s Principles in which he outlined the goal of a new government for China. These goals were nationalism meaning an end of foreign control of China, rights for the people of China to live in a democracy and economic security for the people of China to not live in poverty. Sun had used his experience from being educated by Americans and living in the United States in developing these goals.

Then, in 1911, a revolution swept through China and brought down the child-emperor of China. Sun was in the United States at the time of the rebellion, but as soon as he heard about it he returned to China. He was elected the president of the new Republic of China. However, Yuan Shi-kai one of the Emperor’s generals challenged Sun for power and forced him to give up power. The Yuan Shi-kai was not interested in turning China into a democratic country and instead had plans to make himself the new emperor of China. After this, Sun began to organize his supporters into the Guomindang or KMT fight against Yuan Shi-kai.

After the Russian Revolution and creation of the Soviet Union, Sun asked for help from the Soviet Union in building a military academy to train the KMT army. However, many of Sun’s supporters did not like the idea of communism. Sun and the KMT were able to build an army of 250,000 soldiers with the help of the Soviet Union. Sun planned to use this army to defeat warlords, former generals of the Emperor, that controlled central and northern China. However, Sun died in 1925 before the KMT attacked the warlords. At this point, the leaders of the KMT who took over after his death carried out the attack on the warlords and defeated them. After the KMT had captured most of China, the KMT leaders turned on the communist and killed them.

Source # 1 - Documentary on Sun Yat-sen and the Nationalist take-over of China - click here
Note - you need to be logged into your BHS Google account to watch the video

Source # 2 - Video clip from the Chinese movie 1911 about Sun Yat-sen and revolt that overthrew the Qing Dynasty - click here
Note - you need to be logged into your BHS Google account to watch the video

Biography - Mao Zedong


Mao Zedong was born in 1893 to a family of wealthy farmers in China. Mao went to school for five year before he began to work full-time on the farm. Mao rebelled against his parents’ authority and he left home to continue his education in the local city. In 1911 he served as a soldier supporting Sun Yat-sen as leader of China. After this, he began to study to become a teacher. In 1918, Mao graduated and went to the Beijing, the capital to work in university library. It was here that he was introduced to the ideas of communism and became interested in the Russian Revolution that had brought Lenin to power. In 1920, Mao joined the communist party.

In 1926, Mao survived the KMT massacre of the communists and found shelter in the rural China. It was here that Mao developed his strategy of building a communist movement in the countryside where it would be hard for the KMT to attack them. He described this by saying that the communists would be "swimming in a peasant sea". It was during this time that Mao began to organize the peasants of southern China in to a communist movement. As Mao's organization became more powerful, the KMT moved into surround and crush the communists. In 1934, Mao lead his communist army in a desperate escape from the KMT army - however, the KMT pursued Mao's retreating communists. As a result, Mao led his army on a 5,000 mile trek across western China to Northern China in an event called the Long March. Only 10,000 or 10% of Mao's communist army survived the Long March.

After the Long March , it looked like Mao's army had been destroyed. While he began to rebuild his army in northern China, in 1937 the Japanese invaded China and pushed the KMT out of the major cites of China. At this point, Mao's communists and the KMT worked together to fight the Chinese. However, it was an uneasy alliance and after the United States defeated Japan in World War Two, Mao's communists and the KMT went back to war. However, this time, Maos communists were in the stronger position and they defeated the KMT in 1949.

In 1949, Mao established the People's Republic of China as a communist country. Mao began a process of turning China into a communist society. Landlords were killed and their lands were given to peasants. Anyone who opposed Mao's plans were punished, and often killed. Mao also followed Stalin's plans on how to turn a peasant society into an industrial nation. However, this process was not fast enough for Mao. In 1958, he announced The Great Leap Forward in which he said China would catch up to the United States in 10 years. He ordered peasants to start making steel in backyard furnaces - the peasants did this by melting down their farming tools. The result was a famine that killed 40 million people. As a result, many leaders in the communist party lost faith in Mao and he lost much of his powers in running China - however, he remained a powerful figure.

In 1966, Mao decided to take power back by launching The Cultural Revolution in which he told the young communists, who he called the "Red Guard" to attack the older communist leadership and destroy the old traditional Chinese ways. Young Chinese students rampaged across China destroying ancient artwork and texts, burning temples and beating intellectuals to death. At the same time, Mao took back power and punished many of the communist party leaders who had taken power after the failure of The Great Leap Forward.

By the early 1970's, Mao was a old man with failing health. He died in 1976 leaving behind a complicated legacy for China. He is known as the "Founding Father of Modern China". However, his rule also caused the senseless deaths of millions of Chinese people and destruction of a lot of Chinese culture.

Source # 3 - Documentary about Mao Zedong and the Long March - click here
Note - you need to be logged into your BHS Google account to watch the video