...1945 was, without a doubt, an important year in world history. The defeat of Nazi Germany in Europe, the deployment of nuclear arms on Imperial Japan and their subsequent surrender, and the beginnings of a decades long Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union. It was also a year that was instrumental in laying the foundation for what would occur during the French Indochinese and Vietnamese War the foundation of modern Vietnam itself. I will argue that following events in 1945 were the most important in the creation of Vietnam, and in the wars to come: the Japanese overthrowing the French colonial government on March 9, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam forces being pushed out of South Vietnam in November, and finally the writing of the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence on September 2. When the Japanese military overthrew the French colonial government of Vietnam it was clearly one of the most important events in Vietnamese and Asian history. Obviously, the Imperial Japanese had a...
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...Institute of Nanyang Technological University [pic] Singapore was once been under the Japanese occupation that lasted for nearly three years. On February 15, 1942, Singapore surrender to the Japanese after realizing that the situation was very bad especially there was a shortage of food and ammunition at the frontline battlefield. Furthermore the Japanese had cut off the water supply from State of Johore. After a meeting held at the Battle Box at Fort Canning, British commanders concluded that there was no other choice but to surrender. At 5 p.m. that day, led by Lieutenant-General Percival and other officials like Brigadier Newbigging, Brigadier Torrance, and Major Wild, made their way to the Ford Factory for the meeting. It was a first time ever meeting of top-ranking officers from both armies. However both had their own agendas like one wanted for an unconditional surrender while the other one wanted to negotiate. It was considered as one of the darkest period in the lives of every Singaporean people then. It was the beginning day that the fate of Singapore took a turn for the very worse, with serious insinuation for the three and half years of the occupation. Singaporean not only had to adapt to a change in the Governor, from British ruler to a Japanese. But also had to suit themselves to a new name for Singapore, ‘Syonan-to’, meaning, the ‘Light of the South’. It generally draws attention to the hardships that the civilian population faced....
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...Japan under Occupation An essential story of the Occupation concerns how the United States and Japan could change their unimaginable political and social rivalry to one important ally. Amid the Pacific War (1941–45), the propaganda machines of both countries decried and dehumanized the enemy to a great and dangerous level (Gordon and Andrew 14). Every side was characterized by different atrocities, yet engaged just on those conferred by the other, and the citizens on both sides of the Pacific were on alert to expect the worse from each other. The Japanese had seen sixty-six of their significant urban areas and major cities demolished by the fierce fire of bombs and reduced to ashes. The twin bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 cannot escape many people's mind. At their occurrences, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings brought an unexpected end to what has been known as a 'war without mercy', yet the choice to surrender was contradicted by military leaders until the Emperor interceded and broke a gridlock that existed among his senior advisors. Japan's almost 15 year frenzy through Asia (1931–45) was done, at last killing an expected 3 million Japanese and more than 15 million Asians, for the most part in China. Japanese mercilessness actions in war, including abuse of prisoners-of-war (POWs), created assumptions favoring retaliation and punishment. It was in this unfriendly atmosphere that US troops arrived in Japan and started the Occupation (Higley, John...
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...Date: Japan under Occupation An essential story of the Occupation concerns how the United States and Japan could change their unimaginable political and social rivalry to one important ally. Amid the Pacific War (1941–45), the propaganda machines of both countries decried and dehumanized the enemy to a great and dangerous level (Gordon and Andrew 14). Every side was characterized by different atrocities, yet engaged just on those conferred by the other, and the citizens on both sides of the Pacific were on alert to expect the worse from each other. The Japanese had seen sixty-six of their significant urban areas and major cities demolished by the fierce fire of bombs and reduced to ashes. The twin bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 cannot escape many people's mind. At their occurrences, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings brought an unexpected end to what has been known as a 'war without mercy', yet the choice to surrender was contradicted by military leaders until the Emperor interceded and broke a gridlock that existed among his senior advisors. Japan's almost 15 year frenzy through Asia (1931–45) was done, at last killing an expected 3 million Japanese and more than 15 million Asians, for the most part in China. Japanese mercilessness actions in war, including abuse of prisoners-of-war (POWs), created assumptions favoring retaliation and punishment. It was in this unfriendly atmosphere that US troops arrived in Japan and started the Occupation (Higley, John and...
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...Reliving the Past This young woman (name to be determined) experienced a difficult childhood. Born in 1930 during the Japanese occupation in the Chung , her parents were both forcibly taken from her. Her father was vocal about his opposition to the Japanese – even making a comment at the local market about the wrongness of Japanese occupation – and was later forcibly taken and enlisted in the Japanese army in 1937. He is presumed dead. Her mother was taken away to be a comfort woman, leaving this character with no family since she was an only child of relatively young and recently married parents. Her aunt on her mother’s side took her in because she lived nearby, but she already had two sons and highly favored her boys. My character came to believe that not only was she less favored because she was a girl, but the aunt blamed her father for why the character’s mother had been taken away. The family attempted to learn whether either of the two parents were still alive through several shaman ceremonies, which were both dangerous and expensive, but all declared that they were both dead. After ten years, the family decided to give up hope. During the Korean War, since the family lived in Cheongyang, the armies continuously came through the region as the battlefront wavered between North and South, burning and killing as they went. In June, 1951, this character was out in the family’s small agricultural field when a white American soldier attacked her and raped her. She was fortunate...
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...Korea, called Hanguk (Korean: 한국; Hanja: 韓國) in South Korea and Joseon (Korean: 조선; Hanja: 朝鮮) in North Korea, is an East Asian territory that is divided into two distinct sovereign states, North Korea (aka, DPRK or Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and South Korea (aka, ROK or Republic of Korea). Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by China to the northwest and Russia to the northeast. It is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan (East Sea). The adoption of the Chinese writing system ("Hanja" in Korean) in the 2nd century BC and the introduction of Buddhism in the 4th century AD had profound effects on the Three Kingdoms of Korea, which was first united during the Silla (57 BC – AD 935) under the King Munmu. The united Silla fell to Goryeo in 935 at the end of the Later Three Kingdoms. Goryeo was a highly cultured state and created the Jikji in the 14th century. The invasions by the Mongolians in the 13th century, however, greatly weakened the nation, which was forced to become a tributary state. After the Mongol Empire's collapse, severe political strife followed. The Ming-allied Choseon emerged supreme in 1388. The first 200 years of Choseon were marked by relative peace and saw the creation of the Korean Hangul alphabet by King Sejong the Great in the 14th century and the increasing influence of Confucianism. During the later part of the dynasty, however, Korea's isolationist policy earned it the Western nickname of...
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...name of Korea) was invaded by Japan in 1910, Korean women were forcibly sent to Japan as comfort women: sex slaves of the Japanese military. ‘Comfort woman’ is a euphemism for a female sexual slave to the Japanese Imperial Army before and during World War II. The Japanese military recruited young and unmarried Asian women to join the military, then sent them to brothels in China and other Asian and Pacific countries in order to “comfort” Japanese soldiers. One of the few surviving Korean comfort women, Soon-duk Kim, gave the following testimony to Sangmie Choi Schellstede, the editor of the book, Comfort Women Speak: Testimony by Sex Slaves of the Japanese Military: “I was promised a job as a military nurse…[however, the Japan military took us to] a ruined village of Shanghai. Rooms were divided into tiny cubicles. Each of our fifty girls was divided to one of these cubicles. Now this house became a brothel, and we were sex slaves in it” (38). Kim was wounded due to numerous rape. She explained about the horrible remedy she received: “One day our manager gave me packets of black powder to take once a day…[But] after I used it several times, he then told me the powder was made from a leg of a Chinese soldier’s corpse” (38). This experience is not limited to Kim. Approximately 200,000 Korean women suffered as sex slaves of Japan’s military system before and during the World War II. Today, however, not many people remember this event, resulting in maltreatment towards the survivors...
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...Introduction South Korea’s history, strategic location, and political relations in the past and today, have created an economy which is one of the strongest in Southeast Asia. “According to the World Bank, in the last 30 years, South Korea’s economy is one of the most outstanding success stories in international development.” (Globaled, p.1). Dating from the Japanese occupation of South Korea , from 1910 thru 1946, then the division of the peninsula enforced by the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics after Japan’s unconditional surrender during WWII; the Republic of Korea (ROK) had gone throughout drastic changes in its social, economic, and political structure, but in the 1960s, under the regime of Park Chung Hee, the Korean government implemented measures to increase export and decrease the import of foreign goods and at the same time nationalized banks, and persecuted South Korean business leaders for profiting from the corruption in the South Korean government. During this period South Korea woke up to a dawn of industrial revolution that changed the economic future of the Peninsula. Park started what would take the ROK from a agricultural economy, to one of the world’s largest economies. Although the Japanese government had put in place some infrastructure to developed the Korean Peninsula during the Japanese occupation from 1890’s to 1945, these infrastructures were solely for Japan benefit. “Many economists think it...
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...their histories and economies. 2. Geography Korea - Korea extends about 1,000 kilometers to the south from the northeast part of the Asian continent. It consists of the Korean Peninsula and over 3,400 islands. Since 1945, as a result of the WWII, Korea has been divided into North Korea, and South Korea. The total area is 221,607 square kilometers. South Korea owns 99,237 square kilometers and 45% of the total land, while North Korea owns 122,370 square kilometers, the remaining 55%. Korea is mostly consisted of mountain range with 70 percent. The Mountains Taebaek connects the full length of the east coast. Japan - Japan has four main islands - Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu - and more than 3,000 small islands cover an area of 377,727 square kilometers. These islands extend over 3,000km in total length, and it spreads about 300km in width. Japan is covered with mountains about three-fourths of the national land. Mt. Fuji divides the center of Honshu with 3,000-meter high, the main island. Japan has around 200 volcanoes, among them about 60 volcanoes are active. As a result of that, earthquakes and volcanic actions are still running. This mountain range makes rivers to be short and have steep channel slopes. The rivers carry sediment to the flatlands, so it forms alluvial plains. 3. Temperature and Precipitation. Korea - Korean peninsula extends from north to south, so there are various temperatures between them. There is a big...
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...Introduction To date, World War II was the world’s worst event in human history. Colonisation is one of the reasons as to why World War II was the most horrific. Many Asian nations such as Korea, Vietnam and the part of China and so on were colonised by the European powers and Japan during World War II. And it had been raging for more than four years. Although several Asian nations were decolonised by the European powers and Japan after World War II, the wounds of the war were too serious; millions of people died and women raped and killed. Survived people still have suffered permanent injury from disease, psychological trauma of the war and social ostracism. Now, today’s Asian cinemas have been portrayed as traumatic memories of military terror to remind the history. This essay shed light on the significance of trauma in both films; The Flowers of War and The White Silk Dress in connection with the history of Korea. The Flowers of War In 1937, Nanking (today more commonly called Nanjing) Massacre was enforced for 6 weeks by Japanese troops. Millions of Chinese people cruelly died regardless of age or sex. It is also called as The Rape of Nanking, because the Japanese troops raped and killed a great number of Chinese women (Chambers 2010). The Chinese movie, the Flowers of War shows the bald historical fact of Nanjing Massacre in 1937. It is a remake of the Chinese novella, 13 Flowers of Nanjing. Then China’s Nationalist party developed friendly relations with the Nazi Germany...
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...Asian American Women Introduction Through out history, Asian American women have required "the armor of warriors" in order to survive. For a period of 150 years, Asian women have labored and raised families in the United States, overcoming exploitation and racism from their earliest days as prostitutes, domestic servants and farm workers. In the present day, Asian American women have a representation in the most prestigious professional and managerial jobs. Today, Asians are looked at as a "model minority" whose growing mobility stands as an illustration for other racial-ethnic groups (Amott & Matthaei, 1996). The first Asian immigrants arrived in the United States from China, with the first huge wave coming in the mid-19th century. As with other cultural minorities, the Chinese and later the Japanese, Asian Indians, Filipinos, Koreans, and a host of other groups immigrated to the United States to serve mainly as a source of cheap labor. These migration trends were related to bigger worldwide transformations started by Euro-American colonialism and industrial capitalism. By the start of the Great Depression, these groups formed the prevalent Asian populations in the United States. According to United States census data and other available reports, there were close to 56,000 Filipinos, 140,000 Japanese, 75,000 Chinese several thousand Koreans and Asian Indians and living in America in 1930, most living on the West Coast (Amott & Matthaei, 1996). The Asian populace in the United...
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...Asian Americans in the Workplace An In-Depth Analysis of Korean Americans 11/19/2007 Table of Contents Introduction 3 History of Korean Immigration to the United States 4 Values and Customs 10 Demographical Profile 16 The ‘Bamboo Ceiling’: Barriers in the Workplace 22 A Personal Interview: A Different Side to the Story 26 Conclusion 27 References 28 Introduction The term “Asian American” has a rich history in the United States. It refers to a person of Asian ancestry who also obtains American citizenship. The term was originally used by the Census Bureau to clarify and distinguish the government’s equal opportunity programs and measurements. Also, the term “Asian American” was used by anti-war activists during the 1960s instead of using the “Oriental” which was perceived as more derogatory and demeaning. This phrase was finally popularized into mainstream academic usage in the 1970s, and is now the accepted term for government and academic research (Dacin and Hitt, 1997). Although this term allows for economists, sociologists, and statisticians to breakdown the different cultural groups found within the United States, one can delve much further into the evolution of the people we categorize as “Asian American.” In the following pages, we will attempt to explain our research findings on the evolution of one innergroup of Asian Americans within the United States, the Korean Americans. The issues raised will include: 1. An extensive overview of...
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...port-of-call for ships plying between Europe and East Asia, thanks to the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and a new technology: the steamship. The country continues to look for ways to exploit new technologies to ensure its survival and well-being. Around 1900: Before the close of the 19th century, Singapore enjoyed unprecedented prosperity and trade expanded eightfold between 1874 and 1913. It attracted immigrants (the first foreign talents) from around the region. 1941: The peace and prosperity ended when Japanese aircraft bombed the sleeping city in the early hours of 8 December. Singapore fell to the Japanese on 15 February 1942 and was renamed Syonan (Light of the South). It remained under Japanese occupation for three-and-a-half years. 1945: Singapore reverted to British administration when the British forces returned in September, but not to the home they had left. The seeds of nationalism had been sown by the Japanese, who had demonstrated that an Asian power could overthrow a Western colonial power. 1948: When the Communist Party of Malaysia tried to take over Malaya and Singapore by force, a state of emergency was declared in June. The emergency lasted for 12 years. Some of the tactics used to defeat the Communists (such as hamletting, where villagers are placed in a guarded compound to prevent contact and material support) were later used in the Vietnam War. 1955: Singapore's first political contest was held and the first chief minister elected was David...
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...The 20th century history of Vietnam was defined by conflict. Between periods of resistance to French colonization, fighting Japanese occupation in WWII, the war with the United States and regional conflicts involving Cambodia and China, Vietnam was left with little time for nation building. Recently, Vietnam has finally experienced an extended period of peace and is using this opportunity to emerge from obscurity and become a major player in the world economy. The nation of Vietnam, officially called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is located on the eastern side of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. Vietnam is bordered to the north by People’s Republic of China, to the northwest by Laos, to the southwest by Cambodia and to the east by the South China Sea. Vietnam’s long coastline with the South China Sea is of strategic importance as this allows for significant control of this body of water (Burke, 2011). The location of Vietnam was also considered of vital importance during the Cold War. Many politicians and military officials believed that if Vietnam fell to the communists that a domino effect would begin and several other East Asian countries would become communist as well (Moise, 2011). This theory led to the Vietnam War which greatly impacted the history of Vietnam. This war, however, was but one chapter in the Vietnamese struggle for a unified and independent nation. At the beginning of the 20th century Vietnam was a French colony and been a part of French...
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...The Philippines (i/ˈfɪlɨpiːnz/; Filipino: Pilipinas [ˌpɪlɪˈpinɐs]), officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino:Repúblika ng Pilipinas), is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of 7,107 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions:Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila while its most populous city is Quezon City; both are part of Metro Manila. To the north of the Philippines across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan;Vietnam sits west across the South China Sea; southwest is the island of Borneo across the Sulu Sea, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia; while to the east it is bounded by the Philippine Sea and the island-nation of Palau. Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons, but also endows it with abundant natural resources and some of the world's greatestbiodiversity. At approximately 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 sq mi), the Philippines is the 64th-largest country in the world. With a population of at least 99 million people, the Philippines is theseventh-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. An additional 12 million Filipinos live overseas, comprising one of the world's largest diasporas. Multiple ethnicitiesand cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times,Negritos were...
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