Summer DBQ

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, contact with the West and Japan, by trade and travel, has changed Japan's government and society, the way the country runs and how their people live.
In one group, where the society of Japan is apparent, shows what Japan was like at during the time frame. In a letter by President Roosevelt (Doc#1 - www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/trjapan.htm - year 1909), to the incoming Secretary of State Senator Knox, he explains that Japan's conflicting feelings make her very fickle, which would complicate their relations with them. From Roosevelt's POV, he knew that Japan was particularily strong and didn't want to make Japan an enemy of the United States, thus he warned Senator Knox of the country's present state. Another source (Doc#2 - www.meijimura.com/english.index-e.html), is a picture of Mie Prefectural Normal School built in 1888, which closely resembles the style of school in the West. This shows that Japan is moving to a new style of education, a part of the Meiji restoration that started in 1868, in the hopes that Japan would achieve political and economic equality with the United States and Great Britain. The next document (Doc#4 - www.cmp.ucr.edu/exhibitions/asia/japan/johnson_albums/johnson_family.html - 1890s to early 20th Century), is also a picture: this one of a the home of the Johnson family, who were missionaries from Syracuse, New York living in Japan. The house is elegant and fairly good-sized. This shows that Japan is willing for foreigners to come and teach them some aspects of their culture. A third picture, designed by a Japanese artist c. 1904, 1905 for a calendar series (Doc#7 - www.nyu.edu/pages/greyart/exibitws/shiseido/meiji10.htm), shows a Japanese lady wearing a Western style dress. The artist was displaying how Japan had started to take on the styles from the West as it continued its contact with them. Another source is a photograph of the Emperor Meiji, who set out in 1886 to join Great Britain and the United States as a World Power (Doc#8 - www2.sjus.edu/faculty/watkins/meiji.htm). The next source is Lieutenant Tadayoshi describing the Attack upon Port Arthur in 105 (Doc#9 - www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1905portarthur.html). He describes how everyone who was going out into battle would not return alive, but they were proud of what they were going to do and of their country and what they hoped it might become. The last source is a picture (Doc#12 - www.loc.gov/exhibits/ukiyo-e/images/8538s.jgp) is a color woodblock print by Hashimoto Sadahide from 1861, showing a picture of Western traders at a Japanese trading site. This showed the connecting of the two societies and the passing of cultures and lifestyles, which helped Japan better understand the people they soon would want to achieve equality with.
The other group is based on the government of Japan. The first source comes from an excerpt from The Constitution of the Empire of Japan in 1889 (Doc#3), of Articles 11-13, 29, 35, 37, and 58, which are is very similar to the U.S. Constitution. Since this comes from Japan, the POV stands that Japan has been so impacted by the Western world that its Constitution is practically diplomatic and democratic. The next source comes from the Imperial Proclamation of War on February 10, 1904 (Doc#5). Japan finally declares war on Russia when Russia refused to relinquish Manchuria from its own purposes. Although the Proclamation sounds a little biased, it seemed that Japan had attempted diplomatic means of taking back Manchuria, no doubt a technique acquired from the Western Countries, instead of blasting into an all-out war before-hand. Another source comes from Francis Ottiwell Adams, Secretary of the American Legation at Yedo, c. 1860 (Doc#6). He describes the education of Japan (which only seems to teach boys), which seems rather incompetent compared to the schools in the West. In POV, Francis Ottiwell Adams is tossing Japan a hint that they need to update and enhance their education if they want to join the world powers like Great Britain and the United States. The next source comes from a record of Kume Kunitake's Records of My Visits to America and Europe, 1871-1873 (Doc#10). He points out that California, while prosperous in its own resources, decides to buy the same resources from different states. Kame seems to find this inefficient, which isn't surprising since Japan usually uses its own many resources in the market instead of buying a ton from other places. The last source (Doc#11), is The Treaty of Portsmouth, from Russia, proclaiming that everyone in Korea (which was under the rule of Japan then) is to be treated equally, even the foreigners living there, and that Korea will not be used for military means, in an attempt of making peace with Japan, because they see the country now as a formidable enemy and not one to be fought with. This shows that Japan has grown in size and technology, and has become the world power it hoped to be.
All in all, these documents display Japan's slow-but-sure assent as a world power and equal politically and economically with large Western countries, and how it was affected by them. An additional document that would help determining how much of Japan was affected and in what ways it was affected was if there was a document from an English (Great Britain) point of view, since it was one of Japan's role models, and a document from a middle-class American (or another Westerner) and their idea of Japan, since there was a Japanese person who took note of America.


***I didn't do the chart the right way (I didn't remember we had to do it that way), so this may not be in the right DBQ Essay format.