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**Sino-Japanese War**

**May 3rd, 2011**

**1. How are the Chinese soldiers portrayed in these prints? The Japanese soldiers? **

The Chinese soldiers are portrayed as frantic men, as they are being attacked by these Japanese soldiers who are portrayed as the protective men who have a fierce looks on their faces filled with valour. The respective soldiers were probably portrayed in this manner due to the inevitable bias that the Japanese woodblock printer must've had, as he was probably a Japanese man. The Japanese are seen as those who are also compatible with children and basically as heroes.

**2. Look at the weapons used by each side, are they different? How? Does this tell us anything about Japanese technological advancement?**

The Japanese are seen as using these Western weapons swords. The Chinese are still yet using the old Asian weapons. This suggests and shows the influential advancement from the West that the Japanese received in their technological aspect, which has clearly helped them throughout the war. The Chinese are seen using spears to show their lack of modern technology. Also, the Japanese ships are shown in white while the Chinese ships are shown as black ships. Even though this may not give an idea on the advancement, it shows that the Japanese were thought to be pure and the Chinese were seen as "bad."

**3. Why do sports often become symbolic battlegrounds between nations?**

Sports usually involves several different teams playing against each other, which would be the basic and the simplest essence of a battle amongst nations. The main objective a sports game is to win against the other sides, just like in battle, the objective of one nation is to beat the other nations. However, aside from the prevailing results of the nation, there is another duty that lies in each nation and sports team; it is the nationalistic team spirit. They are to show their pride of their country, despite the results, and keep that pride and show that the nation or team is not only strong against others, but also strong internally with the support of its people.

**4. Is imperialism/colonialism simply about militarily and politically controlling another nation, or is it also about proving one’s self-perceived cultural superiority over another?**

Imperialism and colonialism seems to be more on the side of proving one's superiority over others. As both schemes did not involve a battle in which the winner claims the land, but rather going into another nation and showing them that the imperialists' nations are superior compared to the imperialistic. They are "offering" their ideas to the nations, showing their pride and superiority. The imperialists see this as a type of "burden" as stated by Kipling in the "White Man's Burden." He stated that it was the duty and burden of the White man to "educate" the imperialised nations due to their pre-established powress that they are the superior. They also wanted to show to other countries that an imperialist country has the power to be able to influence other countries. However, this superiority was also used as an excuse for a gateway to the resources and people of the imperialised nation. //Would you say that in their way, too, the Japanese were attempting to modernize Korea, and thus took on the burden of making her a nation like theirs?//

Russo-Japanese War

**May 5th, 2011**

**1. Do artistic renditions or photographs depict the heroics of war better?**

I would say that the artistic renditions or photographs tend to depict the heroics of war better. When looking at woodblock prints or paintings, you get such a big variety on the different ideas you can portray. For example, one woodblock print can portray the heroism, courage, and the protective aspect of a Japanese soldier, while at the same time portraying the weak, frantic, and losing attributes of a Chinese soldier simply through the use of colours, facial expressions, and motions. Also, the different uses of colour show the heroics of war better as it works as a contrast of the heroism. Usually, a battle will be portrayed with a lot of warm colours, such as red and orange, in the background to associate that time of event with fire. However, despite this "fire," the heroic Japanese soldiers are seen protecting a child, defending their side, as well as attacking the opponent side at the same time. Therefore, I would say, the use of colour really depicts a great image on the heroics of a war. Aside from the paintings and prints, certain black and white photographs were also used to show the heroics of war through usually depicting the squander lives that a soldier had to live through during the war, however was able to display such heroic actions. Also, the photographs show the consequences that the war resulted in.

**2. Do artistic renditions or photographs depict the heroics of war better? (Consider all photographs of war that you have seen, both historical and contemporary)**

Even though artistic renditions and photographs may suffice in portraying the heroics of the war, I would say the contemporary depictions do not do as good of a job. Ever since the advancement of technology as well as the military, the battles and wars have been set up in a much more private matter, thus not many photos can be taken of the reality of the life during the war. Therefore, I would say it is not as good. However, today we do a better job in showing the consequences of the wars to show what the heroes of the war had gone through. By showing the severe results brought by the battle, and how heroic the soldiers and fighters were. Therefore, I would not say it does as good of a job, but still does have its benefits.

**3. How does the medium affect the message? Can we say that, "The medium is the message"?**

I would say the medium affects the message by letting the viewer put their own perspective into it. When the medium is presented in the form of a primary source or straight-forward words, it would be quite lucid on the gist of that medium would be. However, when these main ideas are portrayed in a painting, piece of art, or photograph, a bit of perspective and judgement is incorporated. For example, the painter of the Russo-Japanese War may have portrayed the Chinese as frantic and weak men, and hoped that the viewers would see it as the same. However, there are possibilities of the viewer thinking that the Chinese men were the heroic ones as they were able to stand up to the Japanese, despite all of the terror and trauma they had to face and fought back with every bit of strength they had. On another note, if this were written out that the Japanese were clearly prevailing and the Chinese were being defeated, then there would be no interpretations that could alter the significance of this information. Therefore, I would say the medium alters the spectrum of the amount of perspective that can be applied.

**4. Why is 1905 such a turning point in Japanese and World history? How might history have been different had JApan lost the Russo-Japanese War?**

When Japan wont the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, Japan, as well as other nations, improved drastically. Japan's Imperial Navy established into the major naval power. This meant that Japan had a lot of control of the water areas, and also used the water ways to get to different nations for imperialism as Japan was an isolated island-like country. Also, this meant that the Russian Navy was removed from the European naval arms race. This was beneficial for Germany as it allowed Germany to compete against Britain without the competition for Russia. Most importantly, Japan won control over Korea. All of these accomplishments gave Japan a sort of pride and arrogance, that eventually leads to the spread of World War II. Japan gains confidence as they are known as a powerful nation, therefore, they feel confident and joins both WWI and WWII. If Japan had lost the war, and Russia prevailed, Korean history would have also changed drastically. Russia would have taken over Korea and cause Korea to have been annexed by Russia. Also, Japan would not have gone down with this defeat quietly. Japan probably would have followed their minds that wanted vengeance. They would have planned revenge. However, the Japanese would not have gone through it alone. They probably would have received help from the West especially from Great Britain. The British were also determined in making sure that Russia did not expand its influence in the Far East. If Japan did not join WWI or WWII, perhaps it could have been a bit less complicated and significant, as one of WWI's main cause was nationalism and complicated alliances.

May 11th, 2011

Queen Min

-1851 -married at 14 -queen of chosun dynasty -husband: King Kojong

Why was she chosen to be a queen? -tae wong geun thought young queen was good for his son

Was this a wise choice? -majority says it was wise because she made a lot of accomplishment -making progressive influence -developing modern technology -she could balance Russians, Chinese, and Japanese with each other -thought if chinese and japanese compete against each other, korea could stay independent -from confucian: -woman having this much power was not right

How does she try to maintain Korea's independence? -managed to gain more time to make progressive reforms -so korea could modernize military, develop infrastructure -could become a modern country without going through these war-like fights

-dies in 1895

Do I admire Min? -braveness -resource her own country rom danger -when realized Korea was in danger -strived to develop country -1882, military koo (Kapsin Rebellion)

Who was Isabella Bird? -19th century writer and traveller that met Queen Min -her first impression was really good, described queen min as nice looking and slender woman -knew Queen Min was a respected person in society -"awe-inspiring"

Timeline (With Alex Kangwoon K.)

May 13th, 2011 media type="custom" key="9397942" width="180" height="180"

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 160%;">Works Cited //1<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">876 Ganghwa Treaty. 1880 Painting. //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;"> 1867. Photograph. Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi. Comp. World Imaging.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">//Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876//. EN otes.com. Web. 2011 May 10. <http://www.enotes.com/topic/Japan%E2%80%93Korea_Treaty_of_1876>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">"JapanâKorea Treaty of 1910." //JapanâKorea Treaty of 1910//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2011. < [] >.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">//The First Sino Japanese War August 1, 1894 - April 17, 1895//. SinoJapaneseWar. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://sinojapanesewar.com/>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%;">"Trace Forward - 다시 보는 한일합방 조약 ." //Trace Forward//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2011. < [] >.