In his reading
Dower argues about Japanese experienced defeat irrespective of the death of many people including the army during the war and the loss was based on the issue of Japan forgetting the importance of being human. Japan witnesses deaths of soldiers who starved during the war in Burma and yet the country was defeated irrespective of the effort put by those soldiers. In the reading, I failed to understand how it would be possible for the Japanese to remember the criminals and forget their crimes despite their requirement of living like peace-loving people.
In the reading by Gordon
It is clear that in the post-war era, Japan focused on having social and economic changes. The country engaged in massive investment in manufacturing plants and new technology, as many companies focused on the production of electronics, automobiles, shipbuilding, and steel and iron. Japan experiences rapid growth of its economy. There was social transformation, as the Japanese increased their social interactions in the cities and families remained together. However, I do not understand what "love marriages" as demonstrated in Wadakura Bridge through couples would influence social transformation in contemporary Japan.
In the reading by Haruko and Theodore
The two explore the sufferings of the families after the war due to the deaths of the majority of their loved ones. It is not clear about how the Japanese women who remain in China acquired the needed support and yet the "secret weapon" was used in school among students.
Vignettes in the reading
Argue about the Chungin family, the descendants who were buried in Puyo for several generations and the struggle of the families to like in the Paks. In the reading, it is not clear about Pak Ch'angnae facing difficulties and being willing to serve as an educator; the information tends to be confusing.
Work Cited
Cook, Haruko Taya, and Theodore F. Cook. Japan at war: an oral history. New Press, 1993.
Dower, John W. Embracing defeat: Japan in the wake of World War II. WW. Chapter sixteen; What do you tell the dead when you lose? Norton " Company, 2000.
Gordon, Andrew. A modern history of Japan: from Tokugawa times to the present: Economic and Social Transformations. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Park, Eugene Y. A Family of No Prominence: The Descendants of Pak Tŏkhwa and the Birth of Modern Korea: Vignettes: Colonial Subjects of Imperial Japan. Stanford University Press, 2014.
