History

General Resources
[|Internet East Asian History Sourcebook] - Fordham University

[|The New Order for Greater East Asia] National Endowment for the Humanities, Edsitement, grades 9-12. Lesson plan explores US diplomacy during and after WWII by analyzing primary sources. Lesson is framed around the question, Was the American vision for postwar East and Southeast Asia flawed?

[|Games of Asia] - ancient origins of games many students play today - interactive resource.

Great Wall
[|Following the Great Wall of China] - National Endowment for the Humanities, Edsitement, grades 6-8. This lesson investigates the building of the Great Wall of China during the Ming Dynasty as a way of introducing students to this rich period of Chinese history. Includes [|interactive activity].

Silk Road
[|Puppets on the Move: China and the Silk Road] - The Kennedy Center, ArtsEdge, grades 5-8. In this lesson, students gain an understanding of the dynamics of trade in China along the Silk Road, and the role of trade in urbanization throughout the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties, culminating in a student-produced shadow puppet show.

Opium Wars (1839-1842)
[|Role Play Activity]. Primary Source - Students role play British/Chinese merchants and British/Chinese officials.

[|Opium Wars] - City University of New York. Painting, text, and primary source letter from British official.

Explanation of Opium Wars - [|Mr. Dowling's Electronic Passport] - easier reading level Explanation of Opium Wars - [|Washington State University] Explanation of Opium Wars - [|University of Maryland] [|The First Opium War, the US, and the Treaty of Wangxia, 1839-1844] - US State Department, explanation of US relationship with China during this time period and first formal treaty signed between the two countries.

World War II in China
[|BurmaRdMap.pdf] - map resource from National Geographic [|History of Japansese involvement in China] and [|Link 2] and [|Link 3] [|Link 4] [|How Stuff Works] - 1 min. 41 seconds video briefly mentioning Japan's reasons for invading Manchuria and alliance with Hitler/Mussolini [|YouTube Video] (2 min.) of Japanese reasons for invading Manchuria and effects on Chinese

Cultural Revolution
[|Morning Sun] - This website is an excellent resource for primary and multimedia resources. [|Primary source documents] of personal accounts during the Cultural Revolution - Education about Asia

Tiananmen Square Uprising
PBS 90-min DVD, __[|Tank Man]__, provides an excellent overview of the events in 1989. The film also explores the effects of rapid economic change and the lack of political reform in contemporary China. Highly recommended.

Contemporary China
[|PBS: China from the inside]

[|China Blue] - Have your student think about their blue jeans and human rights.

- World Affairs Council curriculum (published March 2008) for high school students about China's economic growth.

[|From 'Made in China' to 'Sold in China': The Rise of the Chinese Urban Consumer] - McKinsey Global Institute - provides interesting graphics and anslysis to help students understand the impact a growing middle class in China will have on the global economy.

China/Tibet
[|Q & A on protests in Tibet] - BBC [|Interview with the Dalai Lama] - Newsweek

China/Taiwan
"[|Managing the Triangular Relationship: The U.S., China & Taiwan]," speech by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (2005) - AsiaSociety "[|Taiwan and US-China Relations]," Background reading, discussion questions, and primary source documents - Asia for Educators, Columbia Univ. "[|The 8-Point Proposition Made by President Jiang Zemin on China's Reunification,]" speech by Jiang Zemin (2004) "[|One China, Two Systems]," New York Times lesson plan - (2000) - although somewhat outdated, good discussion questions. "[|Taiwan: Moving Toward a Knowledge-Based Economy,]" - (2006) - Nightly Business Report. Contains background info., lesson plan, and video [|ABC News article] on eased relationship between China and Taiwan (March 2009) [|CBS News clip] - Hu Jintao and George Bush press conference on the question of Taiwan (2006). "[|Taiwan and China's Military Buildup]," US-China Institute (2008), 6-minute video with excellent summary of key issues. "[|China/Taiwan Reopen Regular Links]," CNN (Dec. 2008) - commercial flights, mail, etc. [|US Arms sales to Taiwan], CNN (Oct. 2008) - plans for US arms sales to Taiwan (brief article) [|"Taiwan: Time not right for reducing China tensions]," International Herald Tribune (March 2009) [|US Economic Ties with Taiwan], American Institute in Taiwan [|Background Notes], State Department, US Government

Timelines
[|50 Years of Communism in China] - New York Times

Resources about Japanese History
Overview of [|Classical Japanese History] and [|Medieval Japanese History] - UCLA, Center for East Asian Studies

[|National Museum of Japanese History] Interactive exhibits online to learn more about Japanese history and culture (click on "exhibits").

[|Life in Tokugawa Japan] - Washington State University. Provides a brief overview of life in Tokugawa Japan. Learn about samurai, farmers, craftspeople, merchants, and other groups during this period. This resource is referenced in the Edsitement lesson, [|Ukiyo-e Prints and the Rise of the Merchant Class in Edo Period Japan] (see Art and Architecture page).

[|Visualizing Culture] - MIT Image-Driven Scholarship - interesting, dynamic look at different perspectives on culture and history depicted through art. This resource examines Commodore Perry's arrival in Japan through the perspectives of American and Japanese artists.

Japan Society - [|Rights and Responsibilities: Looking at the Meiji Constitution] - helpful explanation of Meiji era and lesson plan (could be adapted from elementary) about Meiji constitution.

Japanese Colonialism
[|Japanese Colonialism in Korea: A Comparative Perspective], paper by Bruce Cumings available through Asia Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. (Download .pdf.)

Japan Society - [|Imperial Democracy and Colonial Expansion, 1890-1945] - series of lesson plans about this period in Japanese history.

Japan Society - [|What is a Hero?] - elementary lesson plan that could be adapted... introduces Japanese imperialism and raises question of heroes and who is printed on Japanese currency.

WWII
[|The Road to Pearl Harbor: The US and East Asia, 1915-1941] - National Endowment for the Humanities, Edsitement, grades 9-12. Students use primary sources to analyze US-Japanese relations before WWII.

[|Documentary Photographs of Nagasaki] - The Kennedy Center, ArtsEdge, grades 9-12. This student interactive lesson presents a brief slideshow of documentary photographs taken during WWII bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. Contains some graphic images.

[|Japanese Interviews, Perspectives on WWII] An index of Japanese student interviews with their grandparents about memories of World War II. Included in the accounts are portraits of young men and women conscripted into the Imperial Armed Forces and the American occupation of Japan. Excellent source, with somewhat limited English translation.

Japanese Colonialism
[|Japanese Colonialism in Korea: A Comparative Perspective], paper by Bruce Cumings available through Asia Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. (Download .pdf.)

Korean War
[|"Police Action": The Korean War, 1950-1953] - Edsitement, National Endowment for the Humanities, grades 9-12. In this lesson, students learn about the Korean War by reading the most important administration documents related to it. Students explore four major issues: Truman's decision to send troops to Korea; the decision to cross the 38th Parallel into North Korea, at the risk of a wider war with China; Truman's decision to fire General Douglas MacArthur; and the war's growing unpopularity in the United States.

Contemporary Korea
[|Historical perspective] on North Korea's isolationism and aggressive nuclear policy - Frontline (PBS)

[|Go Korea!] - a number of resources about contemporary Korea (Australian source)