Select ONE of the following topics and compose a well-written and thoughtful essay of appropriate length for the task. In all cases you should strive to shape a persuasive argument with a clear thesis statement or “take” on the issue, backed with convincing examples from the course materials, and topped off with crisp concluding comments. It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that your essay should be typed, double-spaced, and stapled. You might want to review the second page of the hard copy of the course syllabus for a sense of my expectations in assessing your effort. It is due in class on Tuesday, Oct. 16, no exceptions.

1. Explain the title of John Dower’s book Embracing Defeat. In what ways did postwar Japanese “embrace” defeat? And what kind of “embrace” was this (loving, clinging, fearful, secure, insecure, etc.)? Draw on any and all materials encountered in the course thus far to fashion your response. The broader and deeper of your embrace of the materials, the better.

2. War experience, war memory, and war history are related but not the same. Drawing on such readings as Japan at War, The Crazy Iris, Embracing Defeat, and the four short stories we have read so far, discuss the relationship—positive and antagonistic—among experience, memory, and history of the Asia-Pacific War.

3. What kind of perspectives do you gain by juxtaposing the experiences of hibakusha and the memories of violence that Japanese inflicted on other Asian people during the Asia-Pacific War? What particular insights does the juxtaposition between the literary expression of hibakusha experiences (from The Crazy Iris) and the oral histories of Japanese aggression in Asia (from Japan at War) give you for the study (and questioning) of history in general?

4. How do you think a history of the Occupation of Japan as told by the following types of people would differ? Where would the basis of their differences lie?

a. A repatriated Japanese soldier
b. A (male) communist labor union leader freed from prison by SCAP
c. A war widow turned panpan
d. A young school boy