1. Japan, the Koreas
and Southeast Asia

2. Japan - Geography archipelago – string of islands
4 large main islands and 3,000+ smaller ones in a long chain more than 1,500 miles long (as long as eastern coast of US)
75% of country covered by steep, rugged, tree-covered mountains

3. Japan – Natural Disasters
Mt. Fuji, highest mountain is actually a volcano and is considered by many to be sacred.
Because of its location, Japan is subject to lots natural disasters including volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis, destructive waves caused by underwater earthquakes.
tsunami

4. Ancient Japan Early history greatly influenced by China.
Missionaries and scholars brought Buddhism to Japan, and it quickly became the main religion.
First government was based on China’s and emperors ruled for centuries.
The capital was Heian, now called Kyoto.

5. Ancient Japan
Art, literature, and learning were extremely important and some of the emperors were actually more concerned with art than with running the country, and their power slipped away.

6. Ancient Japan - Shoguns
As emperors’ power faded, the country fell under the control of shoguns, powerful generals who ruled in the emperor’s name. Only one shogun could hold power at a time.
Shoguns continued to rule clear into the 1800s.

7. Ancient Japan - Samurai
Samurai – highly trained warriors who served in armies under the shogun
Fierce in battle and devoted to their leaders
Very strict code of conduct and sense of personal honor called bushido, would commit suicide if they violated this code of honor.
Highly respected in Japanese society
Expected to embrace beauty and culture
Deconstructing History
Armor

8. European & Japanese Feudalism
What is feudalism?
A system in which large landowners offer protection to people in return for their service to the landowner.
“There are peasants who are tied to the farm land and work for protection plus a portion of the harvest, rather than for money. Warriors dominate the society and are bound by codes of obedience and ethics. Finally, there is no strong central government; instead, lords of smaller units of land control the warriors and peasants, but these lords owe (at least theoretical) obedience to a distant and relatively weak duke, king or emperor.”
During the Middle Ages, both Europe and Japan independently developed their own feudal systems.

9. Japanese Feudalism
Not everyone was happy with the rule of the shoguns, and in a group of samurai overthrew the shogun and gave power back to the emperor.

10. So what about those Ninjas?
Time to research and find out about real ninjas.
Be prepared to share your findings with the class.
Did you notice there was a ninja hiding on every slide?

11. Real Ninjas Assassins and spies
In the age of Samurai and bushido, they weren’t exactly considered honorable
Wore navy blue, not black
Some ninjas were actually Samurai by day and ninja by night
Ninjas v=4LHzj3MosKs

12. Japanese Religion Most people blend 2 religions, Shinto and Buddhism.
Buddhism came from the mainland, but Shinto is native to Japan.
According to Shinto teachings, nature spirits called kami live in the world and everything in nature—the sun, moon, trees, rocks, waterfalls, animals, has kami. Some kami help people live and keep them from harm, so they build shrines to the kami and perform ceremonies to ask for their blessings.

13. Japanese Culture and Art
Kimonos – traditional robes
Kabuki – a type of Japanese drama developed centuries ago and still popular today
Kabuki /watch?v=hlTQUzPZU8Y

14. Japanese Culture and Art
Haiku
An unrhymed Japanese poem of 3 lines and 17 syllables
1st line – 5 syllables
2nd line – 7 syllables
3rd line – 5 syllables
Usually about nature
How to Haiku kx19zgw
Your turn to try!

15. Korea - Geography Located on the Korean Peninsula.
Has many rugged mountains on the eastern coast and plains along the western coast and in river valleys.
Doesn’t have the volcanoes and earthquakes that Japan does, but does get typhoons.
Typhoon – huge, potentially very destructive storm
Typhoon WhtBaHA
Car Blown Away ya6eII

16. Korea Splits
Highly influenced by China and although it remained independent, it was considered part of China’s empire.
Later, the Japanese invaded the Korean Peninsula. They were harsh rulers, and the Koreans resented them.
After WWII, Korea was taken from Japan and made independent.
Instead of forming 1 country, the Koreans formed 2 with Communist Russia supporting North Korea and the United States backing democratic South Korea.

17. The Korean War
In 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea in an attempt to unify all of Korea under a Communist government. This started the Korean War.
The South Koreans, with the aid of the U.S. and other countries, drove the invaders back, but it was a very costly war.
To keep the 2 countries from fighting, between them they established a demilitarized zone, an empty buffer zone where troops are not allowed, though guards still patrol on both sides of it.

18. Korean Culture
Religion – In past, most people were Buddhists and Confucianists. In N. Korea, the Communist government discourages people from practicing any religion. Christianity growing in S. Korea and is about ¼ of population are Christian.
Kimchi – Korea’s most well-known food, made from pickled cabbage and various spices
Korean language –written with an alphabet where the letters combine to form words rather than a single symbol representing an entire word like in Chinese and Japanese

19. Southeast Asia - Geography
Countries on the Indochina and Malay Peninsulas
Two island groups – the Philippines and Malay Archipelago which are made up of over 20,000 islands.
The islands are part of the Ring of Fire, an area of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Prone to having tsunamis.

20. Southeast Asia - Religion
This area has many beautiful wats, Buddhist temples that also serve as monasteries.

21. Angkor Wat
Khmer - the region’s most advanced early civilization. From AD 800s to the mid-1200s the Khmer controlled a large empire in what is now Cambodia.
Angkor Wat – A huge Hindu temple complex built by the Khmer in the 1100s which symbolized the center of the universe.

22. Angkor Wat Largest religious monument in the world.
Miles of courtyards and avenues are decorated with carvings that tell the stories of Hindu mythology.
Angkor Wat
From Air
From Ground

23. Colonial Southeast Asia
In the 1500s, European powers came to the region in search of spices and other trade goods.
Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and France all took their turns colonizing and controlling various parts of Southeast Asia, bringing their influence.
Even the U.S. entered the region in when it won the Philippines from Spain after the Spanish- American War.
Only Siam, now Thailand, was never colonized.

24. Southeast Asia - Independence
In WWII, Japan invaded and occupied most of SE Asia.
The Philippines became independent from the U.S. in 1946.
Britain gave up colonies of Burma in 1948 and Malaya in 1957.
Netherlands and France were less willing to give up colonies, but the threat of a communist uprising set Indonesia free in 1949.
In Vietnam, the Communist leader Ho Chi Minh seized power from the French in the north. The country split in two and a civil war broke out.

25. Vietnam War
The U.S. was worried that if one country fell to communism, other nearby countries would also fall, so they sent troops to Vietnam in the 1960s. The U.S. never officially “declared war.”
After years of war, millions of deaths, and terrible destruction, the U.S. pulled out its troops and the country reunited as one Communist country.
About a million refugees fled the country, many coming to the U.S.
This was an important event in American history, but you’ll cover it in much greater detail in other history classes.
Cambodia and Laos also had civil wars over Communism.