Giving up the Gun tells the story of Japan, a highly civilized country, who possessed a highly developed technology in firearms and voluntarily chose to give up these weapons to return to a more primitive style culture. There was no real forceful abolition of firearms, but instead a slow voluntary effort and shift of mindset. Further than the story though, Giving up the Gun makes the claim that progress is not inevitable, and that we are able to control and guide its direction. Firearms were brought into Japan in the mid-1500s and actually took a while to catch on and be mass-produced. There were both technological and social aspects that hindered the development and use of these weapons.
Under the Japanese colonial regime, Korea suffered a great deal which resulted in the reluctance of acknowledging Japan’s influence that evolved Korea into a bigger country. In addition, Korea still believes that after the inheritance of independence, Korea designed their own systems that led to the maintenance of the country we have today. On the other hand, as Kim mentioned, Korean historians fail to notice and recognize Japan’s efforts that helped Korea to become the country it has become. As Kim states, “such an acknowledgement can lead to a constructive step forward in the direction of Korean legal scholarship, shifting away from justifying and defending Korea’s tradition by using the very colonial discourse …”
Japan has since then been a neutral country, not interfering with any foreign conflicts. But with North Korea in such close proximity to Japan, along with their constant harassment, especially in the form of testing nuclear missiles, it is no surprise the Japanese people are starting to lean towards a nationalistic government, calling for the trepushing for a stronger military like the ones from the Japanese empire during World War II. Prime Minister Abe, who also
Historical Film Analysis: As One There are conflicts between countries all over the world, and it seems fine with other countries because they do not want to interfere. However, Korea has a different history than any other country. Every country went through war with another and had a different reason why, but Korea is a different case. Although, the US and Russia tried to interfere when Japan colonized Korea in 1910, resulting a much worse situation. As a result, Korea became two nations rather than one.
Many want a change of wording within the regulations of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, who created the ICW, because many of the anti-walling supporters within the convention believe that the clauses have granted the right for the pro-whaling people to keep doing what they are doing. With that being said, the majority of the members disapprove whaling operations (Iliff, 2006). In 2006, the Japanese attempted to normalize the ICW and by that they wanted to return to the old ways of the ICRW which favored the pro-whaling supporters. Luckily, the Japanese failed to pass this since the meeting they organized was boycotted by anti-whaling nations and because now the majority of supporters belonged to the anti-whaling group. This lead to the process of modernizing the ICRW, but was met with much resistance by the opposite side (Iliff, 2006).
Reporting the 2001 textbook and yasukuni shrine controversies: Japanese war memory and commemoration in the british media. Japan Forum, 17(3), 287-309. doi:10.1080/09555800500283786 Again at center stage, Prime Minister Koizuma’s visit in 2001 set off controversy not only in East Asian, but in Britain as well. The point of the paper was to critique the British media coverage for the lack of complex detail in the issue between Japan, China, and Korea. While not a direct neighbor, Britain’s media coverage may prove an interesting third-party view point of the Yasukuni Shrine
Formation of Malayan Union, a result of Japanese Occupation, also played a role in the making of the nation. The Japanese Occupation years could be said to be of no relevance in the making of the nation because the nature of nationalism remained unchanged. According to McCoy, nationalistic sentiments had already been influential and strong prior to the Japanese arrival, indicating that the Japanese Occupation years were not responsible for transforming or creating such sentiments. For instance, the political leaders perceived the Japanese Occupation years as an opportunity to seize power and Japanese officials were regarded as mere puppets . As such, it was observed that the existing nationalist leaders were merely just responding and adapting to
The Mongols attempted an invasion of Japan twice to no avail, in part, due to the storms which proved a challenge for the Mongols on both attempts to invade the Japanese. Despite the Mongols’ inability to capture Japan, Japan still felt the impact of the Mongols’ scrutiny. Fending off the Mongols proved damaging financially to the Japanese, as along with the costs of defending the island during the attempted invasions, costs continued afterwards in anticipation of a third Mongol attack which never came. The financial stress the Mongols imposed on Japan ultimately resulted in political discomfort amongst the Japanese, and the bafuku government fell in 1333, which was then replaced by another military
Many of the Japanese characters presented in the film are exaggerations meant to serve the plot and character development of the two American protagonists without any depth or voice of their own. They are mainly props used to get across the point that Japan is "strange" and "exotic". My own experiences while traveling in Japan, including very vibrant areas in Osaka almost identical to those shown in Tokyo, do not match with those in the film and many of the Japanese characters are very much exaggerations and
A treacherous race of terror started soon after the decision was materialized. Some critics are of the opinion that Japanese were ready to surrender and that the decision of dropping atomic bombs was utterly pointless. Militarists view it as discrimination on the basis of ethnicity as no such violent act has ever been committed against white people. On the other hand, the diplomats of America had clandestine objectives. In order to contain the Soviets, the atomic bomb was used to deliver a message that they should not underestimate the Americans, who are capable of defending themselves and can go to any extent in order to preserve their sovereignty.