the role change of Japans culture :: essays research papers

The Role Change of Japan’s Culture My experiences in Japan have been surreal in that the cultural behaviors are nearly an exact opposite to those with which I had grown up. The order of daily life is solely dependent on the roles and duties of each individual. When people begin to go against the regular flow of the excepted norms, great controversy is created. Japanese culture patterns follow a specific code that is rarely altered. When they are disturbed, there is panic caused by the insecurities of change. The identity of Japanese culture is collectivism. Japan's culture is dependent on the community of the people. The Japanese do not strive for individual success, but rather for group accomplishment. It is better for the group as a whole to be healthy than for one person to achieve higher status. The Japanese do not believe in leaving one person behind, they would rather slow the entire group down until that person can catch up. In addition, the person who is slowing the group down will feel shame because he has hurt his "family". For example, I volunteered in a Kindergarten in Shinagawa the last four months, and one day there was a little boy who was moving his chair into the group much more slowly than the other students. The other students sat quietly watching him. When he finally put his chair down and the teacher was ready to begin, the student did not have his materials ready and had to go back to the closet to get things. The teacher became agitated and went afte r the boy. She pointed to the clock and spoke to him sternly. Then she looked at the students and held him so they could all look at him as she reprimanded him. The child did not scream or cry for his mother as I expected. Instead he looked down as tears flowed down his cheeks. The other students went back to looking at the teacher’s chair and she returned and did the lesson without the boy. The boy continued to stand still until the group finished and then he rejoined them. I had seen the students hitting each other and misbehaving many times, but I never saw a student get punished by a teacher until this day. This boy, at four years old, was feeling Haji (shame). He had hurt the group by cutting their time short.

Hyphenated Americans and the Hardships of the American Indians Essay

Many Americans recognize themselves with a hyphenated designation. They call themselves Asian-Americans, Arab-Americans, Jewish-American, Cuban-Americans, native-Americans and many other. They considered themselves immigrants -people who moved to the United States to seek legal permanent residency and stable sources pf livelihood. Indeed, it is said that the United States has always been a nation of refugees and immigrants, with the exception of the natives living here before the Spanish, French, Viking, Dutch and English explorers arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries. Native Americans (Indian American) who lived on the North America peninsula for at least 16,000 years had a very diverse collision on American history and racial relations. It is noticeable that during the independent periods, a long series of conflicts between Indian tribes erupted for almost 2000 years. These include wars, massacres, imposition of treaties and forced displacement done by the immigrants in their native soil. History books documented the first racial discrimination: Hernando De Soto burned a number of Indian villages in 1540, with the consent of the Spanish Crown. In early 1700’s, the English massacred nearly 800 Choctaws. Afterwhich, the idea of Indian exclusion became popular. Choctaw elders described the incident in 1849: â€Å"We have our homes torn down and destroyed, our fences demoralized, cattle was slaughtered into our fields and we ourselves have been plagued, chained, confined and personally abused, until by such management of our some best people have died,† (William, 1988). In this view, some ideological expansionist justification included stereotyped views of all Native Americans as â€Å"merciless Indian savages,† despite triumphant efforts of American radicals to eradicate discrimination. The most popular attempt happened with the so called California Gold Rush, when thousands of Native Americans died in the gold mines of California and Arizona. Under this rule, Indians were subjected to de facto slavery. Thus, in 1850, the state of California entered the Union as a free state (including the issue of slavery); slavery was formally practiced in 1863 when the California Legislature ratified special laws on slavery. Former President George Washington believed that Native Americans were equals of the ‘modern’ American but recognize the fact that their societies were less technologically advanced. This led to the formulation of a set of policies designed to modernize these societies. These included: a) giving punishment for those who violated Native American rights, b) presidential authority to give promote Indian development, c) promotion of business, d) improvement of Native American Society, e) objective impartiality toward Native Americans, and f) regulated buying of Native American lands. In this sense, Native Americans battle for their rights and giving them the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted US citizenship to all Native Americans, although prior to the passage of the law, almost two thirds of them are already a US citizen. The act partly stated: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all no citizen Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States be, and they are hereby, declared to be citizens of the United States: Provided, That the granting of such citizenship shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of any Native American to tribal or other property. † Indian Citizen Act of 1924 Over time, as the immigration intensified, American Indians were gradually mixed into the prevailing society resulting to erosion of monolithic solidarity of ethnic cultures. But less evident was the immovable preservation of the unique characteristics of the dominantly flooded ethnicities. A civilizing pluralism steadily saturated the homogeneous principles that â€Å"natives† insisted were very important to the American distinctiveness. As ethnics detached, hyphenated societies reproduced. Thus, complexity in historical origins is evident in their ethnic closed society. For now, what is clear is that the Americans are still in making its way to accept this reality. In this sense, the remarkable ability of the Americans to fuse diversity into harmony is said to be an ever-changing mosaic of their culture.

Battle of the Atlantic in World War II

The Battle of the Atlantic was fought between September 1939 and May 1945 throughout the entirety of  World War II. Battle of the Atlantic Commanding Officers AlliesAdmiral Sir Percy Noble, RNAdmiral Sir Max Horton, RNAdmiral Royal E. Ingersoll, USNGermanGrand Admiral Erich RaederGrand Admiral Karl Doenitz Background With the British and French entrance into World War II on Sept. 3, 1939, the German Kriegsmarine moved to implement strategies similar to those used in World War I. Unable to challenge the Royal Navys capital ships, the Kriegsmarine began a campaign against Allied shipping to cut off British supply lines. Overseen by Admiral Raeder, German naval forces sought to employ a mix of surface raiders and U-boats. Though he favored the surface fleet, which would come to include the battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz, Raeder was challenged by his U-boat chief, then-Commodore Doenitz, regarding the use of submarines. Initially ordered to seek out British warships, Doenitzs U-boats had early success sinking the old battleship HMS Royal Oak at Scapa Flow and the carrier HMS Courageous off Ireland. Despite these victories, he vigorously advocated for using groups of U-boats, called wolf packs, to attack the Atlantic convoys that were resupplying Britain. Though the German surface raiders scored some early successes, they drew the attention of the Royal Navy, who sought to destroy them or keep them in port. Engagements such as the Battle of the River Plate and the Battle of the Denmark Strait saw the British respond to this threat. The Happy Time With the fall of France in June 1940, Doenitz gained new bases on the Bay of Biscay from which his U-boats could operate. Spreading into the Atlantic, the U-boats began attacking British convoys in wolf packs further directed by intelligence gleaned from breaking the  British Naval Cypher No.  3. Armed with the approximate location of an approaching convoy, they would deploy in a long line across its anticipated path. When a U-boat sighted the convoy, it would radio its location and coordination of the attack would commence. Once all of the U-boats were in position, the wolf pack would strike. Typically conducted at night, these assaults could involve up to six U-boats and forced the convoy escorts to deal with multiple threats from several directions. Through the remainder of 1940 and into 1941, U-boats enjoyed tremendous success and inflicted heavy losses on Allied shipping. As a result, it became known as Die Glà ¼ckliche Zeit (the happy time) among the U-boat crews. Claiming over 270 Allied vessels during this period, U-boat commanders such as  Otto Kretschmer, Gà ¼nther Prien, and Joachim Schepke became celebrities in Germany. Key battles in the second half of 1940 included convoys HX 72 (which lost 11 of 43 ships in the course of fighting), SC 7 (which lost 20 of 35), HX 79 (which lost 12 of 49), and HX 90 (which lost 11 of 41). These efforts were supported by Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor aircraft, which aided in finding and attacking Allied ships. Converted from long-range Lufthansa airliners, these aircraft flew from bases in Bordeaux, France and Stavanger, Norway to penetrate deep into the North Sea and Atlantic. Capable of carrying a 2,000-pound bomb load, Condors typically would strike at low altitude to bracket the target vessel with three bombs.  Focke-Wulf Fw 200 crews claimed to have sunk 331,122 tons of Allied shipping from June 1940 to February 1941. Though effective, Condors were seldom available in more than limited numbers, and the threat later posed by Allied escort carriers and other aircraft ultimately forced their withdrawal. Guarding the Convoys Though British destroyers and corvettes were equipped with ASDIC (sonar), the system was still unproven, unable to maintain contact with a target during an attack. The Royal Navy was also hampered by a lack of suitable escort vessels. This was eased in September 1940, when fifty obsolete destroyers were obtained from the U.S. via the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. In spring 1941, as British anti-submarine training improved and additional escort vessels reached the fleet, losses began to lessen and the Royal Navy sank U-boats at an increasing rate. To counter improvements in British operations, Doenitz pushed his wolf packs further west, forcing the Allies to provide escorts for the entire Atlantic crossing. While the Royal Canadian Navy covered convoys in the eastern Atlantic, it was aided by President Roosevelt, who extended the Pan-American Security Zone nearly to Iceland. Though neutral, the U.S. provided escorts within this region. Despite these improvements, U-boats continued to operate at will in the central Atlantic outside the range of Allied aircraft. This air gap posed issues until more advanced maritime patrol aircraft arrived. Operation Drumbeat Other elements that aided in stemming Allied losses were the capture of a German Enigma code machine and the installation of new high-frequency direction-finding equipment for tracking U-boats. With the U.S. entry into the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Doenitz dispatched U-boats to the American coast and Caribbean under the name Operation Drumbeat. Commencing operations in January 1942, the U-boats began enjoying a second happy time as they took advantage of unescorted U.S. merchant ships and Americas failure to implement a coastal blackout. Losses rising, the U.S. implemented a convoy system in May 1942. With convoys operating on the American coast, Doenitz withdrew his U-boats back to the mid-Atlantic that summer. Through the fall, losses mounted on both sides as the escorts and U-boats clashed. In November 1942, Admiral Horton became commander-in-chief of the Western Approaches Command. As additional escort vessels became available, he formed separate forces tasked with supporting convoy escorts. Not tied to defending a convoy, these forces could specifically hunt U-boats. The Tide Turns In the winter and early spring of 1943, the convoy battles continued with increasing ferocity. As Allied shipping losses mounted, the supply situation in Britain began to reach critical levels. Though losing U-boats in March, the German strategy of sinking ships faster than Allies could build them appeared to be succeeding. This ultimately proved to be a false dawn, as the tide rapidly turned in April and May. Allied losses dropped in April, yet the campaign pivoted to the defense of convoy ONS 5. Attacked by 30 U-boats, it lost 13 ships in exchange for six of Doenitzs subs. Two weeks later, convoy SC 130 repelled German attacks and sank five U-boats while taking no losses. The integration of several technologies that became available in the previous months—the Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar, continued advances in reading German radio traffic, enhanced radar, and the Leigh Light—swiftly shifted Allied fortunes. The latter device allowed Allied aircraft to successfully attack surfaced U-boats at night. Other advances included the introduction of merchant aircraft carriers and long-range maritime variants of the B-24 Liberator. Combined with new escort carriers, these eliminated the air gap, and with wartime ship construction programs like Liberty ships, they rapidly gave Allies the upper hand. Dubbed Black May by Germans, May 1943 lost Doenitz 34 U-boats in the Atlantic in exchange for 34 Allied ships. Latter Stages of Battle Pulling back his forces during the summer, Doenitz worked to develop and create new tactics and equipment, including U-flak boats with enhanced anti-aircraft defenses, a variety of countermeasures, and new torpedoes. Returning to offense in September, U-boats enjoyed brief success before again taking heavy losses. As Allied airpower strengthened, U-boats came under attack in the Bay of Biscay as they left and returned to port. With his fleet shrinking, Doenitz turned to new U-boat designs like the revolutionary Type XXI. Designed to operate entirely submerged, the Type XXI was faster than any of its predecessors, and only four were completed by the end of the war. Aftermath The final actions of the Battle of the Atlantic took place on May 8, 1945, just before German surrender.  Allies lost around 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships in the fighting, along with roughly 72,000 sailors killed. German casualties numbered 783 U-boats and around 30,000 sailors (75% of the U-boat force). Victory in the Atlantic theater, one of WWIIs most important fronts, was critical to the Allied cause. Prime Minister Churchill later cited its importance: The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all through the war. Never for one moment could we forget that everything happening elsewhere, on land, at sea or in the air depended ultimately on its outcome.