History

Essays: The essays should have a clear argument supported by evidence from the readings and from lecture. While it is fine to state your personal opinion on these questions, please be sure that you support your opinion with historical evidence. The best answers will have an argument and will be very detailed. The answer should have a beginning, middle and an end. Two pages for each questions

1. What elements led Japan to officially surrender on Aug 14-15, 1945? In your opinion what single element was the most important? Please make a list of other important factors that may also have led to Japan’s decision to surrender.

2. Scholars and even Mao Zedong himself have suggested that the war “saved” the Chinese Communist Party. How do Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party benefit from the wartime period? How do they manipulate the situation to their benefit? Use lectures and the readings to address this assertion.

3. Describe the rise and fall of Japan’s biological weapons industry using what you know from Factories of Death. How do you assess the overall impact of this industry for Japan’s war effort? How did the U.S. justify its unwillingness to prosecute those involved with the industry after the war? Do you agree with this decision? Why or why not?

(Sheldon Harris, Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-1945 and the American Cover-Up (New York: Routledge) 2002)

4. What is your final assessment of Chiang Kaishek? How should he be remembered by history? Was he someone who “lost” China to communism through his own mismanagement? Or was he someone who did all they could do but ultimately failed to hold back a communist movement in China that was largely inevitable? Please make sure that you support your response using readings and lecture notes.