HIS554NBA Guns and Peasants in East Asia

Please find below the SECOND GRADED WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT in this course. Remember, there will be FIVE short written assignments in the course, and your top FOUR (4) grades on those assignments will be counted towards your final grade in the course. Each graded written assignment is worth 5% of your final grade. The due date for this discussion board is June 20 at 11:59pm. This week's written assignment is a critical discussion board assignment. For this assignment, please read one of the following 2 texts, both written by prominent Meiji period intellectual Fukuzawa Yukichi - at very different points in his life. Option 1: Fukuzawa - Encouragement of Learning Fukuzawa - Encouragement of Learning - Alternative Formats Excerpt from "The Encouragement of Learning" (1872). This is the first chapter of Fukuzawa's Encouragement of Learning, one of the most popular books in late-19th century Japan. Option 2: Fukuzawa - Goodbye Asia Fukuzawa - Goodbye Asia - Alternative Formats "Goodbye Asia" (1885). This article, written by Fukuzawa more than a decade later, encourages the audience to view Japan's role in Asia in a new way. Remember, you must only read ONE of the above texts. After reading the text, please click the assignment link above (which says "5. Week 5 Discussion Board Assignment") and complete this assignment in TWO stages (you must do both parts): Create a new thread by clicking the "Create Thread" button at the top of the screen. Your thread title should be the title of the reading you chose. Provide a brief ( analysis of the essay. Provide a (very brief) summary of the argument of the text What kinds of values or concerns does Fukuzawa promote in the text? How do they relate to Japan's modernization efforts? Are there problematic or dangerous aspects to his ideas? Anything you disagree with? What did you find find interesting about the essay? What new insights did it provide about the course content? After you have written your thread, you must write a brief (50-100 word) comment on the threads of two other students. Your comment can be brief and complementary, or can provide a critique of the person's remarks. Ideally, it would be great to start some discussions. Try to comment on a thread that was about the reading you did not do. As always, be polite and do not attack each other. We are all friends working together here! Assessment: