Japan history Research

[tsureru80]

Hi. Just stopping by here; Wanting to know more about Japan.
So, as a project of highschool I'd pictured myself doing a job mainly about Japan.
Firstly, I'm from Spain, and I'm willing to do a project that is based in Japan history. Although, it's an alternative and it's not something I have yet confirmed, I'd like to be up-to-date so either a website or book are totally useful as long as brings up information about Japanese culture, history and how language developed throughout time. English is not a problem so, any source is welcomed.

[Ryzorian]

Sorry I can't be much help. I took Japanese history in colloge, but was called up for Desert Storm two weeks into the class. So I only remember the part about Ainu were from the Northern islands or something.

[steven]

That sounds like a really hard task. Keep in mind this is coming from an American, but that kind of research seems like it's beyond the scope of high school.

I think what you'd discover researching something like this is that Japanese history is connected to Japanese dialects. There are many dialects in Japan... and some of them contain older ways of saying things. Sometimes you'll find dialects in two completely different areas that are similar to each other. Studying Japanese history gives clues (or sometimes flat out reasons) as to why this is.

Unfortunately I don't know of any books or websites that cover that kind of thing. I'd be interested in anything you or anyone else finds though!

Here's an idea though-- you could try to talk about Japan's writing systems. I think that you could speak fairly generally about that. Japanese has "katakana", "hiragana", and "kanji". "Kanji" came from china and the other two writing systems were derived from "kanji". Furthermore, "katakana" is used a lot of the time to write foreign words. In fact, you could probably do an entire paper on "katakana" alone. Katakana, like I said, is used for loanwords. Some of those words can be traced back to when Portugal was in Japan and some of them can be traced back to when Japan had a lot of interaction with Germany (pre-war/war era) and some of them can be traced back to post-war era Japan (during the occupation). I guess an interesting thing about "hiragana" is that there are some older characters that are no longer in use-- however, sometimes you can still find them. For example, there is a beer brand called "ebisu" the character for the "e" sound is written with an old character (which is kind of like "ye").

But ya, I think it'd be quite a task. If you were to do something like that, first you'd have to get your facts (I wouldn't go by what I said as there may be mistakes in there or better, clearer ways of saying things), then you have to find a concise way of putting it all together as to connect the language, the history, and the culture together.

Good luck!

[dogsbody70]

surely there are plenty of books and websites you can look up

[tipsygypsy]

Hi. I am new here and am not exactly sure how this works. But I strongly felt like helping you, since you're interested in our culture. So, let me give you an advice. First of all, there are damn wide range of historical events and our history is damn long. It is pretty hard to learn everything. Why don't you find a specific topic about Japanese history and learn it? and move to next topic if you've learned enough of it. Second of all, it might be more interesting to learn if you find some sort of connection between of your own country and Japan. I guess the first Spanish man who were interested in Japan was Marco Polo. (am I spelling his name right?) He had never reached Japan, but he was obviously trying to come to our country. It might help you if you start learning about him.

[Ghap]

Originally Posted by tipsygypsy

Hi. I am new here and am not exactly sure how this works. But I strongly felt like helping you, since you're interested in our culture. So, let me give you an advice. First of all, there are damn wide range of historical events and our history is damn long. It is pretty hard to learn everything. Why don't you find a specific topic about Japanese history and learn it? and move to next topic if you've learned enough of it. Second of all, it might be more interesting to learn if you find some sort of connection between of your own country and Japan. I guess the first Spanish man who were interested in Japan was Marco Polo. (am I spelling his name right?) He had never reached Japan, but he was obviously trying to come to our country. It might help you if you start learning about him.

As this poster suggests, pick what you wish to learn!


If starting afresh a good place to start is the bgining

History of Japan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

books are better....but its a place to start.

[BobbyCooper]

Great choice

In our schools here in Europe or in America we barely even mention the country Japan or the Pacific itself and there history. There NEVER was a History class in my school were we mentioned Japan. It's really sad for somebody who is particulary interested in these parts of the world.. but because I am European, we only talk about Europe of course, there colonies and so on.

Would be great if you could post the result!


perhaps include some of the war history?

[steven]

History classes in America were similar for me-- of course everything is seen from the viewpoint of America... but whenever we went to time periods that preceded America it was very much all about Europe. There's nothing wrong with learning about Europe, but I would've liked to hear more about Asia in general-- not just Japan but about the Middle East.

tipsygypsy said something important. Looking for connections with your own country is a good idea. First of all, that will be easier to find sources for. Second of all, it may (or may not) be interesting for you to discover certain connections between your countries.

I think finding sources for this kind of thing is easier said than done. I think you said you were preparing rather early for this, which is totally a good choice. What you can write about is going to be limited to your sources, so I'd try to narrow your topic down while you're looking for sources.

[tsureru80]

Well, then thanks for all your replies, and help. Some of your comments are good and give a good head start from the very beginning. In fact, I haven't tell teachers about this yet, but is something I'm looking for to know if there is any possibility at hand. As steven said it'll be a good idea to narrow the topic and little by little as I find new information expand the areas and world I'll be exposing.


I didn't know Marco Polo was interested in Japan.
Also I knew Wikipedia's entry of Japan's history (Wikipedia is always there for anyone...) but there's a drawback: It's extense and (With a lot of information) and each topic not specific just not deep. That's why I want to know something relating every history plus language, thing I've not seen yet.

Yeah, it will be a great task that's why I first reflected it and now I'd be trying it out.