EAST ASIA FROM 1500

Please read Wang Jingwei’s Radio Address to Japanese people on June 24, 1941 (see the pdf file posted separately). Then imagine yourself to be Chiang Kai-shek (in Chongqing), Mao Zedong (in Yan’an), Puyi (in Xinjing/Changchun), and Emperor Hirohito (in Tokyo). After listening this radio address, each of them decided to react to it by drafting an open letter. You are asked to:
• Choosing three figures from the four listed above. Draft the open letters from the viewpoints of these three figures (use first-person narrative).
• Keep in mind that these letters are supposed to be published in a newspaper with nationwide influence in China (in Chiang’s and Mao’s cases), Manchukuo (Puyi’s case), or Japan (Hirohito’s case).
• In drafting each of these letters, you must consider the author’s perspective, political standpoint, and potential emotions (stirred by Wang’s address), and think how the author would openly mobilize Chinese or/and Japanese populace.
• In each letter you must react to Wang Jingwei’s Pan-Asianism, and criticize or applause to it reasonably by addressing Sun Yat-sen’s Pan-Asianism.
• The total word count for each letter should be between 300 and 350. Marks will be deducted for being under or over the word limit.
• List the sources you consulted for writing each letter separately. You are expected to use information from all sources covered in the course. If necessary, you can consult only one extra secondary or primary source and provide a Chicago-style bibliography of the source.
• Each letter will be graded separately (according mainly to the “Marking Guide” posted on eClass for the assessment of Major Assignment).
• The accuracy of your understanding on each person’s perspective within the wartime background and on the representations of Wang’ and Sun’s Pan-Asian outlooks are the central consideration during the marking process. The clarity and correctness of your writing will also be considered as an integrated part.