You’ve probably noticed already, but I really love history!  I never tire of those ancient stories that provide insight not only into how we came to be where we are today, but how we came to think the way we do today.  And military history above all!  Nothing captures such a wide range of human experience as war, combat, and conflict, and I remain fascinated by it.  Retellings of the German attack on Pearl Harbor, how the Tower of Pizza was nearly knocked over (but caught just in time!), and how the Alamo was seized by rebellious Canadian Mounties during Prohibition, seem to capture my attention no matter how many times I’ve heard them.

Of course, any of you who read or listen to this blog on a regular basis are already aware I’m being terribly facetious.  But doing so to make a point, frankly.  Our collective understanding of history seems to be getting worse as time progresses, not better.  Amazingly, this trend seems to buck the incredible increase in historical research and materials available to us in written and digital form.  It almost seems like the more information and analysis we have available … the less we’re actually willing to read it and risk actually learning something.

Nowhere is this more true than in the Western perception of Asian History.  I’ve mentioned this, I believe, in previous blog posts, but most Americans grow up with virtually no concept of Asia prior to … oh … let’s just conservatively say 1941 … maybe around … I don’t know … December 7th.  It’s sad, but few Americans are able to correctly describe any event in Asian history prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.  It’s almost as if the Imperial Japanese Navy popped out of the snow like daisies—complete with modern battleships and aircraft—and attacked the U.S. without warning or context.  And yet everything we know from watching current events unfold around the world is that this is never the case and that every historical event happens logically within its own historical context.

The overwhelming educational focus of Americans on Europe and European history is maybe understandable up until about the 1840s.  To that point in our nation’s short history, much of our governmental structure, international relations, and even military involvement revolved around European causes and politics.  Yet once the United States Government began involving itself in world—including Asian—affairs, you’d have thought the educational underpinning of future diplomats, businessmen and, frankly, generals and admirals would have included some attempt to capture the history of nearly half the world’s population.

Yet that has never been the case.  We grow up vaguely aware of the Mongols and their expansive, if short-lived, empire, but only because they invaded places like Russia, Poland, and Hungary.  We know who the samurai were … sort of … the list of Western misperceptions of Japan’s warrior class runs longer than my arm.  But even then, we really only know about them because of Hollywood, which is almost NEVER a good source of historical information.  And we’re vaguely aware that China is huge, monolithic, and exerted an unbroken dominance over Eastern Asia for a couple thousand years … except that this too is not exactly supported by historical evidence.  The land we now call China was many times throughout history conquered and then ruled by other—meaning non-Chinese—Asian peoples. 

It’s easy to see why modern Americans—and others raised under western systems of education—remain so confused about Asia today.  Our concept of its people, its cultures and civilizations, and its long history is either wholly absent from our educational record, or terribly warped by misinformation, misperception, and, frankly, apathy.  We don’t seem to care about how others got to where they are in the world, and so we’re slowly losing sight of just how interconnected we all really are.

The first U.S. government intervention in Joseon Korea took place in 1871 when the Navy exchanged fire with Korean forts and then landed Marines to dislodge defenders along the eastern coast of Ganghwa Island.  U.S. Navy warships first dropped anchor in Tokyo Bay in 1846 seeking a trade agreement that wouldn’t be realized until Commodore Perry’s arrival with a larger squadron in 1853.  And in 1844, Caleb Cushing was named the first U.S. Ambassador to the Qing Empire in what is now China.  Yet even with official, governmental relations and interaction, no serious attempt was ever made to adjust the curriculum we were teaching to our nation’s children.  As such, our population remains ignorant of, and thus woefully unprepared to work with, or in some cases against, ancient Asian societies taking their place on the world stage.

What, you might ask, should our children know that they don’t?  Should our politicians understand that they do not?  What should every American know about East Asia and its history that they are currently ignorant of and thus maintain—and unfortunately act upon—the most ridiculous of misconceptions?  I’ll offer a brief list here … my version of essential knowledge of Asian history and culture:

1.      The Difference Between Chinese Culture and China

2.      The Incredible Impact of Nomadic Asian Peoples on the World

a.       Turks

b.      Mongols

c.       Jurchen/Manchus

d.      Huns

3.      The Korean Three Kingdoms and How They Changed Asian Security Politics Forever

a.       Goguryeo

b.      Baekje

c.       Silla

4.      Evolving Japanese Relationship with Asia from Yamato Through the Sengoku Period

5.      Periods of Chinese Subjugation by Neighboring Peoples

a.       Jin Dynasty (Jurchen):  1115-1234 AD

b.       Yuan Dynasty (Mongols):  1271-1368 AD

c.       Qing Dynasty (Manchus):  1636-1912 AD

6.      The Many Invasions of Korea and Lingering Historical Legacy of Distrust

a.      Chinese (more than I can count)

b.      Jurchen (ditto)

c.       Mongol (x7)

d.      Japanese (x3)

e.       Manchus (x2)

7.      The Effect of Western Colonialism on Asia

a.       India

b.      China

c.       Indonesia

d.      Philippines

e.       Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos)

8.      The Lightning Reform and Rise of Meiji Japan and its Ultimate Impact upon the World

9.      The Effect of Communism on East Asian Politics and Security

10.    The Effect of U.S. Gunboat Diplomacy in Asia

11.    The Effect of Religion on East Asia

a.       Shamanism

b.      Buddhism

c.       Daoism

d.      Christianity

12.    Confucianism and its Effect Upon East Asia

Some of these, my personal favorites, I intend to cover in blog posts over the coming months.  Others you can pursue by visiting the “Great Reads” section of my website.  For the rest, if you see something unfamiliar, look it up in a library or online and see if it sparks any curiosity. 

This is, I’ll admit, only a starter list, for once you start diving into the history of peoples with thousands of years of recorded annals, you find the well runs pretty deep.  The plus side for Westerners, of delving into Asian history, is that it’s all new!  No more debates on the long-term effects of the Napoleonic Wars.  Take a break from the endless stream of opinions on why the Roman Empire crumbled.  A sabbatical from the tedious back and forth regarding the causes and effects of the Crusades.  These topics are indeed worthy of study, and have no fear, many historians and academics have very real incentives to do just that.  Yet for the rest of us—those with nothing to gain beyond a greater appreciation of how some of our oldest civilizations came to be, the effort, I promise you, will not go unrewarded, opening your eyes to a much wider world than you ever imagined.

 

M. G. Haynes