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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the Americans play when they reached the shore?

2. What did the merchants fail to do after being in Shimoda for three months?

3. What is one port that was mentioned as being where the Americans could trade?

4. Who was Sam Patch?

5. What was Perry concerned about regarding the Shogun?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Perry's arrival precipitate?

2. What was Hokkaido like and how did the first contact with them go for the Americans?

3. What horrified the Japanese about the Americans at the banquet, but how did the Japanese behave anyway?

4. Where did Commodore Perry decide to visit?

5. When did the Shogun die and why was that of concern to Commodore Perry?

6. What was the first approach the Japanese took towards the United States request for a treaty?

7. Where did the Commodore and staff go and what bothered the Commodore about the women there?

8. How did the two cultures meet face to face and what did the people of the two countries think of the other?

9. Who was Sam Patch and why was he terrified? What happened?

10. What sort of gifts did the Americans give the higher ranked Japanese?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Getting the most out of this novel requires some familiarity with the Japanese culture. Choose one of the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. How homogenized was the Japanese nation at time of Comodore Perry's visits to Japan? What are some of their common beliefs? How do the Japanese live in today's world? What is the predominant religion of Japan? Is there more than one major religion? Was the Japanese culture patriarchal at the time of Perry's visit? Is it now?

3. How does the Japanese culture inform the plot and actions of Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun? Give examples.

4. Compare and contrast the cultures of two Oriental countries either at the time of Perry's arrival or as they are in the current era.

Essay Topic 2

One major theme of Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun is that of the meeting of two dissimilar cultures and how the two cultures evolved to signing a treaty of mutual benefit. Discuss the following:

1. Compare/contrast some of the major cultural differences between the Americans and Japanese. Consider differences in the area of food, art, gender, and warfare.

2. The Japanese and the Americans each thought the other group barbaric. Discuss the term barbaric and analyze the ways in which each group applied the word to the other. Is either group accurate in naming the other barbaric? Discuss with examples.

3. Discuss the advantages of two cultures having a mutual exchange of ideas, trade and military support.

4. Discuss the disadvantages of two cultures having a mutual exchange of ideas, trade and military support.

Essay Topic 3

Rhoda Blumberg has tried as much as possible to use historical events and facts around which to weave her work of fiction. Discuss the following:

1. Do you think The Hundred Days qualifies as an Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun? Why or why not?

2. If much of the events in the book are historical, what surprises you about the way the people, technology, ideas, etc... are portrayed?

3. Are the Americans more or less advanced than you pictured for the mid -1800s? Explain with examples. Are the Japanese more or less advanced than you pictured for the mid -1800s? Explain with examples.

(see the answer keys)

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