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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 Japanese say about shipwrecked American sailors?

2. What was one thing Perry never did during his visits to Japan?

3. What gifts did the Emperor never receive?

4. What did the Japanese first say to Commodore Perry's request for a treaty?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How did the Japanese believe they had saved face, but did they really?

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

4. What made Perry decide to sail to Japan despite the Shogun's death?

5. What did the Japanese do after the treaty and what impressed the Americans about the Japanese?

6. Where did Commodore Perry decide to visit?

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

8. How did the Americans impress the Japanese as the Americans came ashore?

9. What was the Commodore's first impression of Shimoda.

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the following:

1. What is a plot? What are the most important elements of a plot and their definition? Do all novels have a plot? Why or why not?Can an historical fiction have a plot?

2. Write a brief synopsis of the plot of Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun, identifying where the various elements of the plot occur (Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution or denouement). Do you find it difficult to identify the plot? Why or why not? What about the various elements of the plot?

3. Identify the major sub-plots and their elements in Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun. (The subplots may not contain every element of a major plot). Do the sub-plots add to the main plot? Why or why not. Are the sub-plots interesting in and of themselves? Why or why not.

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

The setting of Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun is quite important. Research the feudal system under which Japan existed in the mid 19th century and answer the following questions:

1. How was the feudal system organized? Could one move from the class of their birth to another class? Who was responsible for the protection of the peoples of Japan? Who made the decisions?

2. Discuss three advantages and three disadvantages of the feudal system.

3. What did the Americans seem to think of the feudal system? Give examples.

4. Did your research reveal any countries today that are organized in a feudal-like system? Discuss any that are mentioned.

5. Why do you think most countries abandoned the feudal system?

(see the answer keys)

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