HUMANITY

Comparative, fictional interview transcript

This paper asks you to compare and contrast the experiences of two individuals from different countries involved in one part of the Pacific War: Japan, Korea, China, or the United States. To do so, you will craft a fictional interview transcript as the midterm assignment.

Create the biographies of the interviewees. To do this effectively, you will need to mine the primary sources that we have looked at in this class fairly extensively in order to craft a composite history of two particular individuals, understand their backgrounds, and consider how and in what circumstances they participated in the war.

However, this background and history will only be revealed in the answers that you have each character give to the questions that you present them. As a fictional transcript, the idea is not to copy information from the books, but instead to synthesize material from multiple sources in order to create as rich a pair of composite figures as you can. Consider similarities and differences in background of participants from various countries. As such, you will need to cite at least three (3) different primary sources for each individual for a minimum total of six primary sources. A single interview or document counts as a single primary source.

Primary sources for Japan: .pdf files and Japan at War

Primary sources for China: .pdf files; block quotes and “readings” in Lary, The Chinese People at War

Primary sources for Korea: Under the Black Umbrella, some in Japan at War

Primary sources for the United States: Terkel, “The Good War”; .pdf files