The eighth week have just been over of the Introduction to American History and Culture class. In this semester I started to discuss several historical events with the students out of the earliest period in the history of America: the North American continent was colonized by the UK in the seventeenth century. Why? and how? as well as what cultural contexts did push this movement? Last week we discussed the American Civil War especially by focusing upon its causes and results. The students were induced to think about why Americans were impelled to fight against each other though they are both Americans who belong to the same nation. The war went with a unique framework peculiar to the nation, that is slavery. A similar framework can be witnessed in Japan in the twenty-first century. Some opinions given by the students show what is the point, for example, a war (either actual or metaphorical) can occur unless we put an end to the inequality in gender balance of Japan. This point of view is quite interesting from the cultural viewpoint as well. Next week, seen as a byproduct of this war, we are going to argue the merits and demerits of the stronger capitalist system than ever which dominated the American scene after the war.
