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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. How did the Japanese and Americans threaten each other?

2. What did some of the Americans collect?

3. What might the people resist upon Perry's next return?

4. What happened to the samurai class?

5. Who arrived in Japan 15 days after Commodore Perry left?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What Japanese awaited Perry and his staff?

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

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

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

6. What did Commodore Perry say to the Japanese about wanting a treaty and the consequences of not getting one?

7. On April 10th, 1854, where did the Commodore take one of his ships and what was the result?

8. Where did Commodore Perry decide to visit?

9. Describe the exchange between Perry and the Japanese about shipwrecked sailors.

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When Shogun Ieyasu died in 1616, being a Christian became punishable by death and Christians were persecuted en masse. The cross was stamped annually and even in the nineteenth century, the Dutch and formerly Christian Japanese families were force to stamp Christian symbols. Discuss the following:

1. Research the persecution of Christians in Japan in under the Tokugawa Shoganate and write an informative essay about the topic. Include your thoughts on why the Shoganate was ohstile towards Christianity and whether you think the hostility had any justification.

2. How do you think Japanese Chrisitans could have impacted the status quo? Consider the idea that all are equal in God's eyes according to many Christian denominations.

3. What is an example of a nation in the 21st century who practices religious intolerance? Compare/contrast their manifestation of intolerance with that of Japan in earlier centuries.

4. What do you think is the reason some people/nations are intolerant of religions that are different from their own?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the following:

1. What do you think are the characteristics of a successful novel?

2. Analyze and discuss Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun based upon the criteria you decide upon in #1 and judge if it is a successful novel. Explain your rationale with specific examples.

3. Do you think the fact that Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun falls within the genre of historical fiction changes the criteria upon which its success should be judged? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following:

1. Define irony in literary terms. Discuss the irony of the situation of the fact that the Dutch had been treating with the Japanese for many years and lived like slaves; whereas, the Americans were given comparative royal treatment.

2. Define symbolism in literary terms. Discuss the use and meaning of five symbols you choose to analyze from Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun. What do they symbolize? Is the symbolism obvious? Effective? Does the symbolism contribute to the enjoyment of reading?

3. Discuss five literary devices that occur in Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogunand how they are used. Are they effective? Do they add or detract from the reading of the book? Why or why not. Some possible techniques: Allusion, connotation, denouement, dialogue, flashback, figurative language, motif, metaphor, narrator, point of view, simile, mood, and puns.

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