Elya Zhang Database

Japan and East Asia

Final Creative Project for HIS145: Modern Japan

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was a Pan-Asian dream of Japanese militarists during World War II. According to their initial design, it would consist of a Center (Japan), an Inner Zone (Manchuria + North China + Korea) and two Outer Zones (Southeast Asia and Indo-China Peninsula). Though Japan never realized this blueprint through military power, its economic ties and cultural ties with all the above regions continue to increase till today. In this final creative project, students research Japan’s economic and cultural exchanges with its near and far neighbors after 1945, and then take one step further to demonstrate their findings on a collection of country maps of today’s East and Southeast Asia.