Lesson Six

Yokohama Boomtown Curriculum, Lesson 06

An Investigation into the Historiography of Yokohama Boomtown: How Does History Change When New Perspectives Are Discovered?

Introduction
In this lesson, students consider the nature of history and historiography, the study of historical writing. They examine the Yokohama Boomtown data and consider how different observers of events captured and recorded different pieces of the event and, in the process, affected the story that was ultimately told.

Students also consider whether they would change a historical narrative after gaining access to new information. How does a story change once other information and experiences become available?

Using one section of the Yokohama Boomtown unit only, students first determine what story the historian might tell with just one source of data. They then discuss how the story might change when more and possibly conflicting data is introduced. Relying on two sections of Yokohama Boomtown, students construct a modified history. Finally, using this historical case as a point of reference, students respond to the question: “How and with what evidence does the historian revise an accepted narrative of the past?”

National History Standards

Objectives
At the conclusion of this activity, students will be better able to:
• Recognize that historical narrative is subjective and reflects the evidence available to and the choices of the historian.
• Determine the influence or the impact that selected visuals have on the learner.
• Construct a historical narrative from varied sources.
• Recognize how and when historical narratives are reassessed and revised based on new research and information.

Time Required
1-2 class periods

Materials and Preparation
Internet access and ability to project Yokohama Boomtown for the class via LCD projector.

• Internet access and PowerPoint for students working in pairs or trios.
• Enough copies of Handout 06-A and Handout 06-B for half the class to have each; copies of Handout 06-C for all students.
• Overhead transparency of the juxtaposed images or transparencies of the two images from the unit that appear on Handouts 06-B and 06-C, “Japanese Terrorists Attack the British Legation in Edo in 1861” and “Picture of Newly Opened Port of Yokohama in Kanagawa.”
• Supplemental Art Analysis Page

Procedure
1. Introduce the words historian and historiography. Have students break down the words and let them come up with definitions. The 2006 Oxford American Dictionary’s definitions are:

Historian: an expert in or student of history, esp. that of a particular period, geographical region, or social phenomenon: a military historian.

Historiography: the study of historical writing; the writing of history.

2. If you haven’t done so through a previous lesson in this unit, introduce Yokohama Boomtown to the class via LCD projector. Show students how to navigate to the Essay; they will work with it in this lesson. You can use the Supplemental Art Analysis Page to help students better understand how to read the captions for the art they will review.

3. For this step, you will distribute one of two images from the Yokohama Boomtown Image Gallery to small working groups of students in order to introduce them to the issues of message, narrative, and point of view in source material. However, do not reveal that students will be viewing different images; for this exercise, students should assume they are all working on the same image.

Organize students into pairs or groups of three and distribute to each group either Handout 06-B (“Japanese Terrorists Attack the British Legation in Edo in 1861” from the “Chaos” section of Yokohama Boomtown) or Handout 06-C (“Picture of Newly Opened Port of Yokohama in Kanagawa” from the “Boomtown” section of Yokohama Boomtown). About half the groups should receive one image, half the groups the other.

Distribute Handout 06-A to each group and allow time for student groups to examine their images. Using Handout 06-A, each group will construct a brief narrative based on their image.

4. Bring the class back together for group reports and discussion. Ask one group to present their narrative based on the image from the “Chaos” section. This narrative might refer to violence, battles, guns/weapons, death, and darkness. Ask the class whether this narrative sounds accurate or poll several groups (representing those who looked at both images), asking “Does this narrative sound like yours?” Groups that worked with the image from the “Chaos” section of the unit should agree that it does, while students who looked at the image from “Boomtown” should question or protest the accuracy of the narrative. Have a group that worked with the “Boomtown” image read their narrative. This narrative might discuss the traditions and culture of Japan, its trading and daily life, and how open the people depicted are to trade.

By this time, students may have caught on to the fact that they are working with two different pieces of data depicting different aspects of Japan’s relations with the West at the beginning of the treaty-port period. If they have not figured this out, let them know at this time. You may either project the juxtaposed images or create a color transparency to view as a class. Conduct a discussion of the following questions:

• Each of these visual images presents information on the Japanese-Western relationship in the early 1860s. What is the actual subject matter of each image? Who is the person telling the story? What nationality is that person?
• How do these two narratives differ? Why are the narratives based on these images different?
• What if you walked away having only looked at one of these visuals—what would your knowledge of the time period and the Japan-West relationship have been?

Students should begin to recognize that the images with which the historian works mold the story he/she tells—the historical narrative he/she constructs.

5. Have students in their groups look at their respective whole section (“Chaos” or “Boomtown”) online to see if the section supports the story they constructed from their single image. Whose art are they viewing? Are multiple perspectives presented in the visual data? What is the story line? (15 minutes)

Yokohama Boomtown: Essay: Chaos
Yokohama Boomtown: Essay: Boomtown

6. Create new groups by partnering students from the “Chaos” group with students from the “Boomtown” group. Ideally, new groups should be comprised of four students—two who examined “Chaos” and two who examined “Boomtown.”

Explain to students that they now have the job of choosing which artwork will be submitted to a new textbook being developed. What imagery will they choose to construct the story of Yokohama? Their assignment is to create a PowerPoint presentation with at least four images. Under each image, students should write a brief defense of their selection. How does each of the images contribute to the greater narrative? Have each group generate a new narrative combining the two narratives formed by the separate groups. Watch the students as they struggle to find common ground, or to express verbally what they see in the imagery.

7. Have groups share their work. Then, ask the following reflective questions to which students can respond orally or in writing:

• What did this lesson teach you about perspective?
• How did the other group’s image and narrative complicate or enhance the history of the treaty port of Yokohama?
• What lessons from this activity can you apply to your life and the stories you tell?

8. Explain to students the chronology of how information from the East was introduced to the historians of the West. Ask them to consider what they have learned here about constructing narrative, perspective, and revisionism. Have students respond individually to the following prompt (using this example as a case study):

If you only knew and told one history, and were then introduced to a new perspective, would you revise the history you once told? Use the case of East-West relations in Yokohama as evidence when responding to this question.

Grade students’ responses on whether or not they directly respond to the question and to what extent they use this historical case as a point of reference. Use your own grading and writing assessment rubric to determine whether students tied all of these pieces together in their summative assessment.

Lesson developed by Meredith Melzer.

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