AMST 280/DWA 246: Term Paper

Student's Name Professor's Name Course Date U.S. Relation between China and Japan Introduction The United States of America, being a superpower, is undoubtedly the most dominant country. The country has been involved in many activities, including wars; therefore, the U.S. has a rich history. In the 21st century, China and Japan are known for their advancements in technology (Vogel 67). The countries have put themselves on the road to success. However, both China and Japan have a rich history with the United States. This paper aims to analyze U.S. involvement in these countries. The paper provides an in-depth analysis of U.S. missionary activities in China. A significant consideration is given to understand the role of the U.S. as a sentimental imperialist. The paper helps the reader to understand the U.S. involvement in China and Japan in the 19th century. American Missionary Activities in China The first-ever U.S. Protestant missionary was Elijah Bridgman, who came to China in the year 1830. The starting period of U.S. missionary activity in china is between the 1830s and 1840s (Cohen 104). There were 13 factories at Canton in which the American missionaries use to live and work. The foreigners were not allowed to travel outside the Thirteen Factories. A compulsion was made for them not to have any business dealings with any Chinese citizen. Moreover, they were not allowed even to learn the Chinese language (Von 44). In case if the missionaries were caught preaching Christianity, a death penalty was made for them in that case. Despite all of this, Williams, Parker, and Bridgman started learning the Chinese language. With the help of this, they were able to translate the scripture into Chinese. Williams and Bridgman were able to spread Chinese in China by translating the bible (Zetzsche 14). On the other hand, Robert Morrison, who came to China in 1807, compiled a Chinese-English dictionary (Hersey 111). Bridgman and Williams expanded the efforts of Morrison for enhancing the later missionaries. Another purpose behind this was to understand China and its language. Following this, a book was written by Williams named The Middle Kingdom, which helped to increase the knowledge about Chinese culture and history. The Chinese Repository was then started by Bridgman. Due to his, several missionaries were able to understand the Chinese language and their culture. A new kind of missionary named as a medical missionary was exemplified by Dr Peter Parker. It must be considered that the Chinese populace then seemed to be in great need of medical service. Therefore, the medical expertise of U.S. missionaries acted as access to Chinese citizens, which in turn, resulted in the spread of Christianity in China (Rodzinski 84). In the year 1842, the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing resulted in excellent access in China. It was then fostered in the year 1844 by the U.S-Sino Treaty of Wangxia (Hersey 201). There is no doubt that such settlements helped the foreign to attain access to 4 new treat ports which increased the number of individuals that could be reached by U.S. missionaries. At that time, although the missionaries were still not allowed to proselytize openly, there were few Christian converts. With time the U.S. missionaries in China kept g...