Attack on Pearl Harbor

Ford Island shortly after the beginning of the Pearl Harbor attack.

Just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration with just one dissenting vote. The single vote against Congress's declaration of war against Japan came from Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana. Rankin was a pacifist who had also voted against the American entrance into World War I. "As a woman," she said, "I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else." Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States, and again Congress reciprocated. More than two years into the conflict, America had finally joined World War II. 

Why Attack?

The Japanese were tired of negotiations with the United States. They wanted to continue their expansion within Asia but the United States had placed an extremely restrictive embargo on Japan in the hopes of curbing Japan's aggression. Negotiations to solve their differences hadn't been going well.

Rather than giving in to U.S. demands, the Japanese decided to launch a surprise attack against the United States in an attempt to destroy the United States' naval power even before an official announcement of war was given.

PEARL HARBOR AND THE ROAD TO WAR

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, but Japan and the United States had been edging toward war for decades. The United States was particularly unhappy with Japan’s increasingly belligerent attitude toward China. The Japanese government believed that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand into its neighbor’s territory and take over its import market; to this end, Japan had declared war on China in 1937. American officials responded to this aggression with a battery of economic sanctions and trade embargoes. They reasoned that without access to money and goods, and especially essential supplies like oil, Japan would have to rein in its expansionism. Instead, the sanctions made the Japanese more determined to stand their ground. During months of negotiations between Tokyo and Washington, D.C., neither side would budge. It seemed that war was inevitable. 

Route followed by the Japanese fleet to Pearl Harbor and back.

But no one believed that the Japanese would start that war with an attack on American territory. For one thing, it would be terribly inconvenient: Hawaii and Japan were about 4,000 miles apart. For another, American intelligence officials were confident that any Japanese attack would take place in one of the (relatively) nearby European colonies in the South Pacific: the Dutch East Indies, for instance, or Singapore or Indochina. Because American military leaders were not expecting an attack so close to home, the naval facilities at Pearl Harbor were relatively undefended. Almost the entire Pacific Fleet was moored around Ford Island in the harbor, and hundreds of airplanes were squeezed onto adjacent airfields. To the Japanese, Pearl Harbor was an irresistible target.

The attack

The Japanese plan was simple: Destroy the Pacific Fleet. That way, the Americans would not be able to fight back as Japan’s armed forces spread across the South Pacific. On December 7, after months of planning and practice, the Japanese launched their attack.

USS Arizona (BB-39) during the attack.

At about 8 a.m., Japanese planes filled the sky over Pearl Harbor. Bombs and bullets rained onto the vessels moored below. At 8:10, a 1,800-pound bomb smashed through the deck of the battleship USS Arizona and landed in her forward ammunition magazine. The ship exploded and sank with more than 1,000 men trapped inside. Next, torpedoes pierced the shell of the battleship USS Oklahoma. With 400 sailors aboard, the Oklahoma lost her balance, rolled onto her side and slipped underwater. By the time the attack was over, every battleship in Pearl Harbor–USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS California, USS West Virginia, USS Utah, USS Maryland, USS Pennsylvania, USS Tennessee and USS Nevada–had sustained significant damage. (All but USS Arizona and USS Utah were eventually salvaged and repaired.)

In all, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor crippled or destroyed 18 American ships and nearly 300 airplanes. Dry docks and airfields were likewise destroyed. Most important, almost 2,500 men were killed and another 1,000 were wounded.

"Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Pearl Harbor appeared to be a huge success for Japan. It was followed by rapid Japanese conquests in Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma, the Philippines, Malaya and New Guinea. Yet in the long term, the attack was strategically catastrophic. The ‘sleeping giant’ had been awoken, and in America, a sense of fury now accompanied the mobilisation for war of the world’s most powerful economy. The losses at Pearl Harbor would soon be more than made good, and used to take a terrible vengeance on Japan.

Here an extract of the movie "Pearl Harbor", where you can watch the bombing:

Bibliography:

http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-ww2/pearl-harbor

http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/Attack-Pearl-Harbor.htm

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/pearl.htm

Hollywood vs Bollywood

Bollywood and Hollywood are both popular cinemas and their names resonate their success around the world. Hollywood is worldwide known, whereas Bollywood is rather popular in the eastern countries but also has been gaining popularity in many western countries including the US. Hollywood is a term that has become synonymous with the American cinema, while Bollywood is highly affiliated to the Indian Cinema. Hollywood and Bollywood are two completely different cinemas that cater to different audiences.

The following will state the major contrasts between Hollywood and Bollywood cinema:

Origin:

The first Hollywood film occurred in 1878 by Eadweard Muybridge, a British photographer who did continuous shooting of the human and animalistic motion sequence.

Regarding Bollywood it was not till 1913 when the first Indian movie was created. It was called Raja Harishchandra

The first Hollywood movie was shot in Palo Alto, California. Nowadays, Hollywood is located in Los Angeles. In contrast, Bollywood does not exist in a “physical place”.

Name:

The name itself suggests that Bollywood has its origin in Mumbai (formerly called Bombay) which is the first city where Indian cinema was introduced in. So it is basically a combination of  the “B” from Bombay and the word Hollywood.

Productions:

Hollywood shoots less movies per year (610 in 2011) than Bollywood (~1000). So Bollywood does make more films, but Hollywood has larger movie earnings and spends more on movie production.

Another interesting fact is that Hollywood records on-set whereas Bollywood has playback recordings. Hollywood movies containing singing are called musicals while Bollywood 99% of all movies contain music and dance (~ 5-6 songs per movie)

Cast:

What is also interesting to know is that in Hollywood movies the casting is done first and then decided whether he/she should act in the planned movie or not.

Famous actors are e.g. Angelina Jolie, Leonardo Di Caprio, Scarlett Johanson, Natalie Portman, Daniel Craig, Keanu Reeves…
In Bollywood movies the actors are obtained and then the movie is made without even actually casting them. 
Directors would decide to make a movie with e.g. Salman Khan and think about the movie itself afterwards.

Famous actors are e.g. Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Hritik Roshan, Salman Khan and Kajol – just to name a view.

Contents and audience:

Bollywood productions are often more emotional and deeper in content than many Hollywood productions because men are also supposed to show their feelings here. Usually Bollywood films are supposed to entertain the whole family and that is why there are often included songs and dancing. Because of this Bollywood films often have a pointless bad reputation among people. Contrary, Hollywood productions back on action, greed, sex and violence.

To sum it up, there are major differences between movies from Hollywood and them from Bollywood, but one can agree that both have their charms that attract millions of people to watch them. If not, they would not be that successful.

Sources:

http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-major-differences-between-Hollywood-and-Bollywood

http://www.bolly-wood.de/unterschiede-zwischen-bollywood-und-hollywood-produktionen/

http://www.3sat.de/page/?source=/kulturzeit/tips/145036/index.html

http://www.arte.tv/de/filmemacher/778120.html

Chinese workers at the railroad construction

Here you have a short video about Chinese workers in the railrod construction. 2015 marks the 150th anniversary since the arrival of the first Chinese workers at the United States.

Asian American

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines "Asians" as people having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.

According to the US Census Bureau, on the 2010 Census, the Asian population category includes people who indicated their race(s) as “Asian” or reported entries such as “Asian Indian,” “Chinese,” “Filipino,” “Korean,” “Japanese,” and “Vietnamese” or provided other detailed Asian responses.

In 2011, the population of Asians, including those of more than one race, was estimated at 18.2 million in the U.S. population.

In 2010, those who identified themselves only as Asianconstituted approximately 4.8 percent of the American population—14.7 million individuals.

Jerry Jang, co-founder of Yahoo.

The three largest Asian groups in the United States in 2011 were Chinese (4 million)(except Taiwanese descent),Filipinos (3.4 million), and Asian Indians (3.2 million). These were followed by Vietnamese (1.9 million), Koreans (1.7 million) and Japanese (1.3 million).

The Census Bureau projects that by the year 2050, there will be more than 40.6 million Asians living in the United States, comprising 9.2 percent of the total U.S. population.

Jeremy Lin, Los Angeles Lakers basketball player.

The Asian population is represented throughout the country. States with the largest Asian populations (including those with more than one race) in 2011 were California (5.8 million)and New York (1.7 million). Hawaii had the largest concentration or percentage of the total population as Asians (57% of Hawaiian population reported being of Asian descent(including those of more than one race)).

Asians have a long history in the United States:

Ever since Chinese sought out the "Gold Mountain" in the California gold rush, Asians have been coming to America in significant numbers. Once America opened its doors—although at times halfheartedly or reluctantly—to Asianimmigration, Americans of Asian descent experienced lives as diverse as their backgrounds. Many live in communities with such names as Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Tokyo, and Little Saigon. From western railroads to New York City's Chinatown, from Alaskan canneries to hospitals in New York and New Jersey, from California's Silicon Valley assembly lines to high-technology laboratories of Route 128 in Massachusetts—people of Asian descent have contributed much to the building of society and the development of culture in America.

Chinese workers working in the railroad.

Chinese and Filipino mariners of the Spanish galleons jumped ship at Acapulco during the 1600s, and this may have initiated the first immigration toward what would become the United States. Filipinos made their way to present-day Louisiana and established settlements in the Barataria Bay area. The first wave of migration began in the mid-nineteenth century with the arrival of 195 Chinese contract laborers in Hawaii and more than 20 thousand Chinese in California. Gold is what drew Chinese to California in 1848, and work in the sugar plantations attracted Chinese contract laborers to Hawaii beginning in 1851, thanks largely to the efforts of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association. The Chinese were followed by 149 Japanese laborers shipped to Hawaii in 1868 and dozens of Japanese seeking their fortunes in California to work in the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony. Large numbers of Japanese laborers, contracted under the Irwin Convention, came to Hawaii in 1885 and continued to do so until 1894. The newcomers were welcomed coldly in other parts. The 1878 ruling in the case of Ah Yup determined the ineligibility of Chinese for citizenship. In 1894 the circuit court in Massachusetts confirmed the ineligibility of the Japanese for U.S. citizenship; this finding did not, however, prevent Shinsei Kaneko from becoming the first to be naturalized in California in 1896.

My sources:

http://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/populations/REMP/asian.html

http://eas-ref.press.jhu.edu/view?aid=384&from=search&query=asian%20american&link=search%3Freturn%3D1%26query%3Dasian%2520american%26section%3Ddocument%26doctype%3Dall

Geography of Asia

Asia

The border between Europe and Asia is debated. Most geographers define Asia’s western border as a line that follows the Ural Mountains, the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black Seas. Asia is bordered by the Arctic, Pacific and the Indian Oceans. Asia can be divided into five physical regions: mountain systems, plateaus, plains, steppes and deserts.

Mountain Systems

The Himalaya mountains extend for about 2,500 kilometers, separating the Indian subcontinent from the rest of Asia. The Indian subcontinent is still crashing northward into Asia, and the Himalayas are growing about 5 centimeters (2 inches) every year.

Himalayas Mountains

The Himalayas cover more than 612,000 square kilometers through the northern states of India and making up most of the terrain of Nepal and Bhutan. The Himalayas include the highest mountain summit in the world, Mount Everest, which stands at 8,850 meters.

The Tien Shan mountain system stretches for about 2,400 kilometers, straddling the border between Kyrgyzstan and China.

The Ural Mountains run for approximately 2,500 kilometers in an indirect north-south line from Russia to Kazakhstan. The Ural Mountains are some of the world’s oldest, at 250 million to 300 million years old.

Plateaus 

Asia is home to many plateaus, areas of relatively level high ground. The Iranian plateau covers more than 3.6 million square kilometers, encompassing most of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

The Tibetan Plateau is usually considered the largest and highest area ever to exist in the history of Earth. Known as the “Rooftop of the World,” the plateau covers an area about half the size of the contiguous United States and averages more than 5,000 meters above sea level. The Tibetan Plateau is extremely important to the world’s water cycle because of its tremendous number of glaciers. These glaciers contain the largest volume of ice outside the poles. The ice and snow from these glaciers feed Asia’s largest rivers. Approximately 2 billion people depend on the rivers fed by the plateau’s glaciers. 

Plains, Steppes, and Deserts

The West Siberian Plain, located in central Russia, is considered one of the world’s largest areas of continuous flatland. It extends from north to south about 2,400 kilometers and from west to east about 1,900 kilometers. With more than 50 percent of its area at less than 100 meters above sea level, the plain contains some of the world’s largest swamps and flood plains.

Central Asia is dominated by a steppe landscape, a large area of flat, unforested grassland. Mongolia can be divided into different steppe zones: the mountain forest steppe, the arid steppe, and the desert steppe. These zones transition from the country’s mountainous region in the north to the Gobi Desert on the southern border with China. 

Rub' al Khali Desert

The Rub’ al Khali desert, considered the world’s largest sand sea, covers an area larger than France across Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It holds roughly half as much sand as Africa’s Sahara desert, even though it is 15 times smaller in size.

Freshwater

Lake Baikal, located in southern Russia, is the deepest lake in the world, reaching a depth of 1,620 meters (5,315 feet). The lake contains 20 percent of the world’s unfrozen freshwater, making it the largest reservoir on Earth. It is also the world’s oldest lake, at 25 million years old. 

Yangtze River

The Yangtze is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world (behind the Amazon of South America and the Nile of Africa). The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers begin in the highlands of eastern Turkey and flow through Syria and Iraq, joining in the city of Qurna, Iraq, before emptying into the Persian Gulf. The land between the two rivers, known as Mesopotamia, was the center of the earliest civilizations, including Sumer and the Akkadian Empire.

Saltwater

The Persian Gulf has an area of more than 234,000 square kilometers. It borders Iran, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Iraq. The gulf is subject to high rates of evaporation, making it shallow and extremely salty. The seabed beneath the Persian Gulf contains an estimated 50 percent of the world’s oil reserves. The countries that border the gulf have engaged in a number of disputes over this rich resource.

The Sea of Okhotsk covers 1.5 million square kilometers between the Russian mainland and the Kamchatka Peninsula. The sea is largely frozen between October and March. Large ice floes make navigation in winter almost impossible.

The Bay of Bengal is the largest bay in the world, covering almost 2.2 million square kilometers and bordering Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Burma. Many large rivers, including the Ganges and Brahmaputra, empty into the bay. The briny wetlands formed by the Ganges-Brahmaputra on the Bay of Bengal is the largest delta in the world.

Bay of Bengal

Bibliography:

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/asia/?ar_a=1

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/north-america-physical-geography/?ar_a=1

America and Asia's populations

About 316 Million people (2013) are living in America. This number includes also high amounts of immigrants: 39 Million Afro-Americans, 50.5 Million Americans with origin in Latin America, ca. 14.7 Million Americans with origin in Asia and 3 Million Americans with origin in India.

This means 30 inhabitants per square kilometer.

When we think of Americans the picture that comes into our minds is a picture of a stereotype. People think of others in stereotypes because they do not understand well the culture and the people. They put them into classifications thinking everybody being of that culture needs to be as they picture them in their heads.

So, what does a typical American look like?

In our heads it is an overweight guy with a gun in his hands and of course some kind of junk food. We link restaurants like McDonald’s or Burger King with the American culture and, furthermore, an excessive national pride (American flag).

I want to emphasize this is not the way every American citizen does look like. We are talking about stereotypes! 

The Asian population can be divided into six Asian regions as followed:

Eastern Asia – 1,527 billion people

South Asia – 1,438 billion people

Southeastern Asia – 558 million of people

Middle East – 348 million of people

Central Asia – 87 million of people

Northern Asia – 2,798 billion of people

Forecasts predict that the Asian population will rise to 5,2 billion people until 2050. Reasons for this immense growth is, on the one hand, the high increase in birthrate in countries like e.g. India and, on the other hand, the increase in life expectancy. Particularly countries like Japan (82 years), Singapore (82 years), Taiwan (78 years), South Korea (79 years) and Thailand (72 years) are countries with highest life expectancy. This attributes to better nutrition, better hygiene as well as an ample medical care in the last centuries.

Asia is not only the most heavily populated continent, it also includes the most metropolises in the world e.g. Peking, Delhi, Istanbul, Jakarta, Mumbai, Shanghai, Manila or Tokyo.

Referring to the stereotypes I only depict the, in my opinion, most common one – Chinese.

What does a typical Chinese stereotype look like ?

Eating rice all day, always photographing every place they are (mostly selfies nowadays), being very good in studies (especially in Mathematics!) and defending oneself by doing Kung Fu. 

World's population statistics

My sources:

http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/DE/Aussenpolitik/Laender/Laenderinfos/01-Laender/UsaVereinigteStaaten.html

http://www.asien.org/wissenswertes/bevoelkerung/

Geography of America

Asia is the largest continent of the world. It covers 30% of the Earth’s land area and 60% of the total population are living in Asia.

North America is the third-largest continent in the world. It extends from the tiny Aleutian Islands in the northwest to the islands of Panama in the south. In the north, the continent stretches halfway around the world.

The following text will focus on the most important geographical highlights of North America and Aisa.

North America

Rocky Mountains

North America can be divided into five physical regions: the mountainous west, the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the varied eastern region and the Caribbean. Within these regions are all the major types of biomes in the world. Some diverse biomes represented in North America include desert, grassland, tundra and coral reefs.

Western Region

Young mountains rise in the west. The most popular mountains of this region are probably the Rockies, North America’s largest chain. They stretch from the province of British Columbia, Canada, to the U.S. state of New Mexico. The Rocky Mountains are part of a system of the parallel mountain ranges, known as the Cordilleras. A cordillera is a long series of mountain ranges. The Sierra Madre mountain system are also part of the Cordilleras.

The Earth’s youngest mountains are in the cascade Range of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon and California. Some of them began to form only about a million years ago. Those mountains include rain forest.

Desert

Chihuanhuan Desert

The three major desert regions of North America (Sonoran, Mojave, Chihuanhuan) are all in the American southwest and northern Mexico.

North America also has the deposits of oil and natural gas on the continent. Most of these are located offshore, in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.

Great Plains

The Great Plains lie in the middle of the continent. The grain grown in this region is also called the “Breadbasket of North America” because it feeds a large part of the world. The animals living in the Great Plains are bison, prairie dogs and grasshoppers.

The Canandian Shiel is a raised but realtively flatplateu which extends over eastern, central and northwestern Canada. It is characterized by a rocky landscape pocked by an astounding number of lakes. The tundra is a biome common to the Canadian Shield.

Canadian Shield

The Canadian Shield is a raised but relatively flatplateau. It extends over eastern, central, and northwestern Canada. The Canadian Shield is characterized by a rocky landscape pocked by an astounding number of lakes.

Eastern Region

This varied region includes the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coastal plain. North America’s older mountain ranges, including the Appalachians, rise near the east coast of the United States and Canada. These areas have been mined for rich deposits of coal and other minerals for hundreds of years.

Wetland areas are a biome of the eastern region and consist of areas of land whose soil is saturated with permanent or seasonal moisture. The Florida Everglades is the largest wetland system in the United States, covering more than 11,137 square kilometers (4,300 square miles) of southern Florida. 

Everglades National Park

The Everglades is a biologically diverse region and contains several bordering ecosystems. Alligators nest in the sawgrass, while wading birds such as egrets, herons, spoonbills, and ibises make their breeding grounds in other wetland tree species, such as cypress and mangrove.

Caribbean Region

The Caribbean Region includes more than 7,000 islands, islets, reefs, and cays. The region’s islands and smaller islets are varied in their topography; some have relatively flat and sandy terrain while others are rugged, mountainous, and volcanic.

The coral reefs and cays of the Caribbean Sea are among the most spectacular biomes in North America. Some coral reefs surround islands, such as the Bahamas, Antigua, and Barbados. Others are found off the Florida Keys, a chain of cays—small islands situated on a coral reef platform—near the southern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. 

Natural Wonders

Yellowstone National Park

North America’s varied landscape features many natural wonders. It has deep canyons, such as Copper Canyon in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Denali, the continent’s highest peak, stands at 6,194 meters (20,320 feet) within Denali National Park and Preserve in the U.S. state of Alaska. Yellowstone National Park, in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, has some of the world’s most active geysers. Canada’s Bay of Fundy has the greatest tidal range in the world. The Great Lakes form the planet’s largest area of freshwater. The Mississippi River, at 3,730 kilometers (2,320 miles) long, is one of the longest river systems in the world and drains all or parts of 31 U.S. states.

Bibliography: 
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/asia/?ar_a=1

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/north-america-physical-geography/?ar_a=1

Introduction to our blog !

Hi everyone !

We are Janice, Luisa and Jesús, students of Translation and Interpreting at University Pablo de Olavide, and in this blog we are going to talk about differents aspects of America and Asia. We hope it will be useful for all of you !

Have fun !