Japan by Claire

Japan went through many changes thought out history, traditional to modern and much more. One change was their culture.

Culture was very important to the Japanese to them they thought of themselves as special separate people what made them think that was their writing or language style. The writing took after Chinese they had no formal writing system until they visited China. The Japanese soon invented their writing system the characters look like any Chinese but their grammar is extremely difficult (Exploration into Japan). Also what kept them so traditional was that they isolated themselves for about two centuries and they flourished on their traditions themselves away from society or modernization. The arts they practiced were such as samurai fighting, meditation, flower arranging, Zen gardening, origami, etc.


an example of a Japanese temple and garden

The Economy also went through many changes their economy wasn’t even much of an economy then. But in the late 1900’s, Japan took a great interest in new ways and decided to modernize their Japan they were very picky when they decided their teachers. They chose British for their knowledge in ship building and navigation etc, French and German as doctors and soldiers and learning about governing, and the Americans for education and knowledge in agriculture nowadays their one of our world leaders in steel, electrical goods, and eco-friendly projects ,making Japan the 3rd largest economy in the world. (Exploration into Japan) Their ethnicity has also grown from 100% Japanese to 98.57% (Japanese) 0.5% (Koreans) 0.4% (Chinese) 0.6% (other) (CIA world fact book).
Many countries share the same history but the Japanese had a very different because of their seclusion policy. For example the Japanese had many wars
and won many of them because of they had the strongest army of all next to china who had the biggest (History channel).One of their biggest wars was World War 2, and Pearl Harbor December, 7, 1941 (Social Studies book and Wikipedia).World War 2 had a huge effect being a war that Japan actually lost after many times of success surrendering after the bomb that was dropped in Hiroshima and Okinawa. Currently Japan is the US's strongest ally.

Before My Grandma’s Immigration
By: Claire Ruhlman
Before my grandma’s immigration she and her family of her mom and dad her three brothers and four sisters and grandma all lived on a farm. However they were not actually farmers her father actually worked for the government and they lived middle class there was never an actual lack of food for them they lived well. My grandma was born in August, 6, 1931 (Her birthday was the same day as the dropping of the bomb). She was the oldest of eight children but two of her twin sisters passed away when she was a child and the other got sick while my grandma was away she was also very close to her. My grandma was extremely smart and got to go to a special girl’s school; she had to wake up each morning get on the train and hurry to school in a different town each morning. There she learned about America and learned English there.

My grandma’s immigration story starts when she met
My grandpa (Joseph) at an army base in camp Zama playing pool they met because after World War 2 (also the Korean War) he was stationed there. They soon fell in love, were engaged and later married and had my mother. But sadly since my grandpa was a US citizen well polish too, but anyway he had to leave and since they were married my grandma had to make that decision that would change her life stay or go. She of course changed her life and went to the US with my grandpa.

They took a boat there, and arrived in San Francisco on a cold day. When she got there she could fell a dozen or so emotions sadness, regret, excitement, happiness, safe, freedom, and a tiny bit of disappointment but that was because the “Golden Gate Bridge” wasn’t actually gold it was red but she was so excited she didn’t care. She felt like she was finally home and wanted to stay here forever.

But on the other hand she found that she loved America so much, she loved seeing the views, the religions the food and everything about America. Mostly she was excited to see her new home and either side of the family. She also felt some regret about leaving her family home and country, she felt homesick too but she did her best to ignore that feeling. She also felt a lot freer because now she didn’t have to ask her mother to go out. Finally they got on the train to Pennsylvania it took about 2-3 days to get there and my grandma was extremely misty too so she was sad that she didn’t get to see the Mississippi river and it was extremely cold to top it off.

When my grandma immigrated she didn’t bring many items with her only personal items like clothes and shoes more spiritually she brought Japan its culture and religions. When she got there she mostly only saw American culture and what foods we ate and more and she liked the foods because they made her happy. Although she was extremely happy here she was still incredibly homesick and was very happy at the same time. When her mom called she acted happy so her mother wouldn’t worry.

Once my grandma arrived she didn’t need a green card but she did have to take a test not a hard one though. On the other hand my mom didn’t need one she was already a US citizen. After becoming a citizen she had other children, Rebecca Maziarz and Christopher Maziarz (Uncle Christopher and Aunt Becky).