2. Briefly explain the extent to which the Empress Dowager could be described as a forward minded ruler? What redeeming policies and or political initiatives did she set in motion? Why were they not more successful?

3. Identify and explain contextually, Sun Yatsen's "Three Principles." What was their relevance in relation to later KMT and CCP controversies?

4. Characterize the Taisho period, in relation to the Meiji period before it and the Showa, through 1945, that followed. Which of these periods would you have preferred to live in, and why?

5. Briefly indicate the nature of "WWII" in East Asia. What factors made it much more complicated that typical accounts of WWII offered by American historians, which often mark the "beginning" as the attack on Pearl Harbor?

6. Characterize the relationship between the KMT and CCP from 1925-1945. Which of these parties, if either, would you have joined, and why?

7. Explain the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and, as much as possible, describe it as a rational, calculated move, thinking from, of course, the perspective of the Japanese military. To what extent was the attack grounded in Japan's military, diplomatic, and international experience?

8. Characterize the "communism" of Mao Zedong, briefly relating it to the 19th century Chinese experience, the May Fourth movement, Sun Yatsen's "Three Principles," the Bolshevik Revolution and the rise of Stalin, and the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930's.