HBL Learning

Task 1

Background Information:
This poem is about the Vietnam War which happened between 1962 and 1971. The main conflict in this war would be the use of "Agent Orange". Agent Orange is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant—contaminated with TCDD—used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War.

According to Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and 500,000 children born with birth defects

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow

Task 2

1) Point Of View
This poem is both written in the third's person view point and the intellectual viewpoint. This intellectual point of view sees the entire war and shows how the Americans had caused vast devastation and pain caused to the innocent Vietnamese. This could be seen from "America did not foresee" and "Nefariously America led astray" whereby the poet tries to show America's mistakes and the lessons which could be learnt from using herbicide wars again.

This could be written in the third person's view point as the country America is being used as the comparison tool with Vietnam. Hence, the poet here is trying to judge the rights and wrongs of America from the person's own viewpoints.

2) Setting and Situation
The situation at which Agent Orange is being used is very dire, due to the impact of this virus on the Vietnamese. According to Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to herbicides, resulting in 400,000 people being killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects. Hence, the situation in Vietnam is dire

The setting would be how the Vietnamese civilians die a 'colourful death'. The different colours (not only Agent Orange) of herbicides were also used which created a deathly and inescapable setting. "Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!" shows that the overall combination of the colours is deadly, and that also explains why the poem is named "Rainbow Death"


3) Language and Diction

Personification was used, whereby America here was personified as a person used for comparing. Diction was used whereby the phrases were seen to possess some sense of sarcasm. From " Now thinking twice" and "America did not foresee", the poet is trying to mock America.

The poet is trying to convey that casualties in war is large-scale. The use of diction in "potpourri" suggests the meaning of combination or a mixture of subjects. In this case, "potpourri" would mean the combination of many deaths due to war.

Another good use of diction would be in the word"deceit" meaning the act or practice of deceiving or concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading. The speaker is telling his readers that the government misleads the people when countries go to war to conceal the government's true purpose of going to war which is mostly negative. This will encourage people to take part unknowingly and even manipulated into fighting.

Sino-Japanese War Diary

Dear Diary,

Today, the Japanese Forces entered Nanjing. The previous night, I heard loud bombs being dropped from invading Japanese Planes and I read from the village paper that the Chinese Army was retreating. This morning, the first Japanese troops came in bicycles and tanks. Many of them had a bayonet in their hands. They looked hostile and they immediately rounded up all the civilians living in the area including me. A Japanese soldier punched a man in his stomach and questioned him if there were any soldiers hiding in the vicinity. A man took my husband away and put him into a truck filled with other men as well. I thought the Japanese were just taking them away for interrogation but my neighbor revealed that they were all going to be killed. I never saw him again.

The Japanese soldiers then proceeded to wreak havoc in the small village I was living in. Women could be heard crying for help as the Japanese soldiers brutally raped and murdered them. I was afraid. I could not do anything. I managed to hide in one of the 'safety zones' where a kind family hid me in an underground conceal space. I was one of the lucky ones who were not raped. Right now, I am in the underground room writing this. I hope that help can come and the Chinese Army can fight the Japanese instead of fighting amongst themselves.

The Sino-Japanese War

There were 2 occurrences of the Sino-Japanese War. The first one was fought by China and Japan over the control of Korea. After more than six months of continuous successes by Japanese army and naval forces and the loss of the Chinese port of Weihaiwei, the Qing leadership sued for peace in February 1895. As a newly-emergent power Japan turned its attention toward Korea. In order to protect its own interests and security, Japan wanted to either annex Korea before it was seized by another power, or at least ensure Korea's effective independence by developing its resources and reforming its administration. As Prussian advisor Major Klemens Meckel put it to the Meiji army, Korea was "a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan". Japan felt that another power having a military presence on the Korean peninsula would have been detrimental to Japanese national security, and so Japan resolved to end the centuries-old Chinese suzerainty over Korea. Moreover, Japan realized that having access to Korea’s coal and iron ore deposits would benefit Japan's growing industrial base.

The Japanese success during the war was the result of the modernization and industrialization embarked upon two decades earlier. The war demonstrated the superiority of Japanese tactics and training as a result of the adoption of a Western-style military. The Imperial Japanese Army and navy were able to inflict a string of defeats on the Chinese through foresight, endurance, strategy and power of organization. Japanese prestige rose in the eyes of the world. The victory established Japan as a regional power on equal terms with the West and as the dominant power in Asia.

The war for China revealed the ineffectiveness of its government, its policies, the corruption of the administration system and the decaying state of the Qing dynasty (something that had been recognized for decades). Throughout the 19th century the Qing dynasty was unable to prevent foreign encroachment. This, together with calls for reform and the Boxer Rebellion, would be the key factors that would lead to the 1911 revolution and the downfall of the Qing dynasty in 1912.

The second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and Empire of Japan. After the Japanese Attack on Pearl Habor (1941), the war merged into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century.It also made up more than 50% of the casualties in the Pacific War if the 1937–1941 period is taken into account.

In 1945, China emerged from the war nominally a great military power but economically weak and on the verge of all-out civil war. The economy was sapped by the military demands of a long costly war and internal strife, by spiraling inflation, and by corruption in the Nationalist government that included profiteering, speculation and hoarding. What Japan learnt was to not to be greedy and target countries which are currently weaker than them in terms of warfare. China has also learnt to unite against foreign invading forces rather than fight amongst themselves such as the division of China into Nationalist and Communist parties.