Wow, you kept going deeper, i thought we were finished at level 3 😼 . I’m not that interested in the study of history as a whole as much as I’m interested in the parts of history which are more relevant for explaining why things are the way they are today, especially the stuff that often goes overlooked.

Like one thing about Japanese history that interests me is that Sengoku is the period most talked about and samurai are glorified for honor and devotion and all that, but if you look at samurai as a whole during that period, they were mostly all brutal backstabbing maniacs 😝

But some of them had really interesting strategies and personalities too so theres that.

I find the idea that Japanese expansionism was a preemptive move to prevent being colonized interesting.

I also imagine I would have been against opening up Japan if I were Japanese at the time and Perry came in like “trade with us or else”. Seems like mafia tactics to me.

If i have any misguided ideas please blame my student, he loves to teach me about Japanese history and I get 50% of what i know drom him .