East Asia

China vs USA

Very similar geography, similar latitudes and shape

Climate

West - dry/mountains

East - Humid/flat

Rivers

interior navigation

Rare earths

Not rare, just hard to mine, China leads

Commodity crops

rice, cotton, corn, wheat

Young Si River

Biggest, floods

3 Gorges Dam

built to control flooding, produces electricity, farming communities lost

Yellow river

losing river, south north water diversion project

Air pollution

dirty air from factories, respiratory problems

Water pollution

Mercury settles in water

Mobility

12 day traffic jam

Deforestation

Desertification, Great Green Wall

Japan Earthquakes

3 plates meet in tokyo

Conurbations

Confluence of urban areas

Fertility rate

Very low

Japan Birth rates

Lowest in the world

Immigration

Difficult, homogeneous societies, hard languages to learn

One child policy

China, decrease population, worked too well, preference for men and not enough women

Cities

Highly urbanized, rapidly growing

Primate cities

Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan

Maglev

Magnetized train

Special economic zone

Shenzen China, entice europeans to open factories in China

Hong Kong

Leased to Britain for 99 years, urbanized like London, China took it back

DMZ (38th parallel)

North Korea and South Korea

Taiwan

China thinks they own taiwan, taiwan disagrees, US supports Taiwan

Special autonomous regions

Self-governance while remaining part of a sovereign state, ex. Hong Kong

Industrial policy

Japan - Highly diverse
S Korea (Chaebol) -Heavy industry
Taiwan - Micro-electronics

China inequality

Spying

Japan and the atomic bomb

Hiroshima – August 6, 1945, Little Boy – dropped by the Enola Gay, 80,000 immediately died

Nagasaki – August 9, 1945, Fat Man – dropped by Bockscar, Not the primary target city, 75,000 immediately died

Victory Day Japan – August 15, 1945