Hey, what’s going on everybody? Hope everyone’s having a great day. Anyways, after a long week or so of procrastination, I’ve finally completed this DBQ essay my teacher gave me for homework. Here’s the question:
“Using the following documents, analyze similarities and differences in the mechanization of the cotton industry in Japan and India in the period from the 1880s to the 1930s. Identify an additional type of document and explain how it would help your analysis of the mechanization of the cotton industry.”
The documents can be viewed here if necessary: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/ap10_frq_world_history.pdf
Would deeply appreciate it if you graded it on a scale of 1-9 using the AP DBQ rubric. Some of you probably see a lot of these, so I’m glad you’re wast-err, taking time out of your day to read mine. And without any further delay, here’s my oh-so refined answer (jk):
From the 1880s to the 1930s, the cotton industry in Japan and India underwent the process of mechanization. Although both Japan and India provided low wages for workers and increased their use of machines for production, there were more female factory workers in Japan while India used mainly men. Moreover, Japan had harsher factory conditions.
Documents 3, 5, and 9 describe the low wages factory workers received in Japan and India during this time period. Document 3 is from the point of view of two Japanese women who recall their girlhoods working in textile factories. One of the girls states that they received no money the first year of working, and in their third year they received 50 yen, the equivalent of almost half a US dollar. This conveys that factory workers were barely paid enough to sustain themselves. Document 5 is from the aspect of Tsurumi Shunsuke, a Japanese industrialist in the 1900s who attempts to justify why wages for factory workers were low. Shunsuke proclaims that factory workers’ wages were so low because all they had to do was earn enough to maintain his or her own living, while family needs were fulfilled by income from the farms. Document 9 is a report of the British Royal Commission of Labour in India in the 1930s. The report discusses the life of the average worker, and states that wages were low with no significant change in wages over the last decades. Essentially, it is clear that wages for factory workers were insignificant in both Japan and India.
Furthermore, documents 1, 2, and 6 convey the increased use of machines for manufacturing. Documents 1 and 2 are tables which show the production of cotton yarn and cloth in India and the production of cotton yarn in Japan, respectively. Document 1 is based on data gathered by British colonial authorities, while document 2 is based on data form the Japanese Imperial Cabinet Bureau of Statistics. According to these tables, India increased their machine production of yarn by over 400% from 1884 to 1914, while Japan produced five million pounds of both hand-spun and machine-spun yarn in 1884 and 666 million pounds in 1914. This demonstrates the impact machines had on production during this time. In addition, the amount of hand-spun yarn in India decreased from 1884 to 1914. Document 6 is from the perspective of an Indian economist named Radhakamal Mukerjee in 1916. Mukerjee states that there has been a rapid decline of the handwoven cloth industry on account of the competition of machine manufactures. This further exhibits the decreased use of handwoven cloth production in favor of machines. By the late 1920s, over 2 million Japanese workers were employed in large, mechanized factories. Principally, it is discernible that machine manufacturing was replacing handmade production techniques.
Moreover, documents 3, 4, 7, 8, and 10 illustrate that female factory workers were dominant in Japan during this period unlike India. In addition, document 3 also expresses that factory conditions in Japan were harsher than in India. Document 3, from the viewpoint of two Japanese women, describes their experiences in textile factories. The first woman recalls the lack of heat and food present in the factory compared to the large amount of labor executed by the women. The second woman discusses the illnesses people contracted which led to the death of her thirteen-year-old sister. This reveals the harsh conditions experienced in Japanese factories and that women mainly worked in these factories. Document 4 is from a Buddhist priest from a rural area of Japan from which many farm girls were sent to work in the mills around 1900. The priest discusses how the peasants in the rural area were poor and had little to eat, and that girls who went to work in the factories were the peasants’ only salvation because of the wages they received. This further emphasizes that the majority of women during this time were factory workers. Document 7 is a table based on data from a dissertation called “Industrialization and the Status of Women in Japan,” written in 1973. According to this table, from 1909 to 1934 there was a slight decrease in the percentage of female cotton textile laborers in India, and only around one-fifth of all women worked in cotton textile factories. However, in Japan from 1920 to 1930, there was a slight increase in the percentage of female laborers, and four-fifths of all women worked in cotton textile factories. This is crucial data that makes it evident that more women worked in factories in Japan than in India. Document 8 is a photo from an official company history, Nichibo cotton mill in Japan during the 1920s. This photo depicts men and women working in a cotton mill, the majority of people being women. Document 10 is from Arno S. Pearse, a British official of the International Federation of Master Cotton Spinners’ and Manufacturers’ Associations. It is a photo from a report on Indian textile mills in the 1930s. Unlike the photo in document 8, this photo only displays men working in a factory with no sign of women shown. It is clear to see that in Japan, the percentage of women who worked in factories is evidently higher than in India. In fact, By 1900, 250,000 women worked in the textile industry, and they accounted for 63% of the industrial labor force. One additional type of document that would’ve been of great use is one that describes the factory conditions workers experienced in India to further analyze and compare the differences in factory conditions in India and Japan.
Fundamentally, after analyzing these documents, it is apparent that both India and Japan provided low wages for workers and increasingly mechanized their respective cotton industries. It is also evident that more female workers and harsher conditions were present in Japan than in India.