Hi 2020hsc!
When I write academically, what I think of are Norwegian-American sociologist Thorstein Veblen's words: "the outcome of any serious research question can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before"
Which in your case, would be an essay prompt/question. So yes, if you were responding to an essay that asked to what extent you agreed with the Japanese view, you would argue that you do agree to a certain extent but that the US perspective must be considered as well. However, to write your thesis/contention for your essay prompt/question, I would advise following these tips:
A "discerning" and "nuanced" historical essay thesis/contention is comprised of...
- A specific, definable and significant topic/aspect
- It has time and place boundaries
- It seeks and analytical and evaluative response, rather than a descriptive one
- It is expressed in a clear, concise and fluent manner
- It is not expressed in terms of simple closure (simple closure refers to the lack of full name (if you are discussing an individual such as a historical figure or external source such as a historian) and their credentials, and where the time and place boundaries are missing from your thesis/contention).
For example, my thesis contention that my Modern History teacher marked as "nuanced" and "discerning" was: despite two very different ideological belief structures, both nations of the USA and the USSR fought hard to obtain the monopoly of global dominance, and thus, were destined to become economic and political rivals.
So when you do structure your thesis/contention, just remember that you don't always have to use the word "extent" in your response. You could use various comparison/contrast words instead.
Hopefully, this helps
Have a great week and kind regards,
Darcy Dillon.