[C] = Cook, Haruko Taya, and Theodore F. Cook. Japan at War: An Oral History. New Press, 1992. ISBN: 9781565840393.
[D] = de Bary, William Theodore, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E. Tiedemann, eds. Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume 2, 1600 to 2000: Part 2: 1868 to 2000. 2nd ed. Columbia University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780231139199. [Preview with Google Books]
[G] = Gordon, Andrew. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780199930159.
[GR] = Griffis, William Elliot. The Mikado. Audubon Press, 2009. ISBN: 9781444668124.
[T] = Takekoshi Yosaburo. Japanese Rule in Formosa. Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2010. ISBN: 9781163242445.
| SES # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | ||
| 1 | Introduction | No readings assigned |
| 2 | Japanese Business History | No readings assigned |
| Part I: From Samurai Government to a Modern Revolution | ||
| Week 2: Samurai Order and Disorder | ||
| 3 | Building Pax Tokugawa |
Gluck, Carol. “The Invention of Edo.” Chapter 17 in Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan. Edited by Stephen Vlastos. University of California Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780520206373. Ōishi Shinzaburō. “The Bakuhan System.” Chapter 1 in Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan. Edited by Nakane Chie and Ōishi Shinzaburō, University of Tokyo Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780860084907. Recommended [G] Chapter 1: The Tokugawa Polity. [G] Chapter 2: Social and Economic Transformations. |
| 4 | Samurai Disorder | de Bary, William Theodore, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E. Tiedemann, eds. “The Way of the Warrior II.” Chapter 29 in Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume 2, 1600 to 2000: Part 1: 1600 to 1868. 2nd ed. Columbia University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780231139175. [Preview with Google Books] |
| Week 3: The Decline of Tokugawa Shogunate | ||
| 5 | Troubles at Home, Dangers from Abroad |
Aizawa Seishisai. “New Theses: One - Prefatory Remarks.” In Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning in Early-Modern Japan: The New Theses of 1825. Edited by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. Harvard University Asia Center, 1992. ISBN: 9780674040373. [Preview with Google Books] ———. “New Theses: Four - What is Essential to a Nation [Kokutai] (III).” In Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning in Early-Modern Japan: The New Theses of 1825. Edited by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. Harvard University Asia Center, 1992. ISBN: 9780674040373. [Preview with Google Books] ———. “New Theses: Six - The Barbarians’ Nature.” In Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning in Early-Modern Japan: The New Theses of 1825. Edited by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. Harvard University Asia Center, 1992. ISBN: 9780674040373. Katsu Kokichi. “Introduction.” In Musui’s Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai. University of Arizona Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780816512560. ———. “Adult Years.” In Musui’s Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai. University of Arizona Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780816512560. [Preview with Google Books] Recommended [G] Chapter 3: The Intellectual World of Late Tokugawa. |
| Week 4: Japan’s Modern Revolution? | ||
| 6 | Overthrowing the Shogunate |
[D] Notehelfer, Fred G. Chapter 35: The Meiji Restoration, pp. 5–10. 1852 Letter of President Fillmore to the Emperor of Japan. “Black Ship and Samurai II - Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan (1853–1854): Visual Narratives and “The ‘Black Ship Scroll’.” MIT Visualizing Cultures. Recommended [G] Chapter 4: The Overflow of the Takugawa. |
| 7 | From “Restoration” to “Revolution” |
[D] Notehelfer, Fred G. Chapter 35: The Meiji Restoration, pp. 10–12. [GR] Book II, Chapter 15: The Last Year of Feudalism. Jansen, Marius B., ed. “The Restoration in History and Historiography.” Chapter 3, Section 9 in The Emergence of Meiji Japan. Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 196–202. ISBN: 9780521484053. Recommended [G] Chapter 5: The Samurai Revolution. |
| Part II: Competing Modernities | ||
| Week 5: Building a Civilized Nation | ||
| 8 | The Politics of “Civilization and Enlightenment” |
[D] Notehelfer, Fred G. Chapter 35: The Meiji Restoration, pp. 12–17: The Abolition of Feudalism and the Centralization of the Meiji State. [D] Craig, Albert. Chapter 36: Civilization and Enlightenment. “Throwing Off Asia I - Woodblock Prints of Domestic ‘Westernization’ (1868–1912): Visual Narratives.” MIT Visualizing Cultures. Recommended [G] Chapter 7: Social, Economic, and Cultural Transformations. |
| 9 | The Culture of Enlightenment |
[GR] Book II, Chapter 1: First Glimpses of Japan. [GR] Book II, Chapter 2: A Ride on the Tōkaidō. [GR] Book II, Chapter 3: In Tōkiō, the Eastern Capital. “Yokohama Boomtown - Foreigners in Treaty-Port Japan (1859–1872): Visual Narratives.” MIT Visualizing Cultures. Kanagaki Robun. “The Beefeater.” In Modern Japanese Literature: From 1868 to the Present Day. Edited by Donald Keene. Grove Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780802150950. Hattori Bushō. “The Western Peep Show.” In Modern Japanese Literature: From 1868 to the Present Day. Edited by Donald Keene. Grove Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780802150950. |
| Week 6: Democracy and Empire I | ||
| 10 | Democracy and Constitutional Government |
[D] Huffman, James. Chapter 37: Popular Rights and Constitutionalism. “The Constitution of the Empire of Japan.” Recommended [G] Chapter 6: Participation and Protest. |
| 11 | Meiji Imperialism |
[D] Notehelfer, Fred G. Chapter 35: The Meiji Restoration, pp. 17–24: Consequences of the Iwakura Mission: Saigō and Ōkubo on Korea. [T] Goto, Shimpei. “Preface.” [T] “A Word to My Readers.” [T] Chapter 1: Brief Survey of Our Successes. [T] Chapter 2: The Administration of Formosa Looked at From the Legislative Standpoint. Fukuzawa Yukichi. “Good-bye Asia (Datsu-a).” Chapter 12 in Japan-A Documentary History: The Late Tokugawa Period to the Present. Edited by David J. Lu. Routledge, 1996, pp. 351–3. ISBN: 9780765600363. Recommended [G] Chapter 8: Empire and Domestic Order. |
| Week 7: Democracy and Empire II | ||
| 12 | Japan’s “Imperial Democracy” |
[D] Tiedemann, Arthur E. Chapter 40: The High Tide of Prewar Liberalism, pp. 148–80. “Social Protest in Imperial Japan - The Hibaya Riot of 1905: Essay by Andrew Gordon.” MIT Visualizing Cultures. Recommended [G] Chapter 9: Economy and Society. [G] Chapter 10: Democracy and Empire between the World Wars. |
| Part III: Modernity’s Crisis and its Aftermath | ||
| Week 8: Japan’s Jazz Age and its Discontents | ||
| 13 | Sounds and Visions of Modernity | Kawabata Yasunari. Excerpt from The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa. University of California Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780520241824. |
| 14 | Ideologies of Crises |
[D] Barshay, Andrew. Chapter 41: Socialism and the Left. [D] Jansen, Marius. Chapter 42: The Rise of Revolutionary Nationalism. Recommended [G] Chapter 11: The Depression Crisis and Responses. |
| Week 9: War on Multiple Fronts | ||
| 15 | Japan’s “World War II” |
[D] Duus, Peter. Chapter 43: Empire and War. Recommended [G] Chapter 12: Japan in Wartime. |
| 16 | War Abroad and at Home |
[C] Chapter 2: Toward a New Order, pp. 47–50. [C] Chapter 5: The Emperor’s Warriors, pp. 127–34. [C] Chapter 6: Demons from the East, pp. 151–67. [C] Chapter 13: The Slaughter of an Army, pp. 267–76. [C] Chapter 15: Special Attack, pp. 306–13. [C] Chapter 19: A Terrible New Weapon, pp. 382–91. |
| Week 10: Occupation and Beyond | ||
| 17 | The Allied Occupation |
[D] Mayo, Marlene. Chapter 44: The Occupation Years, 1945–1952, pp. 323–72. “The Constitution of the Empire of Japan.” Recommended [G] Chapter 13: Occupied Japan: New Departures and Durable Structures. |
| Part IV: History, Memory, and Media in Postwar Japan | ||
| Week 11: Monsters, Imaginary and Real, in Postwar Japan | ||
| 18 | In-class Viewing: Gojira. Directed by Ishirô Honda. Color, 96 min. 1954. | No readings assigned |
| 19 | Contextualizing “Gojira” |
[D] Gordon, Andrew. Chapter 45: Democracy and High Growth. Recommended [G] Chapter 14: Economic and Social Transformations. [G] Chapter 15: Political Struggles and Settlements of the High-Growth Era. |
| Week 12: Geopolitics and Democracy in Contemporary Japan | ||
| 20 | Japan as “No. 1”? |
Vogel, Ezra F. “A Mirror for America.” Chapter 1 in Japan as No. 1: Lessons for America. iUniverse, 1999. ISBN: 9781583484104. ———. “The Japanese Miracle.” Chapter 2 in Japan as No. 1: Lessons for America. iUniverse, 1999. ISBN: 9781583484104. McGray,Douglas. “Japan’s Gross National Cool.” Foreign Policy, November 11, 2009. Recommended [G] Chapter 16: Global Power in a Polarized World: Japan in the 1980s. |
| 21 | Democracy in Theory and Practice |
Nakano Koichi. “Contemporary Political Dynamics of Japanese Nationalism.” Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 14, Issue 20, no. 6 (October 15, 2016). Recommended [G] Chapter 17: Japan’s “Lost Decades”: 1989–2008. [G] Chapter 18: Shock, Disaster, and Aftermath: Japan Since 2008. |
| Week 13: History and Memory in Contemporary Japan | ||
| 22 | In-class Viewing: The Wind Rises. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Color, 126 min. 2013. | No readings assigned |
| 23 | The Wind Rises, cont. | [D] Gluck, Carol. Chapter 49: Thinking with the Past: History Writing in Modern Japan, pp. 553–82: The Asia-Pacific War in History and Memory. |
| Week 14: Presentations on Essay 3 | ||
| 24 | Student Presentations | No readings assigned |
| 25 | Student Presentations | No readings assigned |
