ASH 3442: Modern Japan: History and Memory in the 20th Century
Professor Sarah Kovner
Phone: 2-0271; [email protected]
Office: 019 Keene-Flint Hall Office Hours: MF 10:15-11:00
Course meets: MWF 5
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
A survey of the history of the Japanese people from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.
We will examine the episodes, events, and influences that have shaped the ways in which the
Japanese have interpreted and understood their past. By using historical texts and literature,
students focus on selected themes such as gender relations, colonialism and empire, the
postwar “economic miracle,” and the “lost decade.”
COURSE GOALS:
1. Understand the major events of Japan‟s modern history.
2. Hone your ability to analyze historical questions and assess issues. Develop your skills at
reading sources critically.
3. Construct compelling arguments and express them in clear writing.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Students are expected to do all the weekly reading by the Monday class meeting. Attending
the class and contributing to discussions therein contributes to the final grade.
Attendance and Participation. Attendance is mandatory. Persistent absences will result not
just in loss of class participation grade, but in failure of the course.
Late Assignments and Missed Assignments. Late assignments will be accepted only in the
case of a major medical or family emergency, with supporting documentation.
Computer use and mobile devices. Use of electronic devices (computers, cell phones) to surf
the web or communicate (i.e., e-mail, instant messaging, Facebook, texting) is prohibited
during class. The only permissible use of computers is to take notes or consult course
readings. Violation of this policy will result in points deducted from your participation grade.
Final grades will be calculated as follows:
Course Participation. (20%) For attendance and contributions to the discussion of course
readings. There will be two self-evaluations.
Quizzes. (15%) Two quizzes (2/11, 3/25) based on course readings, and one map quiz.
Mid-Term Examination. (25%). 2/16 This will be an in-class exam composed of shortanswer and multiple-choice questions, based on lectures, films, and readings.
Paper proposal, including bibliography (10%) Due 3/4
Meet with Professor Kovner by 2/25. Come prepared with at least 3 ideas for a
paper. You also need to complete a short quiz on how to avoid plagiarism at
https://www.indiana.edu/~istd/plagiarism_test.html. You must print out a
certificate and submit it with your paper proposal.
Final research paper (30%) Due 4/20
Late papers will result in a grade deducted for each day late (example: from A to A-).
PAPER REQUIREMENTS:
Paper Topics: You will analyze a primary source in Japanese history from 1867-2000 and
explain what it can teach us about the period in which it was produced. Primary sources
can be works of art and architecture, literature, music, fashion, photography, film, as well
as material objects and historical documents. Examples include: the Meiji shrine, Kokoro,
Shima Uta, Issey Miyake‟s Pleats Please, photograph of the Atomic Bomb Dome in
Hiroshima, Pigs and Battleships (Buta to Gunkan), the transistor radio, and the Meiji
Constitution. After identifying the primary source (at the bottom of the title page), use the
historical and theoretical knowledge that you have acquired in the course as well as
outside reading and research. I encourage you to contact UF‟s excellent Japanese Studies
Collection Manager, Hikaru Nakano, for guidance ([email protected]).
Length and Format: The paper should be between 8-10 pages in Times, 12 point font,
standard margins, and no space between paragraphs. A title page and bibliography are
also required on additional pages. Style and citation format should follow Chicago
Manual of Style or Manual for Writers. Be sure to print out your papers and proof-read
them before submission. Any typos will detract from your grade.
COURSE TEXTS:
The course makes use of three textbooks as well as the Sakai e-learning system. The three
books are available at the university bookstore. I encourage you to look for the best price
online, but be sure to get the correct edition, and order them all at the beginning of the
semester.
1) Andrew Gordon. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the
Present. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
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2) Nakae Chōmin, A Discourse by Three Drunkards on Government. New York:
Weatherhill, 1984.
3) Keiji Nakazawa, Barefoot Gen (Hadashi no Gen). San Francisco: Last Gasp of San
Francisco, 2005.
Note on Pronunciation and Spelling: Vowels in Japanese are pronounced approximately as
in Italian. Hence pasta, pesto, and tutti frutti should get you through most words. Vowels
with macrons (ō, ū) are held longer then those without, but their sound values remain
unchanged. The distinction between the two is important: kōshō means “negotiations,” while
koshō means “broken,” ogawa is a “small river,” ōgawa is a “large river.” In Japanese,
surnames precede first names. Hiratsuka Raichō, then, is Ms. Hiratsuka, not Ms. Raichō.
Japanese nouns are not pluralized: there are no samurais or geishas.
SCHEDULE:
WEEK ONE: INTRODUCTION TO JAPAN
1/5
Introducing Japan
1/7
Tokugawa State and Society
Gordon: 1-34
WEEK TWO: THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY
1/10 Collapse of Tokugawa Rule
1/12 The Meiji Restoration
1/14 Map Quiz; Eijanaika (Eijanaika) Imamura Shohei, 1981
Gordon: 47-75
Sakai:
- Matthew C. Perry, The Japan Expedition, 1852-1854: The Personal Journal of
Commodore Matthew C. Perry. 180-182
- Peter Duus, ed. The Japanese Discovery of America: A Brief History with Documents.168183 (Documents 35, 36)
-Thomas C. Smith “Japan‟s Aristocratic Revolution.” In Native Sources of Japanese
Industrialization, 1750-1920. 133-145
WEEK THREE: MEIJI STATE AND SOCIETY
1/17 Holiday
1/19 Meiji State and Culture
1/21 Gan (Wild Geese) Toyoda Shiro, 1953.
Gordon: 76-112
Sakai:
-“Meiji Constitution”
-“Charter Oath of 1868”
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-Meiroku Zasshi: Journal of the Japanese Enlightenment. Trans. William Reynolds Braisted.
104-105; 143-145; 189-191; 252-253; 331-333; 376-379; 392-400
-Nakae Chōmin, A Discourse by Three Drunkards on Government (47-137).
WEEK FOUR: INTERWAR POLITICS AND CULTURE
1/24 The Emergence of Party Politics
1/26 Taishō Society and Culture
1/28 Musical Selection
Gordon: 112-160
Sakai:
-Miriam Silverberg, “The Modern Girl as Militant.” In Recreating Japanese Women, 16001945. Ed. Gail Lee Bernstein, 239-266
-E. Taylor Atkins, “Talkin‟ Jazz: Music, Modernism, and Interwar Japan‟s Culture Wars,” in
Blue Nippon, Authenticating Jazz in Japan, 93-126.
SJT: Minobe Tatsukichi “Lectures on the Constitution”; Yoshino Sakuzō “On the Meaning of
Constitutional Government and the Methods by which it can be Perfected,” “Defense of the
„Organ Theory,” 827-855.
WEEK FIVE: MIMETIC IMPERIALISM
1/31 The Colonial Project
2/2
Asia Experiences the Japanese
2/4
No Regrets for our Youth (Waga seijishun ni kuinashi) Kurosawa Akira, 1946
Gordon: 161-180
Sakai:
-Louise Young, “War Fever: Imperial Jingoism and the Mass Media,” in Japan’s Total
Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism, 55-114
-Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook, Japan at War: An Oral History. New York: New
Press, 1992. 50-64.
WEEK SIX: TOTAL WAR
2/7
The Pacific War
2/9
War at Home
2/11 Quiz; Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no haka) Takahata Isao, 1988
Gordon: 202-223
Sakai:
-John Dower, “Yellow, Red, and Black Men.” In War without Mercy: Race
and Power in the Pacific War. 147-199
- Cook, 169-253
WEEK SEVEN: FALLOUT
2/14 Hiroshima: History and Memory
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2/16
2/18
Midterm Examination
Black Rain (Kuroi Ame) Imamura Shohei, 1989
Keiji Nakazawa, Barefoot Gen (Hadashi no Gen) 101-284.
WEEK EIGHT: THE ALLIED OCCUPATION
Be sure to meet with Professor Kovner to discuss paper topics by 2/25
2/21
2/23
2/25
The Occupying and the Occupied
Reversing Course
Pigs and Battleships (Buta to Genkan) Imamura Shohei, 1961
Gordon: 224-241
Sakai:
-Kojima Nobuo, “American School,” in Contemporary Japanese Literature: an
anthology of fiction, film, and other writing since 1945, 119-144.
-Nosaka Akiyuki, “American Hijiki,” in above, 435-468.
WEEK NINE: ECONOMIC MIRACLE?
2/28 Postwar Economic Growth
3/2
Consumer Culture
3/4
A Taxing Woman (Marusa no onna) Itami Juzo, 1987; Paper proposal due
Gordon: 268-288
Sakai:
-“Plan to Double Individual Income,” Lu. 251-253
-Simon Partner, Toshié: A Story of Village Life in Twentieth Century Japan, 127-159.
WEEK TEN: SPRING BREAK
WEEK ELEVEN: CULTURES OF PROTEST?
3/14 Base Politics
3/16 Environmental Activism
3/18 Teahouse of the August Moon (Daniel Mann, 1956)
Gordon: 243-248, review 268-288
Sakai:
-“Yoshida‟s Reflections on Japanese Politics”
-“Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security”
-“Formation of People‟s Council for Preventing Revision of Security Treaty, 1959.”
-Frank K. Upham, “Unplaced Persons and Movements for Place.” In Postwar Japan as
History. Ed. Andrew Gordon. 325-346.
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WEEK TWELVE: WORKING WOMEN AND WORKING MEN
3/21 Factory Workers, Salarymen, and the Unemployed
3/23 Housewives, Office Ladies, and Hostesses
3/25 Quiz; Shall We Dance (Shall we dansu) Suo Masayuki, 1996.
Gordon: 249-267
Sakai:
-Tom Gill, “When Pillars Evaporate: Structuring Masculinity on the Japanese Margins,” in
Men and Masculinity in Contemporary Japan: Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa.144-161
- Ogasawara Yuko, “The Japanese Labor Market and Office Ladies.” In Office Ladies and
Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies. 17-43.
WEEK THIRTEEN: THE FAMILY
3/28 Education in Japan
3/30 The Rise (and Fall) of the Nuclear Family
4/1
Family Game (Kazoku gemu), Morita Yoshimitsu, 1984.
Sakai: Harald Fuess, Divorce in Japan: Family, Gender, and the State, 144-166
Additional reading TBA
WEEK FOURTEEN: CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY
4/4
“Minority” Groups in Japan
4/6
Okinawa: Bases and Beaches?
4/8
Sonatine (Sonachine) Takeshi Kitano, 1993
Sakai:
-Joshua Roth, “Money and Community at the Brazilian Culture Center.” In Brokered
Homeland: Japanese Brazilian Migrants in Japan. 92-117
-Fukuoka Yasunori, Lives of Young Koreans in Japan. Trans. Tom Gill. 147-154 (“A Dream
is A Dream: The Story of Nam Seol-Ji”), 188-195 (“„I Hate Japan, But I‟ll Live Here
Anyway‟”), 196-204 (“Not Japanese, Not Korean but Zainichi”)
-Ruth Ann Keyso, Women of Okinawa, “Fumiko Nakamura,” “Mariko Higa.” 32-53, 97-111.
WEEK FIFTEEN: Popular Culture
4/11
Fashion
4/13 Cute Culture
4/15
Princess Mononoke (Mononoke-Hime) Miyazaki Hayao, 1997
Sakai:
-Hirano Kenichirō, “The Westernization of Clothes and the State in Meiji Japan,” in The
State and Cultural Transformation: Perspectives from East Asia.
-Sharon Kinsella. “Cuties in Japan.” In Women, Media and Consumption in Japan. Ed. Lise
Skove and Brian Moeran. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995. 220-254
-Susan Napier, “ Elegies” in Anime: From Akira to Princess Momonoke: Experiencing
Contemporary Japanese Animation,” Palgrave, New York, 2001, 219-238
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-Anne Allison, “The Japan Fad in Global Youth Culture and Millennial Capitalism,” in
Mechadamia: Emerging Worlds of Anime and Manga. University of Minnesota Press, 2006.
WEEK SIXTEEN: Japan’s Modern Histories
4/18 Japan and the World
4/20 Japan‟s Modern Histories; final research paper due
Gordon: 289-334
Sakai:
-Nishida Kitaro, “The Problem of Japanese Culture,” SJT, 1171-1175
-Mishima Yukio, “The National Characteristics of Japanese Culture, SJT, 1179-1182
-Ueno Chizuko, “Are the Japanese Feminine? Some Problems of Japanese Feminism in its
Cultural Context,” SJT 1213-1219
-Saitō Chiyo, “What is Japanese Feminism, SJT, 1219-1222.
UNIVERSITY EXPECTATIONS:
Academic Honesty. In writing papers, be certain to give proper credit whenever you use
words, phrases, ideas, arguments, and conclusions drawn from someone else‟s
work. Failure to give credit by quoting and/or footnoting is PLAGIARISM and is
unacceptable. Please review the University‟s honesty policy at www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/.
Classroom Accommodation. Please do not hesitate to contact the instructor during the
semester if you have any individual concerns or issues that need to be discussed. Students
requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office
(www.dso.ufl.edu/drp/). The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the
student who must then provide this documentation to the instructor when requesting
accommodation.
Student Records. Student records are confidential. UF views students, not their parents, as
the primary contact for all communication. For more information, see:
www.registrar.ufl.edu/ferpahub.html.
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