History 337
Modern Japan


Between 1600 and 1905 Japan was transformed from a traditional society to a Great Power. Since 1905 the Japanese have been trying to find a role for themselves as the only non- western industrial power.  In this class we will examine the repeated transformations of Japan over the last centuries. Many of these transformations were directed by the state in its quest to build a "Rich Country, Strong Army, and then a "Rich Country, No Army."  National strength and the problems it caused will be central to this class, as they have been to modern Japanese history. We will also examine what these changes have meant for the Japanese people as well as the (considerable) extent to which Japan's history has been by the needs and desires of ordinary people.
 

Professor Alan Baumler 216 Keith Hall; Office phone 357-4066 Office Hours MWF 11-12, 1:15-2:15  and by appointment. e-mail baumler@.iup.edu
http://www.chss.iup.edu/baumler/index.html 

Doing research on Japan at IUP
A bibliography on Modern Japan

-James McClain Japan: A Modern History. New York: Norton, 2002.
-Anne Walthall The Weak Body of a Useless Woman: Matsuo Taseko and the Meiji Restoration.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998
-Kawabata, Yasunari. The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa. 1st ed. University of California Press, 2005.

-Bumiller, Elisabeth. The Secrets of Mariko: A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman and Her Family. Vintage, 1996.

 


Tokugawa Japan
 
8/25 The Tokugawa order
   Sengoku and Japan in Crisis
   Conquest and the Shogunate
   Daimyo and Samurai
Code of warrior households 
McClain pp. 5-47 

9/3 Commerce and urbanization
    Castle Towns and Daimyo encouragement
    Rural life
    Merchants and guilds
Ishida Baigan City and Country Dialogues
McClain pp. 48-75
 
9/8 Self and society and the Tempo crisis
    Genroku culture and the Chomin
    Tokugawa ideology and nativism
    Tempo Crisis         
Hirata Atsutane On Japanese Learning; The Land of the Gods p.511-2
Oshio Heihachiro Oshio’s Protest; Notes on “Cleansing the Mind” p.560-565
McClain pp. 76-118 

Japan in Revolutionary times
 
9/15 Bakumatsu and the crisis of the Tokugawa order
    Foreigners and crisis
    Shishi and restoration

Three drafts of Charter oath and the oath itself.
Black Ships and Samurai (website)
McClain pp. 119-154


9/22 Meiji restoration and Matsuo Taseko

 Read Weak Body  

9/29 Civilization and Enlightenment
    Civilization and Enlightenment
    Urban and rural economy
     Empire and colonial economics
Fukuzawa Autobiography
Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi on Korea
Throwing off Asia (website)
McClain pp. 155-206 


10/1 Last day to get approval for book review book

10/6 Constitutionalism and democracy
    Constitutionalism and Popular rights

Labor and capital

Kido on Constitutionalism
Itagaki Taisuke “On Liberty”
McClain pp. 207-282 

Mid-term 10/10
 
Japan in the New Century
 
10/13 Democracy and the people
    Parties and party cabinets
    Blue Nippon-Jazz, the Mogo and the Mobo
    Red Nippon-The workers and Lenin
“The Soundtrack of Modern Life: Japan’s Jazz Revolution”, From Taylor Atkins Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan Duke U.P. 2001.
Read Scarlet Gang
Kawakami Hajime A Letter From Prison, Concerning Marxism pp.923-926
McClain pp. 316-406 

10/20 Empire and its meaning
    Empire in Korea and Taiwan, China’s Northeast and informal empire
    The empire’s meaning in Japan

"War means jobs for machinists" and "I wanted to build Greater East Asia" both from Cook and Cook Japan at War
McClain pp. 283-315
 
10/27 Depression and rise of militarism
    Depression and Japanese economy
    Universal Suffrage and the Peace Preservation Law
    Young officers and Manchuguo
Kita Ikki Outline Plan for the Re-Organization of Japan
 McClain pp. 405-440

Japan at War
 
11/3 New order and the kokutai
    International position
    Economic autarchy
    Repression and tenka
Tokutomi Soho The Basis of the Imperial Way
Okakura Kakuzo The Ideals of the East
Sano Manabu and Nabeyama Sadachika Letter to Our Fellow Defendants
McClain pp. 441-481 

11/10 The Greater East Asia War
    From Singapore to Operation Ichigo
    Home Front and IRAA
    Bombs and hibakusha

Maruyama Masao The Logic and Psychology of Ultranationalism
Ryu Shintaro Japan’s Economic Reorganization
"Eight Hundred Meters from the Hypocenter" and "A Korean in Hiroshima" both from Cook and Cook Japan at War
McClain pp. 482-522 

Postwar Japan
 
11/17 Occupation and re-making Japan
    America re-makes Japan

Read Mariko's Secrets
McClain pp. 523-561 
Book reviews due, 11/21


12/1 MITI and the Japanese miracle
    Export Led Growth
    Women, Burakumin, and Farmers
    Japan in the stagnation lane
McClain pp. 562-end

  Grades
 
Quiz grades                  20%
Weak Body paper        20%
Book Review               20%
Mid-term                     20%
Final                             20%

-Each of you will write a short paper on Weak Body of a Worthless Woman. Each of you will also write a review of an academic monograph on modern Japanese history that you choose.
-Everything else we do in class will be part of your quiz grade. Small writing assignments, source analysis papers, etc.

-Attendance policy-- You are expected to come to class every day, but the point is not just to come to class, but to come having done your reading and being ready to talk about it.

-Academic dishonesty-- All students are required to abide by the University's policies on Academic Integrity, as found in the catalogue.

 

INTASC standards

In addition to your grades, those of you in Social Studies Ed will also be assessed on your mastery of the INTASC standards. I will assess 2 of your assignments and record (on a special web page in URSA provided for this purpose) if you have not met, met or exceeded expectations for the standard. These assesments will not effect your GPA, your graduation or your certification.

Conceptual Framework

INTASC Standards

Program Objectives

Course Objectives

Course Assessments [Underlined items are the selected key assessment(s)]

Planning and Preparation


Culture and Culture Diversity

Analyzes and explains ways groups, societies, and cultures address human needs and concerns. (Taisho period)

Quizzes, papers, mid-term, Final Exam



Time, Continuity, and Change

Examines the history of Japan from 1600 to present

Quizzes, papers, mid-term, Final Exam



Power, Authority and Governance

Examine the rights and responsibilities of the individual in relation to the family, social groups, community, and nation.

Analyze and explain government mechanisms to meet needs and wants of the people, regulate territory, manage conflict, and establish order and security. (Meiji)

Quizzes, papers, mid-term, Final Exam

Fall 2008